MEET­ING MINUTES

PANA­MA CITY – BAY COUN­TY AIR­PORT AND INDUS­TRI­AL DISTRICT

MEET­ING MINUTES

PANA­MA CITY – BAY COUN­TY AIR­PORT AND INDUS­TRI­AL DISTRICT

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Open­ing:

The Board Meet­ing of the Pana­ma City-Bay Coun­ty Air­port and Indus­tri­al Dis­trict was called to order at 9:00 a.m., March 27, 2024 by Chair Hol­ly Melzer. 

The Invo­ca­tion was giv­en by Vice Chair Mark Sheldon. 

The Pledge of Alle­giance was led by Mr. Will Cramer.

Roll was called. In atten­dance were: Mr. Matt Algar­in, Mr. Les McFat­ter, Mr. Will Cramer, Vice Chair Mark Shel­don, and Chair Hol­ly Melzer. 

Chair Melz­er asked if there were any Pub­lic Com­ments. There were no Pub­lic Comments.

Chair Melz­er asked if there were any items on the Agen­da that any Board Mem­ber would like to move to fur­ther dis­cus­sion, and if not, to make a motion to accept the Agenda.

Mr. Cramer made a motion to accept the Agen­da, and Vice Chair Shel­don sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Reports:

Mr. McClel­lan pre­sent­ed the Activ­i­ty Reports. There was a 22% increase in month­ly pas­sen­gers over last March and a 17% increase year over year, and load fac­tors con­tin­ue to be good. Gen­er­al avi­a­tion num­bers are also up, and over 100,000 peo­ple went through the air­port last month. The mar­ket share remains steady around 20%. 

Ms. Dar­lene Gor­don pre­sent­ed the Finan­cial Reports for the first 5 months of the Fis­cal Year end­ing Feb­ru­ary 29, 2024. In the month of Feb­ru­ary, total cash increased $1.1 mil­lion over Feb­ru­ary of last year. Com­pared to last year, cash increased $3.8 mil­lion for a total cash bal­ance of $42.9 mil­lion. Of that num­ber, unre­strict­ed cash is $28.9 mil­lion and restrict­ed cash is $14 mil­lion. In Feb­ru­ary of 2024, total lia­bil­i­ties decreased $1.1 mil­lion due to con­struc­tion project pay­ments. Excess rev­enues over expen­di­tures to date are $8 mil­lion. Oper­at­ing Rev­enues account for $3 mil­lion with Non-Oper­at­ing Rev­enues mak­ing up the remain­ing $5 mil­lion. Oper­at­ing Rev­enues $7.8 mil­lion to date are 106% of budget. 

Con­sent Agenda:

a. Approve Board Meet­ing Min­utes – Feb­ru­ary 28, 2024

This item pro­vides for Board approval of the Feb­ru­ary 28, 2024 Board Meet­ing Minutes.

b. Res­o­lu­tion 2024 – 01 to change Project Descrip­tion and Scope for FDOT Joint Par­tic­i­pa­tion Project #448558 – 1

This Res­o­lu­tion will request Flori­da Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion (FDOT) to rede­fine the use of FY 2025 Joint Par­tic­i­pa­tion funds asso­ci­at­ed with FDOT Project #448558 – 1.

c. Approval of Con­tract for Mon­i­tor­ing and Main­te­nance of Fire Sup­pres­sion and Detec­tion Sys­tems with Advance Fire Pro­tec­tion Ser­vices, Inc.

This item pro­vides infor­ma­tion to the Board for award­ing a con­tract for the inspec­tion, test­ing, cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, main­te­nance, and repairs of each fire detec­tion and sup­pres­sion system.

d. Approval of Reimag­ined Park­ing, Inc. Con­tract Exten­sion – not to exceed 4 months

This item pro­vides for the Board’s approval of a month-to-month exten­sion to the cur­rent agree­ment with Reimag­ined Park­ing, Inc. to pro­vide park­ing man­age­ment services.

Mr. Cramer made a motion to accept the Con­sent Agen­da. Mr. Algar­in sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and passed unanimously.

Busi­ness Items:

a. Approval of Term Sheet and Tri­umph Grant Award Agree­ment – Pre­mier Avi­a­tion Ser­vices, Que­bec, Inc.

Mr. McClel­lan pre­sent­ed the Tri­umph Grant and Term Sheet infor­ma­tion. He stat­ed the nego­ti­a­tions with Space Flori­da, the Air­port, Tri­umph, and Pre­mier was a com­plex process, but after many iter­a­tions, the Term Sheet and Grant Award Agree­ment have been com­plet­ed. Includ­ed is a clause that will reduce the Airport’s risk, where­as if for any rea­son Pre­mier should not com­plete the build­ing, the Air­port will be able to rent the space to anoth­er tenant.

