Tag: panama city beach

What's New in PCB – Pier Park Down to the Wire (video)

With the grand opening of the Boardwalk area of Pier Park on Thursday the 14th, crews are working almost around the clock to get everything done. I left town on Thursday of last week only to return on Sunday with sidewalks complete, landscaping almost done and the interior of several retailers nearing completion. I saw training happening at Five Guys and Buffalo Wild Wings.

I still haven’t seen a final list of the stores opening on Thursday, but the most recent press release lists the following to open in February/March: click the “more” link for the list and video.

Continue reading “What's New in PCB – Pier Park Down to the Wire (video)” →

What's New in PCB – Pier Park Video

Whats’ New in PCB – a 60 second show of new stuff on Panama City Beach.

This week, join us as we hang the Pier Park sign at the Front Beach Road Entrance.

On Tuesday the main sign at the Front Beach Road entrance was installed. The grand opening is next Thursday (2/14, Valentines day), and crews are working rapidly to be sure they are ready.

Click the “more” link below for the video and pictures.

Continue reading “What's New in PCB – Pier Park Video” →

This week in Pier Park – Fish Tales, Sunglass World and GNC Signs Up

Huge progress this week at Pier Park, including the paving of the entry way from Front Beach Road, the installation of landscaping and more tenant signage up.  Every week, more signs will start showing up as spaces are being turned over to their tenants for interior treatments.  Buffalo Wild Wings is already working on the inside (maybe even close to being done) and most of the tenants are hiring.  If you are looking for a job, let me know and I’ll point you in the right direction.

I think the Grand Opening will be sometime around Valentines day, but I’m not for sure.  I will post more on that when I know.

The whole place is really coming together and looking fantastic.

Click below for more pictures.

Continue reading “This week in Pier Park – Fish Tales, Sunglass World and GNC Signs Up” →

Front Beach Road CRA Update

The Front Beach Road CRA, or Community Redevelopment Area is moving ahead and on schedule. The current projects underway are the Churchwell Road rebuild and the widening of Beckrich Road.

The Churchwell Road improvements included rebuilding of the bridge, widening the road and adding 127 public parking spaces on the north side of Front Beach Road to provide parking for the public beach access point. Construction began in April 2007 and is on schedule to be completed early spring this year with the ribbon cutting to be sometime in March.

Continue reading “Front Beach Road CRA Update” →

This week in Pier Park – New Signs up, Grand Opening next month

 

Pier Park is getting close with the addition of more tenant signs this week.  RedBrick Pizza, Kilwin’s Chocolate, Quiznos and Alltel all have their signs up with more signs to be added each week.  The main boardwalk street is paved, windows are in most of the buildings and The Boardwalk is on schedule to have the grand opening mid February.  I finished shooting the new video today and hopefully will finishing cutting it this week or next.

Information on Airport Relocation Opposition

The main argument in the Panama City Bay County Airport relocation is the possibility of causing irreparable damage to sensitive environmental areas. Currently construction is being held up by a law suit against the FAA regarding their Record of Decision approving the construction of the new airport that was issued in September 2006.

Quote from the Record of Decision:

“In conducting its funding analysis, FAA determined that both physical and environmental restrictions at the existing site make it impractical and extremely costly to update to meet FAA standards.

The existing primary air carrier runway is 6,304 feet long with nonstandard safety areas. Even if FAA were to upgrade the existing site, it would not result in an airfield that fully complied with FAA standards.”

In a press release on November 14th, 2006, Melanie Shepherdson, attorney at the NRDC, is quoted, “The FAA’s decision to build this ‘airport to nowhere’ is illegal. . . The law is clear: The agency has to pick the alternative that is least damaging to the environment. And it failed to do that.”

What alternative is least damaging? Modifying the current site to bring it into compliance with current FAA safety regulations? The environmentalist groups protested that option years ago; this is one of the main reasons the Airport Authority began looking for a new site in the first place. It was determined early on that the damage extending the current runway would cause was far too great to risk.

Another argument the opposition loves is that the airport will spur growth and development in the West Bay area (duh, and that’s a bad thing?), but that it will destroy the natural home for various wildlife, including Florida Black Bears, sea turtles, dolphins, and more. BUT, they fail to acknowledge that most of the shoreline in West Bay will be conservation as part of a 9,000 acre donation dedicated for conservation/mitigation, AND they fail to acknowledge participation of Audubon of Florida, The Florida Wildlife Federation, 1000 Friends of Florida and The Nature Conservancy in the organization of the West Bay Sector Plan. These are all environmentalist groups concerned about the environmental well being of the West Bay Area.

For more arguments and explanations, visit Dr. Ed Wright’s WestBayFlorida Blog. If you scroll down and look for the “Labels”. He has enough information on the relocation to keep you busy reading for weeks.

Thanks, Ed, for all your hard work.

This Week in Pier Park – First Retail Sign and Paved Street

Sometime in the last week they paved the road down the main Boardwalk of Pier Park in Panama City Beach. I was there last Tuesday and was told by a friend that it was paved when he walked it on Christmas. It never ceases to amaze me how quick some things happen.

Quiznos Sub is the first to have their retail sign up. They will open with the rest of The Boardwalk in February. Windows have been going in and will continue to be installed through next week. Enjoy the pictures below. Click on them to make them larger.

Click here for all posts on Pier Park.

Will the Fed slash rates again this week?

Since the rate cut in October, “credit has become harder to obtain, Wall Street has convulsed again and the housing slump has intensified,” according to the Associate Press.  The rate, now at 4.5% is expected to be cut again this week in an effort to pump more money into the economy, curb the growing housing slump, and ward off an economic depression.  If this happens, it would be expected that commercial banks would lower their prime lending rate, now at 7.5%.

Entire article click here: Fed Seems Poised to Lower Interest Rates 

One of the comments on The Huffington Post stated ” The Fed has determined to print and lend more paper money in an effort to delay the impending economic bubble burst. Since the interest rate spread between what banks and institutional lenders pay the Fed and what they charge their borrowers is so great, there really is no need to lower the rate. The announcement of a Fed rate reduction is simply to advise Wall Street that rather than allow market forces to work, our Govt. will just keep issuing more money to be distributed through the economy. The effect of this policy will cause a free fall in the dollar and runaway inflation. ”  I don’t know that I disagree.

As much as I would like to agree that dropping insurance rates would turn around the market that we are in, I just don’t think that will work.

What are your thoughts?

This week in Pier Park – Pictures

Pier Park is getting very close to completion. I love the bright colors and the architectural accents. Margarittaville is really starting to take shape, you can now see the sunset outside dining deck (on the second floor). Also, there is considerable construction taking place at the back of the property towards Back Beach Road. More pictures to come soon.