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Panama City Beach covers roughly 13 square miles, and has a population of approximately 12,000 permanent residents. When the weather turns cold up north, around October, our 13,000 – 15,000 winter residents return. The majority come from the Ontario, Canada area with the remainder from locations all around the country. Most of the summer visitors return home before summer, usually around April. Late February thru April hails the notorious ‘Spring Break’ season. About 250,000 – 300,000 Spring Breakers enjoy the beaches and night life.
During the real estate boom of the early 2000s, Panama City Beach attracted many investors and ‘resort’ developers who bought many of the older motels and small homes on the beach and created resort condominiums with amenities to rival south Florida. During this time many subdivisions catering to families were also built. This growth also saw the construction of many new shopping centers and restaurants. Pier Park has become the ‘down town’ of Panama City Beach featuring shops, theaters, and new restaurants. Panama City Beach has something for everyone, family fun, romantic resorts, and luxury living. If you have not been to Panama City Beach in the last five years – you would not recognize it. One phrase used was ‘A place where lifetime memories are created and vacation dreams are lived’
Future plans for Panama City Beach include the renovation of Front Beach Road which should give Panama City Beach a more metropolitan feel. Walking and biking areas will enhance mobility and pedestrian safety, and new street scaping and tropical landscaping will reflect the area’s natural beauty. Beach access and related parking will be improved and benches and streetlights will be added to enhance the community feel of the area. The City has begun an 18-month project to build a new Dan Russell City Pier, and when Bay County rebuilds the M. B. Miller Pier Panama City Beach will be the only city on the Gulf with twin piers.
The new sports facilities at Frank Brown Park are a great addition to the family aspect of Panama City Beach. Frank Brown Park is a 200+ acre facility containing 9 ball fields, 2 T-ball fields, 3 soccer fields, tennis, basketball, volleyball, fishing, and more. Well known soccer, softball, baseball, lacrosse and fast pitch associations hold events here. The facility is also used for cheerleading and gymnastics camps and competitions. Frank Brown Park also serves as the trailhead for the greenways and trails system, and has paved trails through the park and onto Gayle’s Trails. Under the Palms Playground joins a covered picnic shelter that accommodates over 100 people and is an ideal place for children’s play or birthday parties; scattered throughout the park and trailhead are over a dozen other smaller picnic areas. A lighted 30-acre festival area is home of the Gulf Coast Charity Horse Show, Indian Summer Festival, and numerous other events. Do you like to swim? The PCB Aquatic Center at Frank Brown Park has an Olympic size salinated, heated swimming pool as well as a kids’ water playground. There folks can participate in activities such as diving and swimming lessons, water aerobics, water polo and lifeguard training classes. The facility is utilized for national and international competitive swimming, diving, water polo and synchronized swimming.
Every November, Panama City Beach hosts the Annual Ford Ironman Florida (ironmanflorida.com); a race that has become one of North America’s most popular. Thousands of volunteers help racers through this grueling but exciting competition.
So if living in a growing city with much to offer and much more promised, fits your life style, Panama City Beach may just be the place for you to call home.
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