Mr. Shel­don made the motion to approve the Term Sheet and Tri­umph Grant Award Agree­ment, and Mr. Cramer Sec­ond­ed. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously. 

b. Project Inspire – Pre­sen­ta­tion and Dis­cus­sion (No Action Required)

Mr. McClel­lan intro­duced Dr. Far­rukh Alvi and Dr. Randy Han­nah of Flori­da State Uni­ver­si­ty to share plans of Project InSpire. Dr. Alvi explained that InSpire is a part­ner­ship of research and edu­ca­tion with a focus is two areas — Aero­space and Advanced Man­u­fac­tur­ing. The project is fund­ed by Tri­umph and FSU, with the rea­sons for devel­op­ing the project in this area being the large con­cen­tra­tion of mil­i­tary bases and the great insti­tu­tions of FSU Pana­ma City and FSU Tallahassee. 

Inspire goals not only include research and devel­op­ment, but will also focus on advance man­u­fac­tur­ing, test­ing facil­i­ties, job cre­ation, pro­vid­ing a qual­i­fied work­force, and attract­ing indus­try to the area. The project will be unique and one-of-a-kind, offer­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties not found else­where in the nation. 

Mr. McClel­lan pre­sent­ed the pos­si­ble sites and the chal­lenges and advan­tages of each of four loca­tions on the Air­port prop­er­ty and finan­cial issues. Dis­cus­sion ensued. At this time the pre­ferred site was the site locat­ed in the mid­dle of the cross­wind devel­op­ment area. The next step in the process is to deter­mine the most appro­pri­ate site on the for con­struc­tion, after which time the project can move forward. 

Dr. Han­nah com­ment­ed on the his­tor­i­cal devel­op­ment of FSU-Pana­ma City, the FSU Col­lege of Engi­neer­ing and the edu­ca­tion­al pos­si­bil­i­ties and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties of InSpire.

Con­struc­tion Update (infor­ma­tion only)

a. Ter­mi­nal Buildout

Mr. Nick Har­well report­ed that the north con­course build­out is cur­rent­ly being sheet rocked. The exit lane is being pre­pared for the sec­ond sto­ry floor­ing installation.

b. Bag Make­up Expansion

Mr. Har­well pre­sent­ed that the bag­gage make­up expan­sion is pro­gress­ing. The slab is in place, fram­ing of the win­dows is ongo­ing, and the con­trac­tor is mov­ing for­ward with the roof installation. 

c. Sheltair

Mr. Har­well pre­sent­ed that con­struc­tion is pro­gress­ing on pace and that the sched­ule is con­cur­rent with parking.

d. South­ern Sky Aviation

Mr. Har­well report­ed the tie-ins (FBO con­nec­tors) have been a very pro­duc­tive project. All the base and asphalt are in. The slip road is com­plet­ed, await­ing painting.

Plan­ning Updates (infor­ma­tion only)

a. North Ter­mi­nal Expansion

Mr. McClel­lan report­ed a trip to Wash­ing­ton a cou­ple of weeks ago and a meet­ing with DOT. The FAA approved our cat­e­gor­i­cal exemp­tion (CATEX) for ter­mi­nal expan­sion and ramps, the approval of the CATEX should enhance our fund­ing opportunities. 

Bay EDA Update (infor­ma­tion only)

Mrs. Bec­ca Hardin with Bay EDA reports the approval of a Tri­umph grant in sup­port of Project Maple for $11.25 mil­lion, which will be used for the con­struc­tion of the 100,000 sq ft hangar. The bid­ding process will begin very quickly. 

Anoth­er Cana­di­an MRO that is sim­i­lar to Pre­mier Avi­a­tion is gain­ing trac­tion, Project Goose, was dis­cussed in a recent EDA con­fer­ence call. They are look­ing at an infield site here at the air­port. It would be a $50 mil­lion cap­i­tal invest­ment and bring 160 to 200 jobs.

Project Comet is a nation­al­ly known main­te­nance repair over­haul com­pa­ny show­ing inter­est. It will offer 400 jobs and $65 mil­lion cap­i­tal investment

There is a lot of activ­i­ty with many com­pa­nies look­ing at our area. 

Moore Agency

Ms. Katie Spill­man pro­vid­ed updates on the area being adver­tised in the Nation­al Busi­ness View Mag­a­zine. The Let’s Go cam­paign is live and in action for this spring. She shared a col­lec­tion of the GIFs for social media.

Ms. Spill­man pre­sent­ed a clip for the new Boston non-stop fea­ture as well. This piece will be post­ed on social media as well as go out on email. 

Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Report

Mr. McClel­lan dis­cussed the soft open­ing of South­ern Sky on April 1, 2024. Tie-ins are done and fin­ish­ing touch­es are being com­plet­ed. After the next board meet­ing on April 24th there will be a rib­bon cut­ting ceremony. 

Mr. McClel­lan announced an addi­tion to the web­site, Fly­myair­port, which will pro­vide the abil­i­ty to go on our web­site and pur­chase air­line tick­ets. This fea­ture will also allow us to find out how much the web­page is used as a con­duit for buy­ing tickets. 

Also, a park­ing RFP going out this week, and there is a cone of silence for employ­ees and Board members.


Next meet­ing sched­uled: April 24, 2024 – Board Meet­ing 9:00 a.m.

The meet­ing was adjourned at approx­i­mate­ly 10:15 a.m

_________________________________ ________________________________

Park­er W. McClel­lan, Jr., AAE Hol­ly Melz­er, Chair

Exec­u­tive Director