Powell Adams Walmart is Official

In a meeting this morning with Mel Leonard, the Planning Director for Panama City Beach, it was confirmed that a new Walmart coming is official. The location will be at the corner of Powell Adams Road and Panama City Beach Parkway (Back Beach Road) and the store size will be 156,000 square feet, roughly 70% the size of the existing Panama City Beach Walmart Supercenter.

At this point, the type of store this will be is just speculation. Although it has been said that this will be a higher-end store that would better compete with Target than the current Super Center.

Recently a new Walmart store was opened on the west end of South Walton County. I personally suspect the new Panama City Beach store would be similar to this one.

Improvements to Powell Adams Road

In order to get approval for construction of a new place of business this size, an extensive traffic study had to be completed. As a result of the traffic study, Walmart is required to pay for the infrastructure improvements that are needed in order for this area to handle the increased load that will come.

Improvements include:

Powell Adams Road widened to 4 lanes with center turn lane (5 lanes total)
Widening to be taken 1700 feet down Powell Adams from PCB Pkwy
PCB Pkwy and Powell Adams Road intersection to be signalized
Three PCB Pkwy entrance points into plaza

CRA-grade improvements to Powell Adams

The part where Panama City Beach (and us as residents) come out on top is that Walmart has agreed to “over-improve” Powell Adams Road to the same standard as R Jackson Blvd and Churchwell Road.

Improvements that come with this “over-improvement” include:

Sidewalks
Curbs
Underground utilities (a huge added bonus)
Landscaping
Street lights

The requirement for construction doesn’t include many of these aesthetic improvements, but the city has agreed to reimburse Walmart up to $790k for adding those improvements in their infrastructure construction.

The CRA would have done this eventually, and will finish off Powell Adams Road on down the road, but for now, we’ll get an upgraded roadway for a fraction of the cost it would normally be.

Development timeline

At this point, a concrete start date on construction has not been set, but officials are optimistic (and on target for) a construction start date of spring of 2012 with a projected open date of spring 2013.

Keep the comments coming, they’re read

Past articles on this subject have resulted in a very lively discussion. I can assure you that our local officials read PCBDaily and read the comments. Keep ’em coming.

Dick’s Last Resort Replaces Guy Harvey’s in Pier Park

There has been quite a bit of commotion at Pier Park this week. Monday, Guy Harvey’s Island Grill closed down and it was announced that Dick’s Last Resort was coming in this off-season. Guy Harvey’s has been a tenant almost since the beginning, located at the corner of S Pier Park Drive and Front Beach Road next to Reggae J’s. Their menu consisted of fresh gulf seafood short of a few select species that Harvey deemed depleted. The entrance was a gift shop that hosted shirts, art, belts, and many other varieties of schwag.

I’m not even going to get into speculation as to what happened.

Dick’s Last Resort

Dick’s last resort is known for its “outrageous, surly and energetic wait staff and tasty comfort food.” They have locations in Nashville, Gatlinburg, Myrtle Beach, Dallas, Baltimore, San Antonio, San Diego, Chicago, Boston and Vegas. And looking at that location lineup, that puts Panama City Beach up there with the big dogs.

“At Dick’s Last Resort, we’re known for having a good time, but we’re very selective about where we do business,” said CEO Ted Moats. “Pier Park and Panama City Beach are a natural fit for the fun, energetic atmosphere we offer, and we are very excited to open our doors and meet the local community and visitors.”

“Dick’s Last Resort is a perfect fit for the Panama City Beach market,” said Felicia Cook, Pier Park’s Director of Marketing & Business Development. “With so many of their locations open in top tier tourist destinations, we’re thrilled that they’ve decided to open in Pier Park.”

Dick’s should open sometime this winter.

Walmart to Pay for Expanded Powell Adams Road

Although final plans or a formal commitment for a new Walmart has not been made, an agreement between the Panama City Beach CRA and Walmart has been made for them to pay for road improvements.

