PANAMA CITY — Within three months, city commissioners expect to have a feel for what direction the downtown marina will take.
City commissioners have directed staff to get proposals from developers nationwide to determine what sort of partnerships could be involved in developing the marina’s commercial and public uses. Of a $12.9 million loan the city secured for the project, about $8.2 million is uncommitted.
“Isn’t it our duty to explore every avenue to be able to take advantage of this asset?” Mayor Greg Brudnicki asked during a city workshop Tuesday. “It’s a tremendous amount of flexibility that we did not have before, and we owe it to the citizens to be able to explore what else could be done.”
Since the state conceded ownership of both marinas, the city has been at a standstill on plans for the downtown marina redevelopment project, allowing a bid for construction of its Marina Park portion of the project to expire in October. In attaining ownership rights, the city gained the right to develop outside of the strict public use parameters the state requires.
Ideas commissioners floated included leasing out City Hall or the neighboring library annex, or building a hotel conference center, restaurants and other tourist attractions. But the actual purpose in requesting proposals is to gain the insight of developers with serious funds to back up their ideas.
“Tourist dollars are good, but $100,000 employees are really good because they are the ones who buy houses,” said Commissioner John Kady. “They are the ones shopping at groceries in addition to shopping in the T-shirt shop.”
A majority of commissioners expressed a desire to keep the $85,000 designs in place for the planned public facilities like the lighthouse, splash pad, band shell and rolling, grassy hills. However, the marina’s proposed layout could change drastically to accommodate the right entrepreneur.
For instance, the splash pad, initially planned to be adjacent to the Civic Center, could move to overlook St. Andrew Bay at the end of the T-dock, Brudnicki said.
So far, contracts are affixed for repairs to the seawall on the mainland portion of the marina and demolition of the marina’s concrete to make way for entrances, three development pads and landscaping. A contract for seawall repairs on the T-dock has yet to be bid out, but the city’s working estimate put repairs at about $3.1 million.
A larger problem still looms for commissioners in establishing the city’s identity along the gateways of Jenks and Harrison avenue, corridors that greet visitors from the north, leading to the downtown marina.
“We need to be progressive and we need to keep moving,” Brudnicki said. “We’ve only got one shot and we need to take advantage of that one shot.”
