What will Town Center feel like on a weeknight once The Promenade opens? For now, the city's own calendar is the best answer. The project's shopping and dining are set up to serve the daytime first. The space built for evenings, a taproom and food court facing a small performance stage, still has no operator.
The Promenade broke ground in July 2024. The plan called for a dozen or more shops and restaurants to open in May 2026, with 204 apartments on the three floors above. As of FlaglerLive's September 22 update, half of the project's six buildings were still a closed construction site. Work remained around the pool and pickleball courts, and the interior parking lot had just been paved and striped. The first businesses are close to opening. Which businesses they are matters more than the date.
The six leases and the kind of street they add up to
The commercial leasing agent announced six signed leases on September 22. They are:
- 6th Street Deli, a second location for the Flagler Beach shop at 109 6th St. S. The original serves bagels, breakfast, lunch, sandwiches, wraps and pitas.
- Fleet Feet, the running shoe store.
- Enchanted Medical Aesthetics, a boutique spa with locations in Ormond Beach and DeLand.
- Sim Lounge Golf and Sport, a veteran-owned indoor golf and multi-sport simulator lounge owned by Palm Coast resident Dorian Adams.
- AdventHealth Sports Rehab, the newest of more than a dozen of the company's sports rehab locations in Central Florida.
- Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop, a franchise with stores in The Villages, Ocala and a handful of other states.
That list covers a lot. It gives the neighborhood a place to buy running shoes, an appointment-based spa, a physical therapy option within walking distance of the apartments, and a candy counter. The simulator lounge is the one tenant built around leisure time. None of the six is a bar, a brewery or a sit-down dinner restaurant.
Some evening-leaning prospects fell through earlier. Thai and I, the Bunnell restaurant on State Street, had been slated for the Promenade but chose a different Bunnell location. According to Bunnell's city clerk, it is moving into the former Chicken Pantry building on State Road 100. A veterinary clinic also withdrew. The Flying Biscuit Cafe was in talks with the brokers in April, and FlaglerLive described that possibility as unclear in September.
The space designed for evenings
From the start, the city's plan for Town Center nightlife centered on one space. In January, the City of Palm Coast issued a non-binding request for information from brewery and taproom operators. It described an anchor layout of two rooms facing each other across a courtyard:
"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 taproom would be 5,250 square feet, and the enclosed food court next to it 5,225 square feet. The request drew no responses. Later in the year the city issued a formal request for proposals for the taproom space, and FlaglerLive reported in September that it had also drawn no interest.
FlaglerLive suggested two possible reasons. Restaurant operators may doubt that Town Center yet has enough customers to support a space that size. And the restaurant corridor along State Road 100 already has visibility and traffic that rarely dies off at night, which Town Center doesn't yet match.
Jamie Cuzzocreo of One Sotheby's International Realty, the commercial leasing agent, described the challenge this way: "It's hard to sell a space in a hard hat with no walls and no ceiling." He called the Promenade "the first and only live-work-play model we have here especially at Town Center," and said prospective tenants want to see the finished product, so the project becomes more viable as construction moves forward.
The incentive already on the table
Lack of incentive money doesn't explain the empty spaces. Every Promenade tenant qualifies for the city's Economic Development Incentive Program. When a tenant builds out its interior, the landlord provides an allowance and the tenant covers 10 percent of the cost. Beyond that, the city may reimburse one-time costs of up to $35 per square foot, paid when the certificate of occupancy is issued.
FlaglerLive worked out what that means for 6th Street Deli: up to $69,700, which the outlet compared to about a year's rent. The City Council set aside $1.2 million for the program in this year's budget. As of late April, no grants had been awarded.
Applied to the taproom space at the same rate, the cap works out to roughly $183,750 toward an operator's build-out, before any landlord allowance. Two rounds of outreach still produced no takers. That points to something besides startup costs, most likely the customer-base concern FlaglerLive described.
The leasing team expects that base to grow. In April, Cornelia Manfre of One Sotheby's said the 204 apartments would bring about 600 residents. She also cited people living in nearby apartment complexes and a future YMCA within walking distance of the Promenade. Leasing has started in the three buildings closest to Bulldog Drive, while the other three are still under construction.
Until then, the city's calendar fills the evenings
While the Promenade's courtyard stage waits for an operator, The Stage at Town Center at 1500 Central Ave. is already hosting the kind of evening the city's January request described. Beats & Eats combines the Food Truck Tuesday lineup with the Palm Coast Concert Series. Each night brings live music, food trucks, vendors, yard games, and beer and wine on site. The city's listing tells people to bring a chair.
The series ran monthly from May through October, and two dates remain. The September 24 show with Planet E Studios was canceled.
Here is the Town Center and Central Park calendar through the end of the year. The Imagine and Starlight Parade listings print 2026. The Beats & Eats and tree-lighting pages give dates without a year, though the listed weekdays line up with the 2026 calendar:
- Saturday, October 10, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Imagine Town Center Family Fun Fest & Market at Central Park, with family activities, food trucks and local vendors.
- Thursday, October 15, 6 to 8 p.m. Beats & Eats with Stealing Vanity at The Stage, benefiting Parkinson's of Flagler Palm Coast.
- Thursday, October 22, 6 to 8 p.m. The season's final Beats & Eats, with Chillula, benefiting SMART.
- Saturday, November 28. The tree lighting at Central Park, which kicks off the Rotary's 21st Annual Fantasy Lights.
- Saturday, December 12. The Starlight Parade at Central Park. Pre-parade activities start at 4 p.m. and the parade steps off at 6 p.m. Fantasy Lights stays lit nightly through December 30.
The city also has a Fall Arts Festival page, but its listing still carries a 2025 graphic, so it is left off this list until a 2026 date is posted.
The November window
The timing leaves a gap. The last outdoor concert at The Stage is October 22. Cuzzocreo told FlaglerLive on September 22 that stores would start opening in "between 45 and 60 days." Counting from that date puts the first openings between about November 6 and November 21. That is a projection, not an announced date, and no grand opening has been scheduled. A city spokesperson said the grand opening had been discussed for months but kept getting pushed back.
Cuzzocreo said several letters of intent are in hand, with some deals close to signing. He expects another tenant announcement within 30 to 60 days and said new names will be disclosed as leases are signed. If that announcement includes an operator for the 5,250-square-foot taproom, the courtyard stage will have a tenant. Until then, the next listed event on the Town Center calendar after October 22 is the November 28 tree lighting at Central Park.
If you're weighing how The Promenade and the rest of Town Center fit your plans in Palm Coast, whether that means a closer commute, a walkable routine or a future move within Flagler County, Coastal Ventures Real Estate follows these projects closely and can walk you through what has actually opened. Schedule Your Relocation Consultation, and we'll share current Town Center updates as tenants announce their opening dates.
