Oct. 12--PANAMA CITY, Fla. -- Two things usually are true with a planned highway: It will be expensive, and it will take a while to build.

Such is the case with Gulf Coast Parkway, a proposed state road that would connect U.S. 231 north of Panama City to U.S. 98 east of Mexico Beach, providing a bypass of the Tyndall Air Force Base.

The price, indeed, is costly: Estimates for a two-lane version hover around $200 million, while a four-lane road could cost $550 million.

And while project talks began about five years ago, it could be another five or more before ground is broken.

The glacially moving creation process continues this week with a meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Springfield Community Center and another Oct. 20 in Port St. Joe.

A dozen different routes, or corridors, have been trimmed to five, and the state Department of Transportation will hold information sessions and solicit public opinion on the preferred path the road will take.

A search of property records in southeastern Bay County and western Gulf County finds two names owning a majority of the land: The St. Joe Co. and Bear Creek Timber LLC. Both stand to see that land's property value soar if the new road becomes a reality.

"There's no question a new road would enhance property values all around it," said Tom Neubauer, owner of the Neubauer ERA real estate firm in Panama City. Neubauer cautioned, however, that those landowners better be in it for the long haul, because it could be some time before gains are realized.

"Utilities, development , that would take a long time," he said. "I don't think you'll have any immediate realization of value, but you have the long-term potential for residential growth, and then retail and commercial growth."

Initial push

The initial push for the parkway, according to FDOT spokesman Tommie Speights, came from Opportunity Florida, a Northwest Florida tourist development organization. Opportunity Florida's Web site displays an advertisement for St. Joe Co., a "featured sponsor."

The parkway, according to the road's official Web site, gulfcoastparkway.com, would "provide what is essentially a missing link in the regional transportation network and would stimulate economies within the region, enhance regional mobility and hurricane evacuation, increase Tyndall Air Force Base security and relieve traffic congestion."

The five remaining possible corridors run from northwest to southeast. They all overlap somewhere; alternative 19 is the top half of 14 and the bottom half of 17 with a north-to-south connection.