 |
| The $3.2 million, 199-slip Port St. Joe Marina opened July 24 with town leaders hoping it will help to revitalize the Florida Panhandle community. In the background is the paper plant that closed in 1998 at a cost of 550 jobs. |
| store, head pumpout, restroom and laundry. The controlling depth of the channel leading to the marina is 12 feet; the marina's average depth is 6 feet, 5 inches. Slips accommodate craft 20-100 feet. The only deep-water marina along the 90-mile stretch of Florida Coast between Apalachicola and Panama City, it is a first step in transforming Port St. Joe from an industrial city to one based more on tourism and recreation, says Bruce Blomgren, president of Brandy Marina in Sarasota, which manages the marina for the St. Joe Col Brandy Marine this summer also took over management of Club Corp.'s two marinas and ferry fleet at the luxury Daufuski Island Club and Resort off Hilton Head, S.C. The St Joe Co. Operates the city-ownerd marina under a lease the extends up to 40 years with renewals and includes a purchase option. Port St. Joe has the history and natural resources to build on, Blomgren says. The town was once a contender to be Florida's capital and was the site of the state's constitutional convention. "Port St. Joe is to Florida what Philadelphia is to the United States," he says. St. Joseph Bay, ranekd the state's most pristine water body, yields sea trout, redfish, flounder and scallops, and the Gulf is notable for its grouper, snapper and mahi-mahi. " The waters are beautiful, just beautiful," Blomgren says. |
"You just have to see the bay to believe it - crystal clear. The sea grass is great. The fishing is great," agrees James Rester, president of Arvida/West Florida, St. Joe's community development arm. He says the waters are so clean that the chances of securing permits to build another marina on the bay are slim. "It needs to be protected," he says. The beach at Cape San Blas across St. Joseph Bay is ranked among the nation's prettiest, another draw to what Rester expects will be a growing number of second-home or retirement communities on St. Joe lands during the next 20 years. "We're here for the long term," he says. "We've got a lot of land." Pate sees the marina as a first step in building those communities. "We just hope to reap some of the benefits," he says. |
