GOAL! A Soccer Team to Call PCB Home

Recently Panama City gained a semi-pro basketball team, the Panama City Dream. Now it’s time for Panama City Beach to gain a highly-competitive soccer team, the Panama City Beach Pirates. The Pirates joined the United Soccer League in November of 2011 as one of 73 Premier Development League teams. The PDL has nine divisions throughout the United States, Canada, and Bermuda.

The PCB Pirates will play a total of 16 games over the summer months against teams throughout Florida and Mississippi, with 8 of those games being played at home in Gavlak Stadium. The Pirates season will run from May to July. They will also be holding camps, clinics, tournaments, and special events so that players of all ages will have opportunities to be involved as well.

The managing owners for the PCB Pirates are Dr. Eehab Kenawy, Jill Holt, and Amy Dalton. The coach will be Greg DeVito, a formal PDL player, and current regional college prep coach. DeVito is also a current Olympic development coach for the state of Florida.

Welcome to Panama City Beach, Pirates and PDL!

What do you want to hear about?

Jason Koertge has an awesome vacation rental business in Panama City Beach that focuses on remarkable properties around the Pier Park area. They range from 1 to 3 bedrooms, they’re clean, and amazing. He can be found lurat PCBLP.com.

Ok, so I’ve worked out a deal with the owners of PCBDaily to be a regular contributor again, and I have some ideas on what to write about. But, I want to hear from you what you’d like for us to report on.

There are a number of things going on up and down the beach. Here is what I’m planning on writing about in the next couple weeks.

State of the real estate market
2012 tourism predictions
Update on the Aaron Bessant Park improvements
Update on the Thomas Drive CRA construction
How to rent your condo all by yourself
Revise the Pier Park list of stores
Revise the Pier Park list of restaurants
An article on a new residential development

These are some of the things I’m planning on writing about. What are some of the things you’d like to see? Let us know in the comments below.

Spring Breaker’s Scavenger Hunt To Do Good

Spring Break is around the corner and the Panama City Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau is giving spring breaker’s a chance to spend their week doing good! Visitor’s who register online before February 3rd, 2012 will have the opportunity to spend the week participating in a scavenger hunt around PCB. Teams will collect special Panama City Beach mementos at specific stops along the hunt.How is that doing good you ask? The winner will have a $10,000 donation made to a charity of their choice or for their organization.

Teams that are selected to participate in the scavenger hunt will participate in a weekly competition, where the winner of all four top teams being compared at the end. The top team will win $10,000 and two runners-up will win $2,500 each.

Good luck to teams hoping to participate!

Pier Park Target Adding Grocery Ahead of Walmart

With all the talk of Walmart coming into the area, it’s spurred even more activity. Although Target’s making no claims of “keeping up with the Jones,” or in this case, “Walmart”, their push to add an expanded grocery section is certainly a plan to keep them ahead. The Walmart that is being installed adjacent to Target, right across Powell Adams Road, is rumored to have a significant grocery area including produce and meats – although nothing official has been announced.

What we can expect at Target.

Target already has a pretty good grocery section. It is certainly not Publix (or a Walmart Supercenter for that matter), but our family’s spontaneous needs can typically be met there. They have milk, eggs, deli meats, some frozen foods, ice cream, cereal, chips, coffee, bread and tons of other essentials, and it’s all very fairly priced. Shoot, we often do our grocery shopping there.

With the reorganization they’re adding fresh produce and meats and expanding on the other item types they already carry. This will make them more of a one-stop shop and should bring in more grocery shoppers. If it’s decent produce, it’ll draw our family in, along with countless others.

Target is also getting remodeled.

Just less than 5 years after opening, they’re giving the inside a significant overhaul. You may have noticed the circus-tent-looking structure to the side of the building, next to the retired garden center – that’s the staging area for the work being done.

Expect new paint inside, new end cap designs, new isle layouts, isle shifts and a fresh new look.

When it’ll be complete.

