Beginning December 19, 2025, flyers can catch a nonstop daily flight from the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport to the Miami International Airport.

“Florida is a large state, and intrastate air travel has been historically limited outside of big cities,” says Tracy Stage, Okaloosa County airports director. “A direct VPS-MIA route makes it much easier for residents to visit family, attend events, or vacation within Florida, instead of treating in-state travel like an interstate trek.”

Previously, travelers would either have to drive 10-plus hours or catch connecting flights in hubs such as Atlanta, Charlotte, or Dallas. Fares will start around $292 roundtrip, making it affordable for both leisure and business travelers.

Unlike many seasons routes at regional airports, VPS-MIA is scheduled to operate daily, year-round, giving travelers consistent options.

This easy breezy flight is also a delight for those seeking to go international with Miami being a hub for travel to Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe. Now, passengers will no longer have to fly north and connect in order to fly south to Miami and beyond.

This flight option is particularly appealing to the business traveller as Miami has become a hotspot for finance, technology, health, and international trade.

“Attending a conference there often means rubbing shoulders with industry leaders from multiple sectors,” said Stage. “It’s where business meets the beach, and every trip is both productive and unforgettable. Many professionals extend their trip to enjoy Miami’s beaches, nightlife, or nearby destinations like the Everglades or the Keys. That makes conferences in Miami especially attractive.”

Venues such as the Miami Beach Convention Center alongside luxury hotels with on-property conference spaces, equate to business events the can scale from small workshops to global conventions.

Additionally, this flight is beneficial to the Emerald Coast region’s economy. Travelers in the manufacturing and military industries seek the region for business, then the white sand beaches, world-class fishing, and small-town coastal charm as a reprieve from their big-city beaches.

“Visitors from Miami and abroad should know that Destin offers a peaceful, family-friendly, nature-rich getaway,” said Stage.

The Costa Family of Costa Enterprises McDonald’s has announced their Bluewater Bay and Niceville restaurants will be transferring to new owners, Tim and Stacey Hughes, beginning Dec. 15, 2023.

Founder and local Nicevillian David Costa Sr. has owned both locations since 1997. Throughout the two decades, both locations have undergone various renovations in order to adapt and show appreciation to the local community. The Niceville location was updated with photos and memorabilia from the surrounding community and high school to reflect the important, homegrown spirit of the restaurant, while the Bluewater Bay location upgraded and expanded its PlayPlace to accommodate the growing younger generation in the area.

“These restaurants truly reflect the heart and soul of the community that surrounds them,” Costa said. “We wanted anyone who visits the restaurant to get a true feel for where they are and understand what a special place Niceville is.”

Both locations have also been heavily involved in various activities throughout the community including the annual Niceville Christmas Parade, state championship send-offs for several Niceville High School athletic teams, along with benefit nights supporting local kids, schools, churches, and charities. The company also has a multitude of give-back programs in place including McCafe for a Cause, where a percentage of coffee sales benefits a local charity; Archways to Opportunity, which provides college funds and scholarships to their employees; and teacher appreciation cards which grants every teacher in each of their 28 restaurants’ region a free cup of coffee. Each program supports their fellow community members and employees. The company has also made it a priority to lend a hand during the most difficult times. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Costa’s 28 locations handed out 9,000 free meals to frontline workers. After Hurricanes Harvey and Michael, the company assisted with housing, water and supplies.

The Costas are continuous supporters of the All Sports Association and serve breakfast to thousands of student athletes each year at their annual FCA Breakfast, hosted at Northwest Florida State College. Through the generation donation to the Northwest Florida State College, it led to the creation of the Costa Leadership Institute. Located on the third floor of the Raider Central Building on the Niceville campus, the institute offers instruction on subjects including professional writing, public speaking, photography and Microsoft Excel to help students enhance their business and professional skills.

The Costas also partnered with the local chapter of Ronald McDonald House and donated $100,000 to the Studer Family Children’s Hospital in Pensacola for their new McPlayroom, so all the families with loved ones receiving treatment have a space to unwind and relax with their other children.

“We’ve made it a priority to give back and support those in our community and support organizations that are going to propel this area into the future and develop it for future generations to come,” Costa said.

Costa and his wife, Helen, have a personal tie to the community as they have lived in Bluewater Bay for many years and it’s also where they raised their three kids, David Jr., Amy and Ashley.

“The Niceville community has been an integral part of our journey, both personally and professionally,” Costa said. “We are truly appreciative of the memories and the community we’ve built together and will continue to support and give back in various ways.”

