The first boats to return to the Downtown Panama City Marina will tie up at Docks C and D, in the western basin beside Hotel Indigo. The state has already approved the water side of that project. Florida's Department of Environmental Protection issued an exemption letter on April 17, 2024, so these slips can be built without a formal permit. That was two and a half years ago. As of early October 2026, nothing is in the water yet, and the holdup is no longer regulatory.
What's holding up the first slips now is a set of decisions at City Hall. They cover who builds the docks, who pays for them, who runs them, and who pays for the walkway and utilities behind them. Each one is moving on its own schedule, and boats can't come back until all of them are settled.
Four Decisions, One Basin
| Open question | Status as of October 3, 2026 | What settles it |
|---|---|---|
| Who builds Docks C and D | The award to Art Marine was challenged in court. Commissioners discussed the case in an executive session on September 22, and official minutes aren't posted yet | Posted minutes, the outcome of the lawsuits, and a notice to proceed |
| Who pays for the slips | St. Joe's prepaid-rent agreement was approved August 25 | A finished management agreement |
| Who manages the slips | Still being negotiated. Not on the September 8 or September 22 agendas | A commission vote, due around October 24 |
| Who pays for the uplands | About $3.18 million, planned on the city's line of credit. No vote yet | A separate funding decision |
The rest of this post goes through those four in order, because each one depends on the one before it.
The Contractor Question Came First
The city opened bids for the first 50 wet slips on June 24, 2026, and received 14 of them. The engineer of record, Turrell, Hall & Associates, asked the three lowest bidders for more information about their experience. It concluded that two of them didn't meet the bid's requirement of "a minimum of 5 years of experience in marine construction to include consecutive and active experience of work similar in scope." That left H.G. Harders & Son as the lowest qualifying bid, at $3,616,356.05, about 3% under the engineer's own cost estimate. According to Marina World's summary of that review, Harders had also done debris removal in the same basin after Hurricane Michael, so it already knew the site and its bottom conditions.
On August 25, the commission heard from the engineer, David Bowers of Art Marine, Jacob Harders of H.G. Harders & Son, and the assistant city attorney. It then voted 4–0 to award the job to the lowest bidder, Art Marine. WMBB reported Art Marine's bid at about $2.9 million and said the local contractor was ready to start by December. Mayor Allan Branch pointed to the 14 bids and to prices coming in under the estimate.
A December start no longer looks safe. The city's September 22 agenda included an executive session on a lawsuit titled H.G. Harders & Son v. City of Panama City, followed by possible action on the litigation. No official minutes had been posted to the city's archive by October 3. Unofficial accounts of the meeting don't fully agree on what happened. CitizenPortal's AI-generated summary describes a 3–2 vote after staff raised concerns about projects listed in a bidder's qualifications. Commissioners Janice Lucas, Brian Grainger and Robbie Hughes voted yes, and Commissioner Josh Street and Mayor Branch voted no. The summary also records a motion to declare Art Marine nonresponsive and rebid the project. On October 1, a local commentary newsletter reported that the 3–2 vote awarded the contract straight to Harders, and that Art Marine has since filed its own suit asking a court to review the process. Until the city posts its minutes, the safest reading is that the contract is in dispute and no construction start has been announced.
The commission also changed its procurement rules over this. On September 8, it voted 5–0 for Commissioner Street's transparency motion. When the commission doesn't pick the lowest bid in the future, its notices will have to identify the bidders, explain the decision, and say whether the low bidder could have addressed the concerns.
St. Joe's Rent, Paid Early
The contractor fight matters because of how the slips are being paid for. The city had planned to borrow through a previously approved FEMA loan. The alternative it approved on August 25 runs through a tenant it already has. JOE PCOZ, LLC, the St. Joe entity behind the Hotel Indigo and Harrison's Kitchen and Bar ground lease, would prepay up to $5 million of rent it owes the city. That money would go to eligible Phase 1 construction costs. Once the credit runs down to zero, the regular payments start again. Marina World, citing WMBB, put that participation rent at about $100,000 a year.
The city is in effect borrowing against rent that hasn't come due yet, without paying interest. The prepayment covers the docks only. Under the city's August memo, the upland utilities that serve the slips stay on the line of credit. The higher bid matters here too. A $3.6 million contract leaves less of that $5 million unspent than a $2.9 million one.