Timing is everything right? The new Walmart hasn’t even broke ground yet, much less begun moving dirt. But the remodeled Target, groceries, and produce should be complete by mid-March. Employees are expecting things to be ready for spring break. This is well suited for what is projected to be, again, the busiest rental season ever. As we just learned, last year broke records, if 2012 is better, then we’ll break more records.

What are your thoughts on the new Target? Do you think it’ll compete with whatever Walmart puts in? Would you shop there?

Eating Gluten-Free In Panama City Beach

Gaining in publicity is the gluten-free diet, a way to deal with celiac disease or wheat allergies. Thankfully, as this diet gains in publicity, restaurants are responding with gluten-free menu options. Where can you eat in Panama City Beach if you are participating in this diet be it medically or voluntarily?

Bonefish Grill- Hutchison Boulevard

Offering an extensive menu for those on gluten-free diets, Bonefish Grill even offers a choice of desserts! The gluten-free menu is available online. When dining at Bonefish Gril, don’t forget to ask for a separate gluten-free menu as well as letting your waiter know about your dietary restrictions.

Carrabba’s- Panama City Beach Parkway

This Italian restaurant has a special menu for those on a gluten-free diet, available online for viewing. The menu offers several appetizers as well as main courses. There is an extensive list of fish sauces available for those with a gluten-free diet.

Olive Garden- Pier Park

Olive Garden offers a variety of different menu options for those with special dietary needs concerning the gluten in many foods. However, they do not guarantee that ingredients are safe from contamination. They even offer a children’s dish for those growing up with this restriction. Please see their gluten-free menu online.

Outback Steakhouse- West 23rd Street (Over the bridge)

Offering drinks, salads, desserts, kids meals, and main courses in gluten-free options, Outback has made the best of this dietary restriction. The menu is available online for you to read before you visit. The menu makes it easy for those with food allergies to socialize with others while eating out!

Pineapple Willy’s- Thomas Drive

While they don’t have a specific gluten-free menu, they do have several items they could make gluten-free. They said “Pretty much anything that we can grill that doesn’t have breading would be Gluten Free, such as chicken, grouper, mahi-mahi, shrimp, prime rib, and also any of our salads (without croutons).” If you are gluten-free and wanting one of these items to be made, please let them know in advance that you are gluten-free and wish your meal to be as well.

Red Brick Pizza- Pier Park

Red Brick, not only offers a gluten-free menu option, but also trains their employees on the seriousness of keeping it free from contamination. Made with fresh ingredients, heart healthy olive oil, and with less sodium, calories, and carbs than ordinary pizzas these gourmet pizzas range from 280 to 450 calories. The process of making these gluten-free pizzas has been reviewed and accepted by the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness and Celiac Disease Foundation. RedBrick even donates a portion of these pizza sales to the CDF’s Team Gluten-Free to send children with severe wheat intolerance to summer camps. (The picture above is a Red Brick gluten-free pizza)

Pier Park North – List of Stores NOT Coming, and Details About the Development

There’s been tons of buzz about what’s happening and what’s not happening at Pier Park North. There has been plenty of speculation about what it is, who’s doing it, why and how. To add, there have been articles that have published a list of stores coming, then later changed to report that they were prospective stores. Of course, all this adds to the buzz that is currently surrounding that whole area. We’ve talked about Aaron Bessant Park improvements, a new Walmart and a Target expansion all in this little area.

So let’s talk about the facts, what we know and leave what we don’t know to another article where we can dream.

For clarification purposes, we’ll refer to the portion of Pier Park that is already developed as Pier Park South. This is just to avoid confusion, it’s not actually called Pier Park South.

Who’s developing the mall.

Simon Property Group developed Pier Park South. They bought the land from St. Joe and have right to use the name Pier Park – although the name is still owned by St. Joe; trademarked, really. The Pier Park brand has been used to identify that area for many years.