While David Sr., Helen and Amy will take a step back from the business after the transition of Niceville and Bluewater Bay, David Jr. will continue the Costa legacy with McDonald’s locations in Crestview, Panama City and beyond. To learn more about Costa Enterprises McDonald’s, visit CostaMcD.com.

When Fudpucker’s co-owner Tim Edwards makes his daily commute to work and sails by temporary entrances, countless traffic barrels and frazzled drivers battling construction on U.S. 98, he can’t help but miss 1989.

“That was the year Fudpucker’s Destin location opened, right when the Emerald Coast Parkway had been completed,” said Edwards. “Back then, Fudpucker’s, Abbott Realty and The Track were the only buildings in our area of Destin; things are a little different now.”

Indeed, Fudpucker’s is just one of hundreds of Destin businesses dealing with U.S. 98’s latest facelift, a $75 million project that will expand the four-lane highway into six from Airport Road in Okaloosa County to Tang O-Mar Drive in Walton County, and add sidewalks, stormwater detention ponds and drainage infrastructure.

Construction in Okaloosa County, which began in the summer of 2017, has reached its “halfway point,” said Tanya Branton, a public information specialist with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). The Okaloosa County portion of the project is expected to wrap up early in 2021.

In an email, Branton delineated the roadmap for the work ahead:

Phase I (Airport Road to west end of Henderson Beach State Park) — Traffic has been shifted to the center section to construct the new eastbound travel lanes on the south side of U.S. 98. Construction of the new eastbound lanes will be close to completion by the end of 2019, including the realignment of CR 2378 (Scenic Highway 98 at U.S. 98). Traffic will be shifted to the south side (new eastbound lanes), and median construction will begin.

Phase II (West end of Henderson Beach State Park to Matthew Boulevard) — Traffic will remain in the center section to construct the new eastbound lanes. New eastbound lanes are anticipated to be completed in 2019, and traffic will shift to the south side to complete median construction.

Phase III (Kel-Wen Circle to Walton County Line) — In February 2019, westbound traffic was shifted to the south side of the roadway, and construction of the new westbound lanes began. Construction of the new westbound lanes is anticipated to be completed by the end of 2019.

The biggest obstacles, said Branton, will be “summer traffic and inclement weather conditions.”

“Most work this summer will be behind a low-profile barrier wall and two lanes of traffic will be maintained in each direction,” she said. “Construction activities should have minimal impacts to the traveling public.”

But what bearing might they have on the flow of traffic to businesses at the peak of Destin’s tourism season? Edwards said that was the first question on everyone’s mind as soon as the project was green-lighted.

“The harsh reality is that major road construction projects aren’t without casualties,” Edwards said. “Places of business that are already marginal to start with might not make it. You’ve got to make yourself visible from the road to keep your numbers up.”

According to Heather Ruiz, senior director of marketing and leasing at Destin Commons, construction is prompting even Destin’s hugest shopping hub to alter the ways in which it attracts visitors.

“We’re trying to be more strategic in where we place billboards to ensure that people who may experience any summer traffic bottlenecks know that we’re here,” Ruiz said.

People looking to get out from behind the wheel will be glad to know that Destin Commons will be partnering with 654 Limo and several major resort shuttle systems to establish the center as a drop-off point.

“We’ve been pretty lucky in that construction is flanking us on either side,” Ruiz said. “We’ve got multiple entrances from 98 and 293, so that makes this process a lot easier.”

For many smaller plazas and standalone structures with only one entrance, access continues to be stymied by development. Branton says portable, changeable message signs and permanent mounted signs are being installed to safely direct traffic to paths that offer ingress, while additional signs will list which businesses are accessible by each.

The FDOT is dedicated to keeping businesses apprised of progress, changes and any shifts in traffic patterns. Quarterly e-newsletters and weekly traffic advisories are sent to the project’s stakeholders, and project staff will reach out to any businesses they feel will be directly impacted by future development.

For Edwards, whose restaurant on Emerald Coast Parkway is in the epicenter of Destin, that communication has been critical.

“I will say that Jeff Randall with Metrics Engineering has been busting his chops for us,” said Edwards. “He’s made an otherwise unpleasant experience a positive one by being extremely communicative and supportive throughout. There’s never been a time where we’ve been left wondering what’s happening, and I think that speaks well about Randall and the project’s managers.”

As of this writing, Edwards reports that Fudpucker’s has seen an increase in revenue despite construction, perhaps due to Destin’s increased popularity as a spring break destination.

It had him looking forward to the summer season and beyond.

