City approves land swap for Harrison Avenue walkthrough. Some residents aren't supportive.

PANAMA CITY — Following lively discussion on social media and during their regular meeting Tuesday, city commissioners approved a land swap with longtime investor George Kingston.

The two properties being swapped are a city-owned parcel along Mulberry Street and Kingston's parcel at 447 Harrison Ave. The city's property is appraised at $534,000 and Kingston's property is appraised at $500,000, with Kingston's Beach Drive PC Holdings LLC to pay the city $34,000 to accommodate the difference in value.

City officials plan to demolish the Harrison Avenue building to add a public gathering space between Harrison Avenue and a parking lot next to Grace Avenue.

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Commissioner Jenna Flint Haligas said the project came from the visioning process with international urban planners after Hurricane Michael. The planners identified the block from the Martin Theatre to City Hall as being too long. She said they marked the single building to be torn down and used as a walkthrough.

City officials put two appraisals on the property and it went out to bid, losing due to Kingston's higher bid.

"Since then, we've been working with (Kingston) to see if we could do a land swap and we were able to figure it out," Flint Haligas said. "We had appraisals done. We went through all that process of fair market value, we were able to work out a deal and today we voted on pushing that project through."

Kingston has never developed any property in Panama City, according to city officials. He has only renovated properties.

Commissioner Josh Street said he was not against a walkthrough, nor had an issue with the agreement but wanted to see a fair deal for citizens and voters.

As he spoke with City Manager Mark McQueen and City Attorney Nevin Zimmerman during the review prior, Street said he told them he wanted to see "teeth" in the agreement and to see something built on the vacant Mulberry Avenue lot.

Flint Haligas added that after the Harrison Avenue demolition, the city would find a way to bring retail to the space.

Residents speak out

While city officials approved the land swap, not everyone was supportive. Some residents and business owners, including History Class owner Allan Branch, took to social media to express their opinions.

Branch said on Facebook that while he believes Kingston might be a nice person, he might not know what investing in Panama City means and believes officials should be more focused on helping young entrepreneurs and real estate developers.

"He buys properties and sits on them, letting them rot," Branch wrote. "He owns tens of thousands of properties across the U.S. and probably 15% of our downtown already."

Residents also took to the podium to have their concerns heard, discussing their unease about Kingston taking over the Mulberry property and why the city had not done anything with it before.

Seeing the comments online, Flint Haligas said she has been in contact with those residents and has been having discussions with them about the project, trying to clear any misconceptions and offer any information she can.

"Even though there was some feedback and good, healthy feedback and dialogue on Facebook, it wasn't the project itself, that was an issue," Flint Haligas said. "It was how we were going about it and who we were doing a land swap with. But I felt very comfortable with the project and the point of it was getting the project done and negotiating and I think that city staff did an excellent job getting to the point where we could make this happen."

The next steps by Panama City officials

With the land exchange approved, officials said the next step is executing the contract and doing the actual swap.

Flint Haligas said city officials will be making the open space similar to Gateway Park by Millie's Downtown.

"There's all that outdoor seating and all of that used to be a building, so it's kind of the same thing. It'll give another more pedestrian-friendly corridor to get back and forth from that area," Flint Haligas said. "And we also want to make sure the revitalization is all of downtown. This is a way to kind of connect all of those moving pieces, everything that's been developed on Grace Avenue."

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Panama City swaps land to build walkthrough on Harrison Avenue