Pier Park North is being dubbed such because of that control St. Joe has with the brand. They are leasing (or selling) the land to mall developer Glimcher. Glimcher is a publicly traded company that has 24 mall developments in 15 states.

They have full-size conventional malls, strip malls and outlet malls and they are considered a genuine competitor to Simon Property Group.

But with this development, I don’t think it’s necessarily about the competition, but rather the growth in shopping options.

Size, shape and location.

The published square footage that will be developed is 396,000, which is 36% the size of the Pier Park we know on the south side of Panama City Beach Parkway. This is plenty large enough to have several “anchor” stores intertwined with a variety of smaller shops.

One of the elements that sets Pier Park South apart from conventional outdoor malls is the way it was designed. There are nooks, crannies and all sorts of other architectural individualities that really make it a fun place just to walk around. There are alcoves, seating areas, large open areas for the kids to run and a variety of recreation areas. These characteristics are what make Pier Park South a destination to not just shop, but to hang out.

Of course, this was done intentionally – people that hang out where stuff is sold tend to buy stuff.

From the plans, Pier Park North will not be this way. The facade will be straight and flat. There will not be tiered levels or shops that come out or are set back from others. From a retail development optimization perspective, this is ideal. This development method maximized square footage and ensures equal visibility to all stores. However, this design will lack the character of Pier Park South.

Although no artistic renderings have been released, Panama City Beach City Planners are expecting the actual look to be consistent with Pier Park South: bright colors, hardy board plank siding, and some accent towers (think of the tower at Five Guys).

The location of the development will be due north of Pier Park South, will have frontage right on the Parkway and will back right up to a conservation area that will serve as a buffer zone between it and Palmetto Trace.

Pier Park North will have three points of entry from Back Beach Road and one point of entry from Pier Park Drive N.

About the stores that are coming.

The funny thing about submitting plans to the local planning authority is that one typically includes a list of potential stores to give the planners an idea of the size and type of stores that would or could come. Typically the store logos on the plans are just for concept and don’t usually indicate any potential lease negotiations.

When Pier Park South was in the planning stages, I personally saw all sorts of names being thrown around. I saw plans with Best Buy, Belks and a variety of others that never were necessarily intended to be tenants. I was told over and over that I could not release these names because they were not necessarily being announced as potential tenants, they were just on the plans as examples.

The images of the plans here include logos, such as this. However, none of these have been announced by the developer as signed lease holders. In fact, we’re way too early in the game to even have a hint as to who would be coming to Pier Park North. Typically mall developers won’t officially start releasing names until a predetermined amount of time before they’ll be open.

Here is a list of stores that have been speculated on, which some may come, but none have been officially endorsed as actually signing a lease. Estimates based on the plans indicate there will be 20 to 40 stores with 7 to 15 anchor stores.

Dick’s Sporting Goods
Bed Bath & Beyond
Michaels
Fresh Market
Pier 1 Imports
Kirklands
Ross Dress for Less
Shoe Carnival
Petco
Toys R Us
Rooms to Go
Men’s Warehouse
VisionWorks
Osaka’s
Cheddars

Images of the plans

This is an overview of the project.

From here you can see how the proximity of the development to the residential area.

As you can see, there are logos for retail shops. This is in no way intended to document that these brands are actually coming to the development.

Again, more brand logos. This is just to give you an idea of the type, size and location of stores like this.

This image gives us some hope of the tower-like structures that are found in the existing Pier Park development.

When the mall development will be open for business.

As of right now, the timeline plans indicate that construction will begin in March of this year with stores to be opening approximately one year later. Of course, timelines are meant to slip and no dirt has been moved as of yet. Although survey crew have been spotted on the property.

Location as it relates to Palmetto Trace.

What has seemed like q quiet community in the past, Palmetto Trace residents are in an uproar about this new development. They’ve recently been very vocal about the Aaron Bessant Park improvements and they aren’t happy about a new mall development being erected so close to their homes.