For Nathan Sparks, the executive director of the Economic Development Council of Okaloosa County, enhancements to 98 have been “an exercise in patience, but frankly, overdue.”

“Road improvements are certainly always welcome, because they improve access and the flow of goods and people, all of which relates to economic development on a basic level,” said Sparks. “U.S. 98 is obviously a major thoroughfare for our entire region. It’s used not just by tourists. It’s used by businesses and residents.

“We’re currently going through a lengthy process that I liken to surgery. Surgery is never fun, but the reason you undergo it is to make yourself better. Right now, we’re in surgery and it’s not enjoyable, but we’re going to be a better community for it.” 

Jorge Habib Jr. surveys the storm-ravaged and otherwise dilapidated buildings that litter the grounds of a bygone printing company and he is not bothered by what he sees, so clearly can he envision what will be: green spaces, gardens, spotlights, new and bigger warehouses.

A manufacturing facility in a building that once housed German printing presses will become home to plastic injection machinery operated by a combination of robots and humans.

The plant that once produced real estate books and magazines will generate cooling components built for Volkswagen automobile engines from German aluminum.

In May of last year, the Bay County Economic Development Alliance announced plans by Air Temp de Mexico to establish a subsidiary, Air Temp of America, in Panama City.

The move came as the culmination of eight years of conversation and negotiation between the company and the EDA, a dialog that began as the product of Air Temp’s relationship with Port Panama City.

The business, founded in 1982 in the Yucatán Peninsula by Habib’s Massachusetts-born father, today employs 850 people in Mérida and 350 in Puebla.

Upon commencing production in Panama City in May, Habib said, the company would employ 10 people at its first U.S. operation.

Employees will be added as contracts are won and, potentially, as operations are moved from Mexico.

“We will start with the Volkswagen contract, building parts that we will ship to their assembly plant in Chattanooga,” Habib said.

“Then, we will begin to offer U.S.-based production as an alternative to other customers. If they say they would prefer to have their parts manufactured in the U.S., we will bring a production line to Florida from Mexico.”

Most of Air Temp’s customers are automakers in Europe and the United States, but it is also making spare parts for Ford trucks.

A relationship with GM dissolved years ago, owing to its preference for dealing with global companies. Indeed, when Air Temp, aware that GM was having problems with condensers, engineered a better part and presented the automaker with a prototype, GM sent it to China for manufacture there.

Ford, Habib said, could benefit if parts were produced in Panama City, explaining that orders would be turned around more quickly and less expensively.

As a college student who studied accounting, Jorge Habib Sr. wrote a thesis on how to develop an auto air conditioning company in the Yucatán.

His wife, who owns a business that services and repairs air conditioning systems and sells after-market parts, helped him type it.

The thesis became a reality.

Air Temp was launched as a designer and manufacturer of air conditioners and heat exchangers for the automotive industry. Renault Mexico was an early customer.

Volkswagen came on board in 1987. Air Temp’s product line has come to include condensers, evaporators, heaters, radiators, refrigerant gas and fans, and fan motors.

The work is exacting; tolerances are miniscule.

“A car is like a human body,” said Habib, who serves as Air Temp’s branding, sales and public relations executive and reports to his dad, the CEO.

“It has the equivalent of veins, a heart, lungs, a face and skin. So, our facilities should look more like a hospital than a factory.”

BMW, he said, insists that its parts-makers’ floors be white. No part leaves an Air Temp plant until it is tested. 

Habib, who keeps appointments, schedules and travel plans in a leather-bound calendar book, never stays in one place for long.

But, to the extent that he has developed a relationship with Panama City, he is pleased.

He praises Hardin and the EDA for its service after the sale — “It’s not like they close the deal and wish you good luck,” he said — and he was encouraged by Florida State University Panama City’s addition of a mechanical engineering major.

He likes what he has heard about STEM programs in public schools.

“If you are going to attract big industrial employers, you have to have an appropriately skilled labor force,” Habib said.

“That process must start with children. Exposure to other cultures is important. You’re not going anywhere if you stay in a bubble.”

Air Temp employees include some who have been with the company since the beginning. The company prizes loyalty, Habib said, and, in exchange, treats people right.

Facilities in Mexico have cafeterias that serve breakfasts, lunches and dinners.  Company doctors, nutritionists and psychologists are on site.

“We are like a large family,” Habib said. “Management stays close to the employees. And, from everyone, we appreciate honesty. An employee who tells you the truth is more valuable than one who just tells you what you want to hear.”

