Between tourism and a growing population of retirees and snowbirds with second homes in the region, many travelers are looking forward to ditching the layover on their way to the beach. A nonstop flight from Panama City to New York City will be a boon to the local economy, providing an influx of customers and clients for businesses and entrepreneurs.

Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport (ECP) Executive Director Parker McClellan is known among airline officials as “Mr. Sandman.” When meeting with various airlines to recruit new service to ECP, he takes to his meetings a small chest of alabaster sand straight off the gorgeous beaches for which the Florida Panhandle is renowned.

“At these meetings, this chest is passed around so airline representatives can literally play in the sand,” Parker McClellan says. “We realize the beach is a big part of what attracts visitors, but I like to let them know it comes with Southern hospitality and a beautiful region with a culture that we’re finding to be in significant demand as a travel destination.”

Recently, this attracted the attention of Delta Air Lines, Inc., who, as of this past summer on June 14, introduced a new, nonstop flight between ECP and New York-LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in New York City.

McClellan says negotiations for a nonstop flight to New York have been in the making since 2011. Boasting over 30 years of experience in aviation management, he has been instrumental in expanding ECP’s appeal as what he calls “not just a destination, but an origination.”

2024 was a record-breaking year, as Parker spearheaded efforts to land new, nonstop routes to Austin, Texas and Boston. “When we closed the old airport in downtown Panama City, we would have around 312,000 to 325,000 passengers annually,” he says. “Last year, we recorded just under 1.9 million passengers—a 501% growth.”

With the addition of this new service, and factoring in global and economic considerations, McClellan anticipates at least a small growth, or at least the same success in 2025, saying, “At the end of the day, the addition of this flight and some of our other nonstops during the summer continue to show a really good performance.”

Flights to and from LGA on Delta’s CRJ-900 aircraft originated as a once-a-week, seasonal Saturday service for the 2025 summer season, a popular event that also supplies nonstop travel to other major cities such as Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Chicago, and Denver.

But, come November 6, departures to the city that never sleeps will be a daily offering.

“We were excited that, before the inaugural flight even took off this summer, Delta announced that there was a strong enough demand to commence a daily service in November,” McClellan says. “For them to overfly their hub in Atlanta is a huge commitment from Delta and speaks to the desire of the Northeast and New York to come visit the beautiful beaches of our community.”

One of the most-awarded and successful airlines in the United States, Delta is devoted to making the flight as comfortable and accommodating as possible for its passengers. The year-round service will carry travelers on an Embraer 175 aircraft with multi-class amenities, something McClellan claims “keeps people happy.”

McClellan explained that ECP will continue to market the region. He is devoted to meeting with existing airlines as well as new ones to secure destinations, saying that as the airport continues to grow, the expansion will affect the local economy. The ECP will continue to nurture business in and around the airport to benefit aviation and the community with the diversity of its employers.

“There is no stopping us now,” McClellan says. “We don’t sit back on our laurels and say, ‘Well we finally got New York, so I guess we’re done.’ No, we want people to come see us but want to continue to provide the opportunity for our residents to get out there and experience new places as well.”

Before Allan Branch took office as Mayor of Panama City in May 2025, he was better known for opening brewpubs, restoring historic buildings, and revitalizing downtown storefronts. Now, he is bringing that entrepreneurial mindset to city government.

Branch’s roots run deep in Panama City, as his family has been doing business for nearly 80 years, operating places like Tally Ho Drive-In and Speedy Car Wash. After achieving success in software companies, Branch shifted into real estate and building restoration with his wife, Anna, launching History Class Brewing Company, El Weirdo tacopub, and The Sapp House.

During his mayoral campaign, Branch emphasized simplicity, accountability, and government accessibility. He speaks from experience, having found that working with City Hall as a builder was slow, inefficient, and frustrating.

“It felt like everything took 10 times longer than necessary,” Branch noted. “If I felt that way, people unfamiliar with the system must find it impossible. That’s not how a city should work.”

Even his sister, who opened a barbecue restaurant near City Hall, missed critical steps due to the city’s lack of how-to documentation. “That’s the fault of the system,” he says, “not the citizen.”

It was these types of frustrations that led Branch to run for office.

