The Sports Park and Stadium Complex, and future publicly owned and operated venues designed to attract incremental visitation to Panama City Beach, will need to be financed in order to be constructed.  The only revenues that will ever be used to support that financing will be tourist development taxes collected on Panama City Beach (except the 3d cent set aside for beach renourishment).  The complex will be constructed on land St Joe has agreed to donate for this purpose and a school.   This is the project that was created last March in the Land Transfer Agreement signed by the CVB, the County, the School Board, the Florida DOT and St. Joe.  That agreement provides 1) that the County will own the land and the complex, and 2) that the CVB will build the entrance road and park complex on behalf of the County, and 3) that the CVB as an instrumentality of the County for tourism promotion will lease the park complex from the County for nominal rent in order to publicly operate and promote it to bring visitors to Bay County.  The CVB/TDC has for a number of years been saving money from the annual revenue and has on hand approximately $5.0 million to apply a down payment on the construction of the complex.  The roughly estimated cost of the complex is $30,000,000. The CVB has received 60% plans and specifications for construction, with 95% of the plans and specifications due on December 16th.  The CVB and Anchor CEI are currently value engineering those plans to more closely estimate the cost of Phase I.

The attached Master Bond Resolution, unanimously recommended by the full TDC on November 8 last, initiates the financing process and authorizes the validation of the bonds in court, which is recommended by bond counsel.   No bonds can be sold solely under this resolution.  After validation, the TDC will consider and recommend to the Board a second resolution which will contain the financial terms of the bonds needed to finance the balance of the cost of constructing, opening and beginning to operate the complex.  That second resolution will authorize the sale of the bonds.  The earliest that could occur will be approximately three months from today.  The Master Resolution authorizes the validation of more bonds than will be needed to construct the sports park and stadium complex which may, if needed, be issued in the future to expand the complex or build another project; therefore, the total validation will be $50 million. The CVB recently commissioned a study which confirms that an indoor, special event center or auditorium is not only feasible but will also attract additional tourists to Bay County.  The Master Resolution specifically mentions this project as well.