At the center of it all is the nuclear Habib family.

Habib has sisters and a brother-in-law who are involved in the company, playing roles as an accounts manager, a lawyer and a risk and investments manager.

“My father always said that he would start a business by hiring family members,” recalled Habib, who started accompanying his father on business trips as a child of 8. “He could scream at us without feeling guilty.”

Habib’s commitment to Air Temp is solid.

“The only way anyone is going to take me out of our business is feet first,” he said.     

Your “big idea” is proving viable, and you are trying to decide the format in which to establish a for-profit business. Will it be a sole proprietorship, a partnership, a corporation or a limited liability corporation?

There are three basic elements that answer to that question.

Liability Limitation

The world of business liability breaks down roughly into two halves: unlimited and limited liability.

Unlimited liability means that you could lose pretty much everything you own owing to a loss suffered by the business. Sole proprietorships and general partnerships fall into this category. Owners may mitigate the risk with insurance, personal asset protection and by refraining from signing personal guarantees for loans or leases.

Limited liability means that the most you can usually lose is the amount of your investment in the company. Examples are corporations and limited liability companies. Bear in mind that a limited liability entity can be stripped of protection if owners use the company as a personal piggy bank or for fraudulent or illegal purposes.

Taxes

Here, we are talking about a world of three parts.

One is individual taxation, which applies to sole proprietorships. In essence, all tax outcomes relate personally to an owner and are attended to directly on the owner’s tax return and paid accordingly.

Then there is pass-through treatment, which applies to all partnership forms. Tax outcomes essentially pass through the entity and are attended to by the owners on their tax returns. For pass-through entities, it is not just that tax activities are invisible to the companies; rather, those companies report tax-related activities to the owners and the IRS for final disposition and payment by the owners on their tax returns. As a result, there is only one level of tax return at the owner level.

Finally, there is dual taxation treatment, which applies to “C” corporations. These are corporations that do not take an “S” election, and “C” double-taxation is, accordingly, the default federal tax format for corporations. In essence, a “C Corp” pays income tax, itself, and then the owners pay a second level of income tax on their dividend distributions.

The brief discussion above does not touch upon the related topics of state and local taxes that may include occupation/business taxes, income taxes, sales taxes and employment taxes, among the menu of taxes levied on business entities.

Formality

All artificial business entities are creatures of statute, meaning that their formation, structure and operations emerge from a state’s code of laws.

In Florida, this code is found in Chapter XXXVI, “Business Organizations.”

These statutes describe the regulations for creating a business entity and the regulator, which in Florida is the Division of Corporations in the Department of State.

Bascially, each artificial entity has to: File a constituting document, such as articles of incorporation for a corporation or articles of organization for an LLC, with the state regulator.

Create “rules of the game,” such as a partnership agreement, bylaws for a corporation or an operating agreement for an LLC, which it keeps with its operating documents.

Then, the company has to actually observe the terms of the statutes and its constituting document and rules of the game.

For example, it may have to notice and convene annual and periodic owner or directors meetings and keep records of its actions.

And later file annual business reports and tax returns. The consequences of not doing those core activities can include the piercing of the limited liability veil.

In the end, take in input from your attorney and accountant, and also from your insurance agent and commercial banker, and make informed decisions concerning those fundamental questions: Shall I form a business entity? And, if so, which one?

Philip N. Kabler is an incubator resource person at the Santa Fe College Center for Innovation and Economic Development and has taught courses at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and at the University of Florida Warrington College of Business. He is a member of the Florida Bar’s professional ethics committee.

photo by saige roberts Clayton Mathis (blue shirt) and Kyle Teaford pursue their craft at Oyster City Brewing. Mathis is governed by his own taste, which customers find to their liking.

On any given Saturday afternoon, especially amid a sultry Panhandle summer, downtown Apalachicola is abuzz with talkative pockets of lightly garbed friends and strangers working very hard at doing almost nothing. 

Clayton Mathis is not one of those people.

He’s busy doing his part to make the ever-more-popular Franklin County resort town a prime destination for weekend fun-seekers, while expanding one of the Big Bend’s most colorfully local brands.

As the head brewer for Oyster City Brewing Company, he’s a driving force behind one of the region’s rising craft-beer operations.

The formula is a simple one. “Love, man. It’s a lot of love that goes into making this beer,” says Mathis, sharing a table outside Oyster City’s headquarters, a 2,000-square-foot building at the corner of Avenue D and Commerce Street.

