- April 26, 2024
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Palm Coast Holdings, which has been responsible for promoting Town Center real estate as the future “true downtown” of Palm Coast, will be closing its office at the end of March.
Allete Inc., a publicly traded energy company, owns the land in Town Center but is motivated to get out of the real estate business. To accelerate the sales effort, Allete is closing Palm Coast Holdings and is planning to hire a regional real estate brokerage firm to market its properties, which also include Palm Coast Park, a large development planned near U.S. 1 and Matanzas Woods Parkway. If the brokerage firm is successful, the move could pave the way for new developers to enter the Palm Coast market.
“I’m looking at it as a positive thing for Town Center, for Palm Coast,” said David Lusby, vice president of commercial land sales for Palm Coast Holdings. “There’s tremendous potential.”
On the other hand, the brokerage "could sell it to a portfolio holder who wants to sit on it for 10 years," said Michael Chiumento, whose law firm shares the third floor of the City Centre building with Palm Coast Holdings, overlooking the lake in Town Center. If that happened, Town Center’s progress could come to a halt.
Chiumento, whose family moved to Palm Coast in 1973 when there were fewer than 100 homes built, said this pivotal moment is not unlike 1996, when ITT, Palm Coast’s original developer, decided to sell off its holdings. The buyers of the land eventually built Grand Haven and Hammock Beach.
“New developers came in, and Palm Coast went crazy for 10-12 years,” he said “Maybe the same thing might happen now.”
"Seeing Town Center fulfill its potential is personal to me. The vision was started by this team."
DAVID LUSBY, Palm Coast Holdings
Lusby said he hopes to have a role in the future of Town Center, and he is optimistic that Allete’s move will be a positive thing for Palm Coast.
“Palm Coast has never had a definable downtown, just strip commercial development on Palm Coast Parkway,” Lusby said. “Now we have that in Town Center. It was always going to be a long-term development, 25- to 30-year build-out. But seeing Town Center fulfill its potential is personal to me. The vision was started by this team."
The early leaders of the city — Mayor Jim Canfield, City Councilman James Holland, City Manager Dick Kelton — were also excited about the prospect of a downtown in Town Center, Lusby said. Developer Charlie Faulkner also played a role.
“This property in Town Center, it could have been just something nondescript, some residential development,” Lusby said. “But we wanted something better, the city wanted something better, and I think we’ve delivered on that. It’s not overnight. We’ve suffered a significant economic downturn, and we’re only now starting to feel the impact of the recovery, which has been excruciatingly slow for Flagler County. We bought into the dream, we worked long and hard with our partners at the city, and I still believe it has the potential to be something very special.”