“My job is to advocate for initiatives and help the city function by shaping direction, building consensus, and incorporating community feedback,” he says, explaining that the city operates under a “weak mayor” system, such that the mayor shares authority with a city manager. He has no executive authority over city operations.

Many cities operate under a “strong mayor” system, where the mayor’s role is similar to that of a corporate CEO.

Branch’s leadership style is intentionally collaborative.
“I engage on Facebook and Instagram, and share my email and cell number so I can hear the opinions of the community.”

Within weeks of taking office, Branch began making tangible changes. City Commission meetings are now tightly focused on agenda items only. Public comments are integrated into town hall meetings on the first Saturday of odd-numbered months.

Branch says, “When you give people time to speak and not a three-minute limit, they’ll tell you what’s working and what’s not.”

Branch instituted commission workshops on the first and third Mondays at 4 p.m. and launched a plan to create shared department inboxes to ensure no resident inquiry goes unanswered.

“We want feedback from citizens,” he says. “Most cities don’t encourage it. When residents become frustrated with city employees, they may not realize that those employees don’t have the authority to make changes. So, feedback needs to reach the policymakers who can.”

Emails now feature feedback links, and office doors have signs encouraging residents to ask for help. A system of response tracking ensures follow-through. He’s also focused on creating clear documentation, including checklists available both online and in every city office.

“People tell me, ‘Every time I talk to someone at City Hall, I get a different answer.’ To me, it’s because the system hasn’t equipped employees with better tools to communicate well.”

Branch wants service-level budgeting to show precisely how tax dollars are spent, and code reform that eliminates or adjusts one outdated ordinance for every new one passed.

Since Hurricane Michael, Branch has helped attract over $50 million in private investment to downtown Panama City. However, such success brings challenges, particularly since inflated property values pose affordability challenges for long-time residents.

“We want to revitalize, not gentrify,” he says. “The goal isn’t to push anyone out. It’s to make sure people who’ve been here forever still feel like this is their city, too.”

To that end, he is bringing in the Incremental Development Alliance, a national group that teaches citizens how to become small-scale developers. The aim is to educate locals on how to finance, design, and construct affordable housing, as well as revitalize vacant lots.

His administration is exploring mixed-use projects, combining workforce housing and retail, while continuing to share progress through social media and public events.

Branch is clear that his two-year term won’t be long enough to solve every issue, but he believes it can lay the foundation for long-term change.

And while he resists the title of politician, Branch fully embraces the fact that local government can be efficient and helpful.

International real estate company Time Equities, Inc. (TEI) announced it has launched a teaser website and preleasing campaign for 108 ultra-luxury new apartment homes at Emerald Park (www.emeraldparkpcb.com), its new residential apartment community in Panama City Beach, Florida.

The 108 new boutique units at Emerald Park – which will be available for pre-leasing in September 2023 – feature unique, open floor plans, abundant natural light as well as modern finishes and fixtures. Kitchens, baths, closets, and balconies are all over-sized. 

The new apartments range from elegant one-bedroom units to efficient three-bedroom units (which also feature three full bathrooms, a first in the market). TEI will deliver the new units in phases, starting in late 2023 and continuing through the Spring of 2024. 

In addition to the new units, Emerald Park will feature a market-leading suite of over 10,000 square feet of amenities, both interior and exterior. To begin, the new 6,500-square-foot clubhouse features a soaring clubroom with banquets, communal high-top bar, TV lounges with fireplaces and more. The clubhouse is further equipped with a 24/7 fitness center packed with high-tech equipment.

Further features include a game room, private dining room (with catering kitchen) and kid’s playroom. The clubhouse also boasts a full wrap-around, 25-foot deep, shaded loggia – with lounges and gaming areas. The oversized pool, spa and deck – which features pergolas, firepits and sun lounge areas – complete the resort environment. 

In addition to the clubhouse and pool, Emerald Park also features a separate, brand-new, 2,200-square-foot coworking/work-from-home center. The co-work center features conference rooms, Zoom pods, working lounges, a communal kitchen with coffee bar and printing/scanning stations. It also features its own pool and furnished pool deck.

