PANAMA CITY — Great South President Jason Lewis wants to create a catalyst to drive future development downtown.
“We are attempting to create a defacto ‘real estate gold rush’ of people fighting to get in on the ground floor,” Lewis wrote in the questionnaire responses to the Panama City Commission. “But this ONLY works when somebody starts to anchor these areas with the buildings that were promised.”
Lewis’ approach was honed with the build-up around Smyrna , Ga. The way Smyrna City Councilman Ron Fennel, and Lewis collaborator in the marina project, tells the story is that despite its proximity to Atlanta, the city was not considered a part of the metro area until Lewis built the first million-dollar home in Smyrna in the late 1990s.