Inside, patrons sip with enthusiasm from pint-sized plastic cups filled with any of the dozen original brews in current rotation. There’s not much by way of decor: a small bar and souvenir shop, a few tables and rows of fermentation tanks where the beers are made.

Beer comes no fresher than it does right here.

“We like to drink good beer,” continues Mathis, an affable, bearded 33-year-old South Carolinian whom the brewery’s Facebook page describes as “hunky.” “We make beer that we like to drink, and luckily a lot of people like to drink it, too.”

Apalachicola’s growth as a tourist town hasn’t hurt, either.  “We get a lot of people in here drinking.” 

Although Mathis runs point, the enterprise is a part of a friends-and-family partnership that includes four owners: Cassie Gary, Susan Gary, Rex Humphries and Bo Walker, who launched Oyster City in 2014.

The Garys and Humphries are co-owners of Apalachicola’s Owl Cafe, where Cassie Gary’s husband Melvin Myers is head chef, and its adjacent bar, The Tap Room.

Humphries’ wife Shelley Shepard, Walker’s wife Alyssa Walker and Mathis’s girlfriend Cassie Jones also play roles in the business. 

As Mathis explains, the brewery was inspired one day when a customer came into The Tap Room and wondered why there was no local beer.

The gauntlet was thrown, and the home brewing began. Before long, the group took over the Oasis, a gnarly fisherman’s bar across the street from the Owl Cafe. Mathis points out a bullet hole as evidence of the saloon’s rough-and-tumble reputation.

“There was smoke so thick you could cut it with a knife,” he recalls. Soon enough, it was full of 10- and 20-barrel tanks, and Jamie Ray, a beer consultant from Alabama, was showing everyone how to make a proper brew.

photo by saige roberts The Oyster City team, from left: Kyle Teaford, Clayton Mathis, Bo Walker, Cassie Gary, Susan Gary, Rex Humphries, Shelley Shepard, Brooks Edwards, Melvin Myers.

Four years on, Oyster City has begun to hit its stride. Mathis came onboard in May 2015 and has helped to steer its course.

“I probably know less than one percent of what I really should know,” he says

“None of us knew much about making beer before we got into this. I’ve read books, Shelley gave me a stack of books that high and I read them all, and probably a bunch more of them by now, and so there’s a lot of studying involved in it and following different formulas.”

Brewed “by committee,” at least at the start, Oyster City now offers a colorful variety of beers, all flaunting names that burst with coastal flavor.

“Mill Pond Dirty Blonde” and “Tate’s Hell Lager” nod to notable geography, while “Aye Aye IPA,” “Lemon Shark Wheat” and “Red Snapper IPA” tap into pescatory inspirations.

The most popular beer is “Hooter Brown Ale,” an homage to the Owl Cafe.

“The name was going to be ‘Cooter Brown,’ after a guy in the Civil War who didn’t want to fight for the North or the South and just got drunk the whole time,” Mathis explains with a laugh. “But the name was already taken.”

The ale, with a potent APR of 8.5 percent, makes up 40 percent of Oyster City’s sales.

The brewmaster credits Ray’s original recipe, which has been doctored a bit, and the use of tupelo honey — sourced from Owl Creek, 38 miles up the Apalachicola River — and wild berry honey, that makes for a smooth, sweet finish. “You just drink it,” he says. “It drinks a lot lighter than what it looks like.”

Hooter Brown is the Oyster City beer you’ll most likely see among the draft taps at Tallahassee bars and restaurants.

Or, if you’re lucky, maybe there will be a keg of it at the next neighborhood oyster roast.

Oyster City is sold only by the keg, but those making the trek to Apalachicola can pick up 32 or 64 oz. growlers. (There’s also a 32-oz. “Crowler,” or canned growler, available).

“It’s a great headlining beer for us,” Mathis says, proud to discuss the finer merits of the local honey, which doesn’t crystallize but delivers a bold flavor.

“It’s not anything weird. We don’t need to make a weird beer to make it attractive.”

The brewery expects to produce more than 3,000 barrels this year. But even North Florida residents who haven’t tasted any may know the name.

Oyster City baseball caps are everywhere. Good thing the company’s original proposal for a name — Apalachicola Brewing Company — was already taken.

“We sell a lot of hats,” Mathis says. “Whenever I go to Tallahassee, or Pensacola, Panama City, I see at least three or four of them every time.”

As an afternoon crowd gathers, disperses and gathers again inside the bar, Mathis takes note of the brewery’s fortunate timing. “The Forgotten Coast isn’t forgotten anymore,” he says. Oyster City might have just a little bit to do with that.