Emerald Park finishes out its amenity offering with various outdoor activity areas, including the East and West Lawns, as well as the Bark Park. The East and West lawns feature shaded lounge and gaming areas. 

“We’re thrilled to be launching Emerald Park luxury apartments today,” said Robert Singer, Director of Development at TEI. “To be sure, the amenities here are over the top, and the apartments are just stunning – there is something here for everyone.” 

Singer continued, “Emerald Park will set a new standard for sophisticated luxury living in the already buzzing Florida Panhandle market.” 

Emerald Park is situated in the heart of Panama City Beach, on Front Beach Road at Laurie Avenue. The property is conveniently located between the Beach and downtown Panama City – with easy access to shopping, schools, transportation, entertainment and everything that the Panhandle/Emerald Coast region has to offer.

The Emerald Park development team consists of Conn Architects, FaverGray Construction and Woodruff Property Management. To learn more about Emerald Park and register on the priority list, visit the website at www.emeraldparkpcb.com.

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The tourism promotion agency Visit Panama City Beach is investing in sports parks and encouraging Bay County communities to supply complementary services.

Residents, businesses and visitors to the area all benefit from the investment in sports tourism and the infrastructure needed to make the events and tournaments possible.

Sports tourism in Panama City Beach took off when the first swimmers in the 1999 Ironman Triathlon hit the water.

“Ironman was — and still is today — our Super Bowl of sports, because it will bring in athletes from almost all 50 states and 60 countries around the world,” said Richard Sanders, vice president of sports marketing and special events at Visit Panama City Beach (VPCB). “It was the Ironman Triathlon that really put us on the map, and we’ve just grown from there.”

Today, Panama City Beach boasts the longest continuously running Ironman in North America and the only full Ironman in Florida.

“When we started, this thing took off real quick,” Sanders said. “The first year saw 4,000 room nights, and the place went crazy. In the second year, we did 10,000 room nights, and today we’re doing close to 150,000 room nights.”

Sanders has worked with VPCB for 25 years, first as a consultant and for the last 11 years as a full-time employee creating sports and special events for the community.

“As fast as sports tourism took off, we needed to plan for what the future should look like,” Sanders said.

In 2008, Sanders brought in a consultant who recommended an indoor sports facility and also identified a need for more athletic fields — with rectangular athletic fields as the priority.

This 10-year project opened in 2018 as the Publix Sports Park on Chip Seal Parkway. The park boasts 13 configurable fields, nine synthetic turf fields and two championship fields.

“My first week, in 2015, we started working on the Publix Complex,” said Chris O’Brien, the director of sports and special events at VPCB.

As of this writing, Sanders is transitioning to semi-retirement, handing off the future of sports and special events to O’Brien.

“When we did our research and our consultation, we looked at the pros and cons of different areas and surrounding counties,” Sanders said. “We had some inventory that could meet certain types of events, but we didn’t have the championship quality — venues or inventory — that was needed in our mission of bringing in business through sports.”

Frank Brown Park was the first sports complex in Panama City Beach.

Frank Brown Park is home to baseball, t-ball and soccer fields; basketball, volleyball and tennis courts; walking and biking trails; and a state-of-the-art children’s playground that encourages sensory play. The Panama City Beach Aquatic Center at the park includes a 50-meter Olympic pool; a separate 5,000-square-foot splash park and kid’s pool are available for family play.

“Frank Brown Park was built in 1978 by the city,” Sanders said. “They thought about the future of sports tourism and how that could fit into Panama City Beach and what we’re all about. There was a vision to take us forward.”

The population in the area has been growing over time. VPCB works in private-public partnerships to anticipate and meet the needs of the growing community.

“Just like when we did our report in 2008, they were doing the same thing back then,” Sanders explained. “They saw the need for the community to have additional facilities and made that investment to revamp Frank Brown Park. The way they capitalize on that investment and bring more heads in beds is with tournaments.”

Those tournaments, which attract teams from throughout the country, result in room nights and other types of spending of benefit to the community.

“Once the events do well, the coordinators book that same date the next year,” O’Brien said.

About 80% of events recur.

“We now have several years of established business at Frank Brown Park,” Sanders added. “The Publix Sports Park brings in new business that complements, but does not compete, with the successful business at Frank Brown Park.”

