Flagler Beach’s 6th Street Deli is among the first commercial tenants to sign a lease for space at the Promenade, the six-building complex mixing 204 apartments with 68,000 square feet of commercial and retail space along Central Avenue in Palm Coast’s Town Center.
There are others. “We have two or three leases signed,” Cornelia Manfre, the leasing agent for the commercial space, said today. “We have letters of intent with five more entities, and we’re looking forward to restaurants and other services we can provide for residents. I think it’s going to be a stellar development for Palm Coast.”
The city’s efforts to land a craft brewery or taproom–the city issued a request for information in January–were unsuccessful.
Companies that have signed–or are close to signing–leases include Med Spa Group and Fleet Feet, the running-shoe retailer, Manfre said, with possibilities including the Flying Biscuit Cafe (a Southern breakfast chain whose closest location to Palm Coast is in Gainesville) and a pub-like concern she could not yet disclose as negotiations are ongoing. Flying Biscuit is “looking, but we have several breakfast companies looking at it,” Manfre said.
The $79 million project broke ground on July 12, 2024. The original plan was for a dozen commercial and retail spaces on the ground floor–40,000 square feet for retail, 25,000 for medical and other offices. That’s been expanded to about 16 spaces, Manfre said, as some businesses have shown a preference for smaller spaces.
6th Street Deli will occupy the 1,991 square feet of Unit 10 for an annual rent of $69,700 ($5,807 a month), rising by a couple of thousand dollars a year. The lease appears to be a template for other commercial leases at the Promenade: a five-year term twice renewable for five years, with required minimum business hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week.
Like all tenants at the Promenade (or in Town Center’s urban core, though for now that’s limited to the Promenade), 6th Street Deli will be eligible for the city government’s Economic Development Incentive Program, intended to defray the costs for new businesses to set up shop.
When a tenant makes business-specific improvements to a space’s interiors–a restaurant has a lot of such upfront costs–the landlord offers an allowance, then the tenant is required to put in 10 percent of the cost, and beyond that, the city’s program may reimburse one-time costs equivalent to up to $35 per square foot. The deli, for example, would be eligible to recoup up to $69,700 through the city’s incentive grant–in essence, the equivalent of a year’s rent. (Outside space is not included in the square footage.) The city would issue the money only at the time the certificate of occupancy is issued.
The City Council approved $1.2 million in this year’s budget for the program. “As of yet we have not awarded any grants so far,” John Zobler, the city’s community development director, said. Zobler and Craig McKinney, the city’s economic development director, have been working closely with Manfre and Promenade officials on the new complex’s tenants.
In January, the city issued a non-binding request for information from brewery and taproom operators. “The anchor brewery opportunity includes two distinct but complementary interior spaces organized around a shared courtyard gathering area,” the RFI stated: a 5,250-square-foot brewery taproom and a 5,225-square-foot enclosed in-line and adjacent food court space. “These spaces are separated by a central courtyard programmed with outdoor furniture and a small entertainment stage intended for live music, performances, and community events. Both the taproom and food court feature expansive glass frontage along the courtyard and Central Avenue, providing exceptional visibility and indoor–outdoor activation opportunities.”
The request for information drew no responses.
The major draws for businesses, Manfre said, are the clientele that the 204 apartments will bring (some 600 people), along with residents of nearby apartment complexes, and the future YMCA, which will be within walking distance of the Promenade. “My expectation is to have the commercial space fully leased out within the next three months, and we’re already pretty far along,” Manfre said.
The Promenade’s record of landing new businesses has elicited occasional interest, especially with the project’s completion date approaching. Darlene Shelley, a candidate for the Palm Coast City Council in this year’s election, raised the issue, albeit from a skeptical perspective, at last Tuesday’s council meeting. “We need quality places to shop. We need great restaurants, and they’re not lining up to come to the promenade, even with all of the incentives that you’re giving them,” she said.
City Manager Mike McGlothlin disagreed. “We have received four LOIs,” he said, referring to letters of intent, “staff has received one executed lease for a very nice restaurant. Maybe shopping too.” He said two of the letters are retail-related. In a clarifying text today, McGlothlin said that while he only has been informed of the types of businesses, rather than their names, those include a veterinary practice, retail space, a full-service restaurant and general office space, the lot totaling 15,000 square feet, or just over a fifth of the commercial, leasable space. (Some documents, including the developer’s figures in online marketing of the property, refer to 57,000 square feet of restaurant, retail, office and institutional spaces.)
The 204 apartments on three floors above the businesses, which include a 2,500-square-foot fitness center, will be studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments. No information has been made publicly available about apartment rents. “They think they’ll start marketing apartment rentals in July,” a city spokesperson said Monday. “They are not there yet.”
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