The Panama City Beach CRA, or Community Redevelopment Area is a mechanism by which our local roads and infrastructure are being improved over time to look better, be more beautiful and to better handle increased load and demand. Past CRA projects include the Churchwell road improvements, R Jackson Blvd improvements and the currently ongoing South Thomas Drive improvements.

The Powell Adams improvements include all the treatments you’d find in a normal CRA project, including underground utilities, sidewalks, street lights and landscaping. In addition, of course, the road way will be widened to four lanes. The improvements are projected to be around $2 million.

The CRA had existing plans to treat Powell Adams road, but it was several projects away – the CRA is working it’s way west from it’s current development location. This agreement with Walmart stipulates that they will pay for the improvements and the CRA will reimburse them at a later date. By doing the improvements this way, the City is expected to save almost $500k.

There is no expected start date just yet, but you can expect more information on this in the coming weeks from us.

This topic has created a very lively discussion on our other post, how do you feel about this improvement now?

City Moving Forward with Aaron Bessant Park Improvements [Amphitheater]

Looks like the improvements we were discussing for Aaron Bessant Park are, indeed, coming. Last week in a city council meeting, an “inter-local” agreement with Bay County was agreed upon to allow the City of Panama City Beach to take the lead on planning and development of this project. Although two of the council members were adamantly opposed to the improvements, there was still an affirmative majority vote – 3 to 2.

All the improvements could include:

60′x40′ amphitheater with permanent roof and walls suitable for theatrical productions, orchestral performances and musical events
Expanded amphitheater lawn area (see diagram below
Vegetative buffers around the parameter to prevent the need for temporary fencing
The Festival Lawn (the sandy area that’s used as overflow and vedor parking behind the park) will be improved to the quality of Frank Brown Park’s festival area
This area will support parking, play fields, and will have sod and irrigation
Additional bathroom facilities

At this point, the exact plans have not been decided upon. The structure in a previous post is just a proposed idea. The agreement that came to pass in the city council meeting just grants the City the ability to spearhead the planning of the new project.

The next step will bring plans and workshops before the final proposal and approval process.

City Considers Closure of Portion of Pier Park Drive

The City of Panama City Beach is considering closing two blocks of the “main drag” in Pier Park in an effort to make it more pedestrian friendly. The blocks proposed to close are from the round-about by the Grand to the intersection that hosts Hofbrau Beer Garden and Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge. Traffic would still be able to pull into Pier Park from Front Beach Road, but they’d have to turn right or left at Hofbrau or Tootsies. Same with the round-about – visitors would still be able to circumnavigate it, the Pier Park Drive South turnoff would just be blocked off.

These two blocks are the same two blocks that are often closed for special events, such as the July 4th Star Spangled Spectacular and the New Year’s Eve Beach Ball Drop, the latter typcially closing the roads all the way to Front Beach Road.

Closure during summer months.

Panama City Beach Police Chief Robert Harding is proposing the closure occur one of two ways, both to begin from Memorial Day and end after Labor Day each year.

Close the two blocks on Friday, Saturday and Sunday
Close the two blocks 7 days a week during that entire summer period

Benefits of the closure.

Currently there is already some disconnect as to the nature of the southern portion of Pier Park Drive. During almost any summer day, there is so much foot traffic, mixed with cars, it’s actually quite a hazard. There are designated walk-across areas, but with all the activity, it’s not uncommon for pedestrians to cross where they want. Safety is a concern, and a clear benefit to the closure.

In addition to safety, the closure would allow more room for Pier Park visitors to freely move about from shop to shop during a time when there are literally tens of thousands coming through each day. It would open the venue up dramatically.

Traffic ingress and egress would be minimally impacted as routes behind the shop’s buildings would still be accessible, through the parking areas.

What do you think?

What are your thoughts on this potential traffic road closure? Do you think it would help pedestrian safety? Do you think it would enhance Pier Park?