VPCB averages 40–45 events a year, while also hosting local leagues and practices by high school teams.

“Because the Publix Sports Park uses turf, we can keep it busy and not worry about wear and tear on grass,” O’Brien said. “We’ve made improvements recently including a netting system, sound system, photo areas and added streaming cameras so relatives can watch if they aren’t able to come in person.”

Now, VPCB is working with architects and sponsors to plan a flexible multipurpose indoor sports complex.

“We’re going to have over 100,000 square feet of indoor space,” O’Brien said. “It won’t just be like a gym — it’s going to have meeting and work spaces.”

The building also will be equipped with a hardened fiber optic connection for speed and security and will serve as an emergency shelter.

Esports is a new area of interest for VPCB. Electronic sports are soaring in popularity with video games like Dota 2, Call of Duty, League of Legends and more. Tournaments draw large crowds and award cash prizes totaling millions of dollars. Last year, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds boasted a prize pool of $4.5 million.

“This building will also be able to have concerts up to 2,500 people,” Sanders added.

Sanders believes in cooperating with surrounding cities, including Panama City, which is working to determine how best to replace the hurricane-ravaged Marina Civic Center. Sanders intends that the indoor facility on the beach complement the new civic center.

The new indoor complex is expected to open in December 2025 and will add to Panama City Beach’s already robust sports tourism industry.

According to O’Brien, direct and indirect spending related to sports tourism totaled $130 million last year.

“Even bigger cities don’t have what we have,” O’Brien said. “Our population grows from about 15,000 people to maybe 60,000 during the summer months. There’re 16,000 rooms in the hotels, and they fill up.”

“Hotels are being built because of the sports parks,” Sanders agreed. “When Pier Park was built, most activities moved to the west end. With the Publix Sports Park, we’re rejuvenating the east end again.”

Sanders’ years with VPCB are changing the narrative. No longer is it spring break; he says it is now spring season.

Florida communities that relied on spring break for tourism faced the challenges that come with youthful energy and first freedoms. Where other spring break tourism communities took 10 years to pivot toward other tourist activities, Panama City Beach recovered financially in only three years.

“Today, we can say that sports is in the DNA of what Panama City is all about,” Sanders said.

 

The gathering spoke to the momentousness of the occasion. On hand were large delegations from Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare and Florida State University’s main campus. They were joined by a congressman, an economic developer, local elected officials, business leaders, physicians, an airport director, contractors and others who came together in the middle of a workday on newly cleared land at an undeveloped intersection in Panama City Beach a mile and a half north of the Gulf of Mexico.

The assembly was positively giddy, characterized by the kind of spirit and enthusiasm that attends the arrival of a new school in a neighborhood previously without one, but raised to the 10th power.

In January, three regional titans — The St. Joe Company, Florida State University and Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare — joined in a ceremony officially kicking off construction of the future FSU Health-Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Medical Campus at an 87-acre site located a few minutes south of the large-scale Latitude Margaritaville Watersound community, where houses are coming out of the ground faster than mushrooms after a rain.     

Panama City Beach city councilman Paul Casto was there. He recalled the days, well within his lifetime, when Panama City Beach was without an ambulance.

“If there was an emergency, they had to send one across the bridge from the old Bay Medical,” he said. “We’ve been talking about the need for a hospital on this beach for 40 years.”

Four years ago, talk of a medical center started to become more than that. St. Joe, FSU and TMH committed to bringing about a locally governed, comprehensive medical campus.

Jorge Gonzalez, St. Joe’s president and CEO, addressed the crowd, noting the difficulties experienced by many urban medical centers located on legacy properties that offer little room for expansion when the need arises. In the case of the Panama City Beach medical campus, space constraints may never become a problem.

Work has begun on an 80,000-square-foot medical office building that is scheduled to be operational in 2024. The building will house TMH physician partners, a couple of whom already have set up shop in Bay County, and offer services including primary care, urgent care, an ambulatory surgery center and cardiology and orthopedic services. Simultaneously, work on a 100-bed hospital with an emergency center is taking place. The hospital will provide inpatient services to include surgery, cardiology procedures and imaging and is expected to be open for business in 2027.

