Panama City Beach officials broke ground today on the new Pier Park North shopping center. It will be a 390,000 sq. ft. development, located on the north side of Highway 98, right across from Pier Park.
The center will feature a mixture of national and local businesses like Best Buy, Dick's Sporting Goods, Men's Warehouse, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Michaels.
It will also create jobs: 350 construction jobs, and another 1200 once the mall is complete. Seven hundred of those will be full-time positions.
The developers say they don't see themselves as competition to pier park.
"There is a lot of interest when we got here. Certainly the Pier Park development across the street confirms that there is a good retail market here, a good demographic. What we intend to do in this project is complimentary to that," says developer Brett Hutchens.
Pier park should be open by spring of next year.
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