Looking at the size of the buffer zone, it’s likely that many of the homes will be able to see the back of the mall development through some conservation area. There is a pretty good distance between the back of the mall development and the homes, but also a large area of it is water, which doesn’t help much to buffer sound.

What are your thoughts on this new development? Do you think it will help the community grow? Do you think it’s a smart way to grow? If you’re a Palmetto Trace resident, what are your thoughts on this?

4th Annual Stars and Guitars

January 21st, 2011 the Gulf Coast Children’s Advocacy Center, a local non-profit, will be holding the 4th Annual Country Music Jamboree “Stars and Guitars.” The event is the primary fundraiser for the organization, raising funds that provide services to children suffering from abuse and neglect in our community. At 7pm country stars Andy Griggs, Daryle Singletary, Ashton Shephard, and Randy Houser will take the Marina Civic Center stage! During intermission, there will be a live auction.

In the local community there were over 8,000 reports of child abuse and neglect last year. Tragic and disturbing, these numbers show how much the Gulf Coast Children’s Advocacy Center needs our help, so that they are able to make an impact in our community.

Tickets are on sales for $27.50 for floor tickets, and $20 for balcony. Tickets can be purchased by calling the GCCAC at 850-872-7760 or online at the GCCAC or Marina Civic Center.

Thank-you for helping the GCCAC help neglected and children in our area!

Oyster Bash to Restore Sealab I

The Man in the Sea Museum, local secret, is scheduled to host a fundraiser to repair the Sealab I.

What is Sealab I?

First lowered in 1964 off the coast of Bermuda, Sealab I was an underwater laboratory for U.S. Navy divers. It was submerged 192 feet with four divers and scheduled to stay for three weeks; however, due to an approaching tropical storm it was removed after 11 days. The Sealab I allowed for proof that saturation diving in the open ocean was viable for extended periods and provided information about habitat placement, umbilicals, humidity, and helium speech descrambling. Sealab I was tested off the waters of Panama City Beach, FL.

How Will They Raise the Money?

Man in the Sea will hold an Oyster Bash at The Dive Lab on January 20th, 2012 from 3pm-7pm. (The Dive Lab is located at 1415 Moylan Road, across from Panama Jack’s.) Aiming to raise $250,000 for the restoration and a structure to contain and display Sealab I, the Oyster Bash will kick-off the fundraising program. This is the first Oyster Bash, but if the event is a success, they are hoping to make it an annual one!

Tickets are for sale online and at the museum for $25, which will cover all-you-can-eat raw and steamed oysters, cheese grits, and hot dogs. Beer will be available at an additional cost. Table sponsorships are available for $500; includes ten tickets and ten beer mugs that can be refilled at no additional charge.

Will you help restore Sealab I?

Consider The Beach Renourished

For the past three months many have wondered about the lights and heavy machinery working on the beach around the clock. The confusion which came with the $16 million beach renourishment project is now over!

1.4 million cubic yards of sand were pumped to 7.5 miles of beach, in many locations extending the shoreline by 100 feet. This project was the third of the major renourishment projects in Panama City Beach in the past 12 years.

“Preserving Panama City Beach’s natural resources is a top priority for area officials,” adds Rowe. “This commitment can be seen in the beach restoration as well as the recent opening of our Conservation Park. We look forward to welcoming guests seeking authentic beach vacations and ecotourism experiences.”

Renourishment is key to fighting against the erosion caused by dune destruction and reduction. Please help Panama City Beach prolong the areas impacted by the project by respecting the dunes, sea grass,and sea oats!

Winter Resident Appreciation Days Continue

Welcoming the winter residents of PCB and thanking them for their visit, the Panama City Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau will hold a Winter Resident Appreciation day this Friday. Stop by the Panama City Beach Visitor Information Center from 9:00am-11:00am on January 6th for complimentary coffee and donuts. Also, you’ll be able to register for giveaways and gain information on seasonal events and areas of interest.

Thank you for calling PCB your home this winter!