Gonzalez discouraged anyone from thinking that completion of those projects will be a final destination. Rather, he said, they will be steps along the way to a campus that may one day number 500 hospital beds.

“Today, we are commemorating the beginning of the realization of a vision,” Gonzalez said in remarks leading up to the traditional tossing of spadefuls of dirt. “Collectively, we all want to work toward a health care campus that takes advantage of the natural synergies among research, teaching and clinical delivery.

“We know it’s a big, bold idea that is not easy, but, hey, without a big, bold idea, big bold things don’t get accomplished.”

For St. Joe, Gonzalez said, infrastructure is much more than roads, bridges and utilities.

“To us, it includes education, culture, the arts — and health care. In my opinion, there is nothing that affects quality of life more than the quality of health care.”

TMH and FSU are well acquainted. Over the past several years, the university has expanded its health research portfolio while also pursuing partnerships with major health care systems including TMH. In the fall, FSU will break ground on the FSU Health Tallahassee Center on the TMH campus, a project made possible by a $125 million appropriation from the Florida Legislature.

In its strategic plan, TMH commits itself to creating a governance structure for the academic health center; clearly informing the general public about the TMH/FSU partnership in the center; and “optimizing health measures for the communities we serve while engaging community and stakeholder groups in support of the academic health center’s vision.”

The cultures of FSU and TMH are broadly similar. Both are ultimately service organizations committed to community betterment. Both, in their own ways, are educators. Neither is static, not remotely so.

TMH’s mission statement is succinct: Transforming care. Advancing health. Improving lives.

The FSU mission statement is, more so, the stuff of academe: Florida State University preserves, expands and disseminates knowledge in the sciences, technology, arts, humanities and professions while embracing a philosophy of learning strongly rooted in the traditions of the liberal arts. The university is dedicated to excellence in teaching, research, creative endeavors and service. The university strives to instill the strength, skill and character essential for lifelong learning, personal responsibility and sustained achievement within a community that fosters free inquiry and embraces diversity.

The organization’s values statements, no surprise, overlap.

TMH embraces integrity, compassion, accountability, respect and excellence — its ICARE values. FSU espouses Transformative Daring, Inspired Excellence, Dynamic Inclusiveness, Responsible Stewardship and Engaged Community.

Visit The St. Joe Company’s offices in Panama City Beach, and you will find no core values statement on the wall. According to David Demarest, St. Joe’s director of PR and communications, company leaders made the decision to refrain from crafting a values statement because such documents can tend to become “empty platitudes.” Too, they tend to be too long by half. Better, leadership thought, to let the company’s work in the community speak for itself.

But Jorge Gonazlez, St. Joe’s president and CEO, has shared his personal values in conversation with 850 Business Magazine. Chief among them are humility and trust.

The latter figured prominently in Gonzalez’s remarks at the construction kickoff, where he described his relationship with a fellow president/CEO — TMH’s Mark O’Bryant.

“It’s not easy putting big projects together,” Gonzalez said. “There are many things to think about and consider, and you can’t succeed if your partners and counterparts are not people who you trust. I have full trust in Mark. Throughout our dialogue, he has been nothing but authentic. His primary interest is in improving the quality of life in the communities TMH serves.”

In years to come, when people see the FSU Health Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Medical Campus move past 100 beds on its way to 500, some will recall that the partners in the first place were given to shared values, yes, and shared sensibilities.

“The best health care is locally driven,” O’Bryant told the kickoff crowd. “It’s driven by the people who receive care. The health care needs of a community don’t need to be defined in faraway communities, whether it is St. Louis or Dallas or Chicago. Those folks don’t understand the specific needs of our community. I look out on people in the audience, and I see people who have served on the TMH board. What we are talking about is involving people who influence how we manage our services, how we extend our resources, how we focus our strategic efforts. We want to make sure that this organization reflects the needs of the people in this region and is committed to them.”

Gonzalez sang from the same sheet.

“As we talked to a lot of health care companies, one of the things that was important to us was for our health care partner to agree to a local governance structure, recognizing that health care delivery is inherently local,” he said. “That’s one of the first conversations that Mark and I had, and he was really the only one who understood and accepted that. Nothing against the others — they are all great people who do great things — but they make decisions in other places, not here, and we need local decision making.”