IMAX Theater Open in Pier Park

With the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, The Grand Theatre in Pier Park opened their IMAX screen, which has been in the works for a couple months. If you’ve not seen a movie in IMAX, you have to try it – it truly takes you into the movie.

Dubbed, “the world’s most immersive movie experience,” IMAX touts 12,000 watts of digital surround sound, crystal clear images, the world’s largest movie screens. This sounds fascinating and fun, but how does it do this?

How IMAX works.

IMAX combines a huge screen with a state-of-the-art projection system and a very advanced sound system. The typical IMAX screen is 52′ x 72′ – which is the size of The Grand’s. In addition to the huge size, the screen has a curvature to it that helps to “bring the viewer into the movie.” What really makes the magic happen is the two projectors that push the imagery onto the screen and the rumbling sound that you feel in your gut. The projector uses xenon short-arc lamps that fire a light so bright, the video on the screen is crisp and clear. The sound system is a complex array of surround sound speakers that offers a crystal clear listening experience and seat-shaking bass. You hear every crackle, pop, and whisper with complete accuracy.

What’s showing and the price.

Currently Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is playing IMAX at the Grand. And let me tell you, it’s simply amazing. They only have one IMAX theater, so only one feature film will be playing at a time. Harry Potter is expected to play until August 4th at which point Sector 7: An IMAX 3D Experience is expected to play until the 9th when Cowboy’s Vs. Aliens comes out.

The ticket price is as follows:

$12 on Tuesdays
$12.50 for matinee
Evenings are $15.25 for adults and $12.50 for kids

At this time, an additional IMAX theater is not being planed for for The Grand, but there is another theater room that would be suitable for the upgrade, should the demand arise.

Have you been to our IMAX or another one? What were your thoughts on it?

Borders at Pier Park to Close

Borders announced this week they’ll be closing all 399 of their stores, including their Panama City Beach store in Pier Park. At their peak, they had over 1200 stores, including their Walden Books chain, but over the years, they’ve slowly worked their way down. In February, when they filed for bankruptcy, they had just under 650 stores.

Currently Borders employs just under 11,000 Americans, all of which will be laid off when the shutting down of Border’s is final.

The Pier Park store is expecting to begin liquidation on Friday of this week, but they expect to be around until the end of September, reported Amy Hernandez, manager. “We’ll know more about our closing timeline as we move through liquidation,” said Hernandez, “we employ 30 locals and appreciate all the community support we’ve received.”

Amid online competition and digital book sales, the big-box book store concept is struggling. Borders was second in size only to Barnes and Noble.

TDC Organizes 3 Large Fall Wknd Concert Events

Every year, about the second week in August, school starts back, rent-rates drop and the beach slows down. For some, it’s a welcome change, but for others, it’s the ‘so-long’ of the bustle of a busy season.

For years, local tourism officials have dreamed of that mythical unicorn – the annual tourism season – and fall events have always helped extend that season just a bit to keep the life-giving tourism dollar flowing. This year we have some nice surprises amongst the great fall weather to keep bringing people to our beaches.

Weekend events, famous people and music.

The Tourist Development Council (TDC) has put together a very interesting sequence of events to drive fall tourism. They’ve orchestrated three weekend events that range from a Christian Music Festival to a weekend-long pirate’s festival. They’ve structured the whole series very interestingly. The only way to get tickets to any of the events initially is by booking through one of the TDC accommodation partners. Any accommodation provider that has a valid tourism tax account has access to this. On all the events, around two weeks prior to the event, any remaining tickets will be available to the general public.