The Deadline Around October 24
The commission tied the money to a second agreement. Its August 25 motion accepted the prepayment deal and gave staff 60 days to come back with a marina management agreement. Sixty days from August 25 is October 24, 2026. On September 13, City Manager Jonathan Hayes was still calling the arrangement proposed and under negotiation. The September 22 agenda had no management agreement listed for action.
The terms are still open. The City Attorney's August 17 summary of St. Joe's preliminary draft proposed a management fee of 3% of gross marina revenue and a term of at least five years. Public descriptions afterward said "up to five years." Mayor Branch said the city would get a "very aggressive" share of slip revenue and that St. Joe would cover operating expenses and still make a profit. He didn't give a percentage. No slip rates have been published.
St. Joe already runs marinas in this area. It lists Point South Marina Bay Point and Point South Marina Port St. Joe among its properties. In early 2023, it reported 127 wet slips at Bay Point. If the agreement goes through, the 49 new downtown slips would be a much smaller operation run by a company that has been managing slips for years.
What Phase 1 Is Built For
The project is usually called "the first 50 slips," but the engineer's Phase 1 drawing for Docks C and D adds up to 49 slips:
- 19 slips at 50 feet
- 15 slips at 60 feet
- 15 slips at 70 feet
None of the Phase 1 slips is shorter than 50 feet. The plan also includes about 21,343 square feet of fixed wooden dock, aluminum gangways, utility pedestals, fire-suppression standpipes and a sewer pump-out station. Smaller boats and day visitors are planned for later. Phase 2 adds Dock A, a floating concrete dock for transient and day mooring that could switch to full-time rentals if demand is there. It also adds Dock B, with twenty-one 50-foot fixed slips and fourteen 30-foot lay-along slips, and an extension of the seawall section lost in Hurricane Michael.
The Promenade Has Its Own Price Tag
The fourth decision is the one people on shore will notice. The city estimates the upland work needed to support the first slips at $3,179,913. That covers electrical service, water and sewer lines out to the end of the T-Dock, three fire hydrants, a grinder pump and pump-out connection, and a 10-foot-wide concrete promenade running 1,050 feet from the south side of Harrison's around the west basin. The promenade is estimated at $210,000, with $150,000 for railing and $263,000 for solar lighting placed every 20 feet. A concrete parking area estimated at $751,560 is listed as optional for Phase 1.
WMBB reported that the city expected to decide how to pay for the upland work at its next meeting. No such vote appears on the September 8 or September 22 agendas. These utilities are also meant to serve the later docks. The city's memo says Phase 2 won't need any additional upland utility spending.
Counting Forward From a Notice to Proceed
The construction clock hasn't started yet. H.G. Harders' bid schedule proposed starting 60 days after the contract and notice to proceed, reaching substantial completion 240 days after the notice and final completion at 270 days. The city's newsletter estimated about nine months of construction once work begins. Under either estimate, the first boats would arrive about nine months after a notice to proceed is issued, and no notice had been reported as of October 3.
Phase 2 depends on a different process. Its construction permit application went in during February 2026 and is expected to take 12 to 18 months. According to the city, March 2027 is the earliest Phase 2 could start, mid-2027 is more likely, and the work would take about a year once underway. It's roughly estimated at $5 million.
That leaves a few dates to watch this fall:
- Posted minutes from September 22, showing what the commission actually decided about the contractor.
- About October 24, when the 60-day window for the St. Joe management agreement closes.
- A vote on funding the upland work, which is needed before the promenade and utilities can go to bid.
- A notice to proceed, which starts the roughly nine-month construction clock for Docks C and D.
The city's next scheduled item on CitizenPortal's list is an advisory board recommendation on October 27, so the October agendas should show whether the marina pieces are back in front of the commission.
If you're deciding between a home with its own deep-water dock and counting on a future downtown slip, these dates are part of that decision. Carly has bought, sold and lived around Panama City's waterfront for years, and the team at The Sostheim Group can walk you through what a private dock is worth compared with a slip that's still waiting on City Hall. Contact Us when you're ready to talk boats.
