Open House In Downtown Panama City - WMBB News 13 - The Panhandle's News Leader

Take a trip to downtown Panama City, and you might notice more than a few 'for rent' or 'for sale' signs on vacant buildings. The city is trying to appeal to potential business owners so they can fill those empty gaps. They used an open house today to achieve that goal.

Talk to any business owner downtown, and they'll say the key to downtown "coming back" is a thriving business climate.

So the first step Saturday was to show off what the city has, which was about two dozen properties along grace avenue, Harrison Avenue, Oak street, 4th street, and Florida avenue. The spaces range in size  - the largest one at 15,000 square feet, the smallest one at 700 square feet. Realtor Connie Overstreet says downtown is gaining momentum.

"Friday Fest brings in a lot of attention," Overstreet said. "I've noticed that the parades over the past few years have been getting larger and drawing more of the population to come to the parade, so downtown has been really picking up over the last couple of years."

Judy Gordon, owner of downtown business 'Love Me Again,' says the downtown area depends on new businesses coming in.

"I don't see it getting any better if something is not done about bringing stable businesses to the area, filling up these empty buildings," Gordon said.

A list of the available properties can be found below.