Fun Never Sets Christian Music Fest

Located at Aaron Bessant
August 26th (Friday) – Matthew West, Petra, Third Day (headliner) – doors open at 5 pm
August 27th (Saturday) – Jamie Grace, Family Force Five, Peter Furler (formerly of the News Boys), Switchfoot, Toby Mac (headliner) – doors open at 2 pm
August 28th – Worship service, no time yet, but will be at Aaron Bessant Park

Fun Never Sets Country Music Fest

Located at Frank Brown Park
September 23 – Justin Moore, Randy Rogers Band, Miranda Lambert (headliner) – doors open at 5:30 pm
September 24 – Opening acts yet to be named, Jason Aldean (headliner) – doors open at 2 pm

Fun Never Sets Explorer of the High Seas Fest

Event will be from October 7th – 9th at Aaron Bessant Park
Miranda Cosgrove (iCarly fame) in concert on the 9th at 2 pm
Krewe of Dominique Youx will host a pirate parade
There will be a Beach Ball Drop
Dueling fireworks show between County and Russell Fields Pier
Pirate Ships will be in the Gulf
Dubbed a wonderful family and kids festival weekend
More details will be available on this soon

Video promoting the fall.

New Amphitheater coming to Aaron Bessant Park

Improvements to Aaron Bessant park have been in the works for a few months. In fact, talks of improvements have been going on for years, but money has always been a challenge. This year, BP money in excess of $1 million, will help make park improvements a reality, and last week the Panama City Beach City Council approved the improvements.

Improvements include a new, larger amphitheater.

The new improvements will be a welcome addition to a heavily used facility. Currently they have several large events there each year that requires spending 10’s of thousands of dollars on erected staging and equipment. The new facility will have a large covered stage, integrated electrical and a solid infrastructure to host events with a capacity of 10,000.

All the improvements include:

60’x40′ amphitheater with permanent roof and walls suitable for theatrical productions, orchestral performances and musical events
Expanded amphitheater lawn area (see diagram below
Vegetative buffers around the parameter to prevent the need for temporary fencing
The Festival Lawn (the sandy area that’s used as overflow and vedor parking behind the park) will be improved to the quality of Frank Brown Park’s festival area
This area will support parking, play fields, and will have sod and irrigation
Additional bathroom facilities

Renderings, conceptual and imagery

The teal boundary area is the existing sidewalk paths around the amphitheater area. The purple lines indicate the other sidewalk areas and paths that lead around the park. The black lines will be the new amphitheater lawn area.

This is a conceptual of what the amphitheater could look like. The final product will have a beachy feel and should be consisten with the look and feel of neighboring Pier Park. The stage area could be approximately 60 feet across and 40 feet deep offering 2,400 square feet of space. There will be permanent walls and roof.

This is an example of another amphitheater. Ours could look similar.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you think this will bring more traffic problems to this area? Or do you think the improvements will be better for the community as a whole?

Free 7 night vacation at Splash – 2 bedroom

Have you heard of Splash Resort? Having spent tons of time there, and having had handfuls of friends that’ve owned there, I can tell you it’s one of the best all around resorts in Panama City Beach.

What makes it so great.

There’s an onsite waterpark
They have a lazy river with floats provided
They have dive-in movies all summer long
The arcade is one of the largest resort arcades I’ve seen – quite possibly the largest in Panama City Beach
The condos are all large and most of them have bunks
There is an onsite mini grocer and beach shop (apparel, toys, sunscreen, etc.)
The beach there is fantastic
It’s on the quiet end of the beach (west end)

Seriously, I really could go on for an additional 10 bullets, at least. Can you tell this is one of my favs?

Sterling Resorts is the onsite property management company and they’re running a huge promotion right now where they’re giving away a free 7 night vacation in one of their premiere two bedroom condos.

How to enter.

Getting signed up is super easy, all you have to do is go to their Facebook page, click on the tab on the left labeled “Win Free Vacation” and fill out the form. If you haven’t Liked the page, you’ll have to in order to see the form.

Click here to visit their Facebook page.

That’s it! Good luck!

Disclaimer: This vacation promotion is being administered by CYber SYtes, which is the owner of PCBDaily.com.