Gonzalez said that one of his favorite quotations, attributed to Benjamin Franklin, is, “Do well by doing good.”

And, when three large and outstanding entities — none so big that it permits itself to supersede the importance of community — come together, good things can happen.

Do well by doing good. It may be the best mission/vision/values statement that can be.

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FSU Values

Transformative Daring 
We support thoughtful risk-taking that leads to successes that improve our world dramatically. And when we face challenges, we confront them with resilience, curiosity and renewed desire to overcome hurdles to our goals.

Inspired Excellence
We achieve the highest levels of success by drawing strength and understanding from the talents of those around us and from our interactions with them.

Dynamic Inclusiveness 
We believe the benefits of a richly varied community arise not only from the diversity of people it includes, but more importantly from intentional efforts to create a strong sense of belonging that encourages deep and high-quality connections.

Responsible Stewardship 
We transform the resources we are given and the public’s trust in us into powerful impacts that better the lives of those around us, near and far.

Engaged Community 
We uphold the traditions and history that create a small-college culture within a large university. This makes FSU a welcoming place where people discover others like themselves — while also connecting to and learning from classmates and colleagues of vastly different backgrounds and experiences.

TMH Values

Integrity
We are honest and consistent in our words and actions by ensuring that every decision we make is morally and ethically sound.

Compassion
We are kind and authentic in each interaction by showing empathy and understanding of the unknown struggles of others, forgiving mistakes of others and embracing failures as an opportunity for improvement.

Accountability
We are personally responsible for providing exceptional service and care while holding others to the same standard.

Respect
We show concern for others while seeking to understand human differences by putting the organization’s needs above our own personal objectives and biases. 

Excellence
We strive to provide the highest level of quality and innovative care by continually seeking new and different ways to approach established processes, being open to change and celebrating the success of our colleagues.

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It’s not a secret that real estate demand is high, and inventory is low. Chris McCall, Senior Director of the Commercial Division of Counts Real Estate Group, is honest with his clients about the market while helping them acquire the commercial or industrial properties they require.

The eight agents in the Commercial Division at Counts Real Estate Group carefully monitor market trends. They are paired with clients based on customer requirements and the agent’s experience and areas of expertise.

Over the past three years, lease rates and prices have increased dramatically. McCall said that high demand along with supply chain issues has accelerated growth in construction costs. He noted in particular price increases for steel, concrete and petroleum-based construction materials.

McCall advises people to anticipate needs and start looking into commercial property as early as possible.

“If you cannot find the right location and the right building, buyers and tenants should consider building for their specific requirements,” McCall said. “Construction costs and land costs are at all-time highs, but so are lease rates and values.”

If you do elect to build, you’ll need to consider building codes and requirements. Distribution centers, for example, must have high ceilings and dock-height loading.

McCall said people embarking on searches for industrial property should be mindful of considerations including location, costs, construction quality, square footage, ceiling height, loading, power and yard space.

In a tough market, McCall has recently achieved some major sales. He worked with the owners of the former Bell Signs Building in Panama City to restore the building, which was heavily damaged by Hurricane Michael. The building was rebuilt, leased to two long-term credit tenants, then purchased by an investor for $7 million.

McCall and his partner Carl Allen purchased the former Century-Cobia Boats/Yamaha Motors plant in Bay Industrial Park. After a rebuild, they have leased two buildings to Conner Industries, and the remaining two buildings are under contract to a manufacturer who will create over 120 jobs.

“I’ve never thought of myself as a salesman,” McCall said. “I simply help people and companies solve their real estate needs, minimize real estate overhead and maximize returns for real estate investors. It all equates to clients being satisfied and knowing they got the best deal possible.”

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Chris McCall – Commercial Real Estate
Brokerage & Advisory Services
Counts Real Estate Group – Commercial Division
2104 Thomas Drive, Panama City Beach, FL  |  (850) 814-9889  CountsCommercial.com

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Michael Boblitz, chief executive officer of Tallahassee Orthopedic Clinic (TOC), continuously seeks ways to serve patients best. In doing so, he took to a map of Northwest Florida to track the patients’ points of origin. Tracing map lines quickly became blueprints for two new offices in Panama City and Panama City Beach.

