If you have lived in Panama City Beach for more than a season, you have probably noticed the center of gravity moving. Not west toward the older strip, and not out toward 30A. East. The stretch of Panama City Beach Parkway between Pier Park and Thomas Drive has quietly become the address for almost every new project announced this year.
Here is what has actually changed, what is under construction, and what to do about it before Labor Day.
The east-end build-out is real
The signal is a July 9 conditional use permit hearing in front of City Council. The developers of Pirates Voyage are planning to build a 4.5-acre amusement park adjacent to the dinner theater called the Bonny Read Fun Park, which will include a one-story amusement arcade, an outdoor electric go-kart track, and an eighteen-hole miniature golf course. No groundbreaking date yet, but the site is committed.
A few hundred feet west of that lot, a new Ruby Tuesday is going up on a 1.35-acre parcel at the southeast corner of Pier Park Drive and Panama City Beach Parkway, developed by JMK Development LLC of Plano, Texas.
Zoom out and the pattern is clear. Topgolf has opened near Pier Park with 74 outdoor, climate-controlled hitting bays, a full-service restaurant and bar, a 22-foot video wall, and more than 140 HDTVs. Dolly Parton's Pirate's Voyage Dinner Show is now open in the Pier Park area, with a four-course feast and stunt-heavy pirate battles inside a 60,000-square-foot indoor theater you cannot miss driving through PCB.
Four new anchors within a mile of each other, most of them climate-controlled or covered. That last detail matters more than it looks. This is programming built for a Wednesday in February, not just a Saturday in July.
Pier Park is filling in, not expanding
The mall itself is not adding square footage. It is trading tenants and pushing upmarket in places that used to be strictly tourist-facing.
| What's opened | What's coming | What's leaving |
|---|---|---|
| Sephora (next to Target) | JD Sports | Foghorns Bar and Package (closed Sept 2, 2025) |
| Palmetto Moon | Hollister (spring 2026) | Tootsie's Orchid Lounge (Pier Park location) |
| Salty Shoes by Hy's Toggery | Bonny Read Fun Park (TBD) | |
| Awoken Kicks |
Newer stores at Pier Park include Sephora, Salty Shoes by Hy's Toggery, Awoken Kicks, and Palmetto Moon, with JD Sports and Hollister Co. joining the mix soon. The Sephora manager has said she worked at the Destin location since 2021 and had loyal clients driving in from Panama City Beach the whole time. That is the tell. Chains are not opening here on tourist volume alone anymore. They are opening because the resident base finally supports it.
The Tootsie's move is worth reading closely. Tootsie's Orchid Lounge is opening a giant new space on the beach after being open in Pier Park since 2008; the Pier Park location is now closed and it is moving to a larger location right on the beach. A well-known operator giving up a Pier Park lease to go bigger and beachfront tells you which direction rent economics are pointing.
And on the loss side, Foghorns Bar and Package closed on September 2, 2025, the building is being torn down, and the owners are working to secure a new location.
Margaritaville is now a small campus
The Margaritaville Beach Cottage Resort has spent the last twelve months turning itself from a hotel into something closer to a self-contained neighborhood amenity. If you live within a few miles, this is the one to pay attention to because the clubhouse is walkable for a lot of homeowners.
The resort recently opened the Licensed To Chill Restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating, serving pork nachos, burgers, salads, and frosty drinks. The new clubhouse also includes the Fins Up! Fitness Center, Fin City Arcade, Joe Merchand's Provisions, and License to Chill, with a third-floor event space coming soon that will handle holiday parties and family reunions.
Four separate concepts under one roof, none of them requiring a booking at the resort to visit. That is a real change in how the property functions inside the local economy.
The 2027 project you should be watching now
Most of what has been announced this summer is finished or under construction. One project is bigger than the rest of them combined, and it will reshape the east end when it opens.
Shell Point Beach & Surf Club will be built just east of the new Top Golf complex near Pier Park.
Shell Point has partnered with Endless Surf to bring year-round perfect waves to the Emerald Coast, and the complex will be a 10.5-acre surf destination. The programming inside the fence is dense. Shell Point will include a family-friendly beach, pool, leisure zones, a kids' splash pad, a two-story open-air clubhouse with restaurant and bar, event space, a members' beach club with private pool and spa, a swim-up bar overlooking the Endless Surf lagoon, and a surf academy with coaching from beginner to pro. Construction begins in 2026 with a target opening in 2027.
Read that against everything else on the east end. Topgolf is indoor-air weather-proof. Pirates Voyage runs 365 days. Bonny Read will be electric go-karts and mini golf, useable in any month that is not raining. Shell Point adds a wave pool that does not care whether the Gulf is flat or churning.
Panama City Beach has always had summer. What is being built now is winter, spring, and fall.
The next four weeks, on the ground
Late summer has more scheduled evenings than the calendar usually suggests.
- Aaron Bessant Park Summer Concert Series. The 2026 Summer Concert Series runs every Thursday night from June 4 through August 6, beginning at 7 PM, and the concerts are free. Local food trucks serve throughout the evening, and the lineup covers funk and soul, bluegrass, rock, country, and New Orleans-inspired sounds. The August 6 date is the last one.
- Mid-August at Frank Brown Park and Captain Anderson's. Concerts are on the calendar August 15 at Frank Brown Park (16200 Panama City Beach Parkway), and arts and theater programming is set for August 15 at Captain Anderson's Event Center on North Lagoon Drive, with additional events running August 14 through 16 at the Laguna Beach Christian Retreat on Front Beach Road and a South Thomas Drive event on August 22.
- Hook'd Pier Bar & Grill rebuild. Hook'd announced it will rebuild after fire damage, targeting a Spring 2026 reopen, with more seating, a bigger deck, and two floors. Worth watching the pier for signs of framing this fall.
The one number worth interpreting
On July 23, City Council took the first steps toward banning AI data centers within the city, voting 4-0 (with Councilman Mike Jarman absent) on a first reading of Ordinance No. 1687, which would amend the land development code to ban AI data centers requiring five megawatts of electricity. Mayor Stuart Tettemer told PCB Life he does not think they are a good use for the city's limited land because they use a lot of power and create no jobs. Bay County and Panama City Commissions enacted twelve- and six-month moratoriums, respectively, weeks earlier.
Read that alongside everything above. The city has picked a lane. Land near Pier Park and the Parkway is being reserved for entertainment, hospitality, and retail that draws people in, not for warehouses that consume power without producing foot traffic. If you own a home east of Pier Park, that is the zoning posture behind the projects on your street.
What this means for your Saturday
Skip the drive to Destin for a Sephora run. Get to the last Aaron Bessant concert on August 6 before the series ends. Put Shell Point on your mental calendar for 2027 and watch for site clearing on the parcel east of Topgolf this fall. If you have out-of-town guests coming through in October, the Margaritaville clubhouse is now a legitimate destination on its own, not just a hotel bar.
Panama City Beach is not the same block-to-block town it was two summers ago, and the addresses of the changes are unusually concentrated. If you are thinking about where the next five years of growth lands, follow the east end of the Parkway.
When you are ready to talk about what all of this means for your block, your rental, or your next move, Bode at the Beach has watched the corridor shift firsthand. Start Your Beach Search with a team that reads PCB the way locals do.