TOC was opened in 1974 by Dr. Doug Henderson and Dr. Tom Haney, who saw the need for an orthopedic clinic specializing in sports medicine in a region with a wealth of high school and college sports teams. Today, between eight offices in Florida and Georgia, there are 32 physicians, 47 physician extenders and over 300 employees. 

The TOC Panama City office at 2011 Harrison Ave. will open in October of 2022. The TOC Panama City Beach clinic is estimated to be in operation by the fall of 2024 at the intersection of SR79 and Arnold Road. This will bring the total to ten clinics. 

The TOC Panama City Beach location is in conjunction with Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, Florida State University College of Medicine and The St. Joe Company. The 80,000-square-foot building will house TOC on the second floor with primary care on the first, cardiovascular on the third and surgical care on the fourth floor. 

“Panama City Beach is growing by leaps and bounds with a lot of promising development happening,” Boblitz said. “It seemed like a great opportunity to open two offices to serve not only Bay County but the other growing adjacent counties as well, such as Walton and Gulf, to fulfill our promise to keep people healthy, active and strong through prevention, preservation and wellness.”

These offices will replicate the Tallahassee office over the next few years, offering comprehensive care in the areas of joint reconstruction, sports medicine, regenerative medicines, diagnostic imaging, hand and wrist, foot and ankle, pain management, orthotics and prosthetics, shoulder and elbow, pediatric orthopedics, concussion, spine and back, trauma, physical therapy and more.

Boblitz is excited to welcome Eric A. Branch, MD, specializing in orthopedic sports medicine, alongside Ryan Price, MD, specializing in pediatric orthopedics, and Andy Borom, MD, specializing in foot and ankle surgery, to the TOC Panama City location, beginning services in October. 

With more doctors coming on board and an array of services, the idea is that patients receive total orthopedic care in one location rather than bouncing from office to office, which Boblitz refers to as the “ping-pong effect.”

Alongside convenience, the clinic has a clear vision to be a trusted partner to all who cross their doors by becoming a leading value-based organization that embraces cost reduction, quality and clinical experience.

“Access to all is very important to us,” Boblitz said. “We provide easy access to high-quality physicians who practice affordable medicine.” 

To achieve this goal, they’ve established themselves as the only orthopedic clinic within a wide radius that accepts all forms of insurance and Medicaid, along with instant access through the TOC Orthopedic Urgent Care Clinic, referred to as “TOC Now.” Further, the TOC online scheduling service allows the community to avoid antagonizing phone calls by easily scheduling an appointment with any provider of choice, 24 hours a day, from a mobile and desktop device (teamtoc.com). “Our $400 MRI, for example, saves patients with high deductible insurance plans about $1,600 (or more),” Boblitz said.

Through the clinic’s sports medicine outreach program, they serve over 42 Big Bend schools and are the official team physicians of Florida State University, Florida A&M University and Tallahassee Community College.

In turn, the TOC Foundation was created as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) to raise funds through charitable gifts, grant writing and fundraising events to provide for education, research and community service projects that involve, health, wellness, prevention and rehabilitation of sports injuries.

An additional unique program is the Worker’s Compensation Program, which 18 of the surgeons participate in to assist with timely case management and prompt care.

“We’ve provided quality care to the 850 region for many years, but this is just the start of the legacy we intend to leave in Panama City and Panama City Beach when it comes to orthopedic care,” Boblitz said.

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TOC Panama City Office
2011 Harrison Ave., Panama City, FL  |  (850) 691-4188  |  TEAMTOC.com

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A retired two-star general, Mark McQueen started work as the city manager in Panama City less than three weeks before Hurricane Michael stormed ashore, destroying trees, homes, businesses and public and private infrastructure.

In the storm’s aftermath, he convened meetings populated by department directors whose names he hadn’t yet learned.

In September, as part of a Seaside Institute symposium, “Transforming Communities Through New Urbanism After a Natural Disaster,” McQueen described the scope of the mess created by Michael and Panama City’s plans to build back “better,

bigger and stronger” in response to it.

Then, he entertained a few questions.

“What can we do to help people like you?” came a question from the back row, asked by a woman who identified herself as an Air Force veteran.

“Pray,” McQueen said, and then he paused, visibly emotional, before resuming.

“People in Panama City are hurting,” he said. “They need a new hope.”

To invest the city’s estimated 26,000 residents — Panama City’s pre-storm population was 36,000 — with that hope, McQueen plans to employ “policy, programs, processes and procedures in ways that will enable the city to realize its potential.”

If that sounds like military-speak, it is. McQueen brought no municipal background to his job as city manager, but he almost surely has had more experience rebuilding cities than any of the other 80 individuals who applied for the position he

now holds.

For example, as the commanding general of the 108th Training Command headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, McQueen directed approximately 7,000 soldiers whose assignments included rebuilding Baghdad.

About post-storm Panama City, McQueen remarked, “It was Baghdad with trees. I’ve learned a lot about trees lately.”

He noted that countless pine trees in and around Panama City were snapped at a height about 20 feet above the ground. That, he has learned, was the level to which sap in the trees had fallen as they began to prepare for winter dormancy. Today, standing trees are dying in big numbers because their systems for distributing water and nutrients were irreparably damaged by the storm.

Panama City’s “long-term planning project,” McQueen said, comprises four fundamental components and includes concepts embraced by new urbanists:

• Clearly defined “lines of effort,” including providing for safety and security, shoring up vital infrastructure, restoring and growing the city’s economy and enhancing quality of life.
• A team approach, driven by citizen input.
• A commitment to 10 cornerstone ideas: waterfront access, downtown activity, downtown living, safety and security, sustainable building, resilient infrastructure, connections, placemaking, gathering spaces, updated standards.
• Uptown land development and transportation improvements, including the reconfiguring of “Malfunction Junction,” the confluence of U.S. 231, U.S. 98 and Harrison Avenue.

Victor Dover, an urban designer and the principal lead with the Miami planning firm of Dover, Kohl & Partners, is leading a team of teams all working on the Panama City project and representing specialties ranging from transportation to debris

removal. He was the symposium’s opening speaker.

In response to disruptions such as natural disasters, Dover said, “designers put lines on paper. We try to lend order to the chaos. Someone has an idea, and we draw a picture and ask them if it is what they had in mind.”

That is, they lead by design.

Dover said he has learned to respect the reality that people don’t like to be told what to do. And, he said, “everything does not have to be figured out in advance,” emphasizing that people are “addicted to choice.”

“Chevrolet stole a lot of market share from Ford when it introduced cars in colors other than black,” he pointed out.

Disasters need not precede transformative work, he said, but they help by bringing people together and making it easier to achieve consensus, or at least consent.

McQueen said that surveys have established that 78-90 percent of Panama City residents approve of the approach to the recovery project.

He spoke with appreciation to the role played by first responders in the immediate wake of the storm and saluted utilities workers for restoring systems as quickly as they did.

McQueen said that 124 of the city’s 127 lift stations were knocked out by Michael and untreated sewage flooded streets and flowed into St. Andrew Bay.

He added that the storm exacerbated problems that had been neglected for too long, citing lift stations that were built in the 1950s and the clay pipes that make up much of the city’s wastewater system.

Dover said Panama City’s downtown had been decaying for decades before the storm, owing to factors including the construction of a shopping mall and the spurning by people of walking in favor of “happy motoring.”

He and others involved in the Panama City project, including transportation planner Richard A. Hall, hope to influence the state to rework projects designed to speed traffic to Panama City Beach in ways that may lead people to discover downtown.      

Businessman, consultant and visionary Quint Studer quoted Harvard Business School professor John Kotter in telling symposium participants that “70 percent of failure results from a lack of urgency” or what Studer called the absence of a “burning platform.”

In Pensacola, where Studer has led downtown revitalization efforts, that platform was the realization that the city was becoming increasingly unable to retain talent.

“Young people,” he said, “want three things: affordability, opportunity and a vibrant downtown.”

In Panama City, where some 5,000 children are homeless, the wish is more elemental, for now.

But, for McQueen, the Great Disrupter of Oct. 10, 2018, was many things, including an invitation to move forward by doing things differently.

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got,” he said.

 

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Renderings courtesy of Dover, Kohl & Partners