The Promenade Signed a Deli, a Running Store and a Candy Shop. The Taproom Is Still Unclaimed.
The Promenade at Town Center has six signed commercial tenants. Most of them suit a coffee run, a physical therapy appointment or an hour on a golf simulator, and none of them is the brewery and taproom the city went looking for in January. That gap tells you what kind of place the corner of Central Avenue and Bulldog Drive is likely to be when its doors open. On the evidence so far, it will be a daytime spot well before it becomes a place to spend an evening.
Here is what the reporting from late September and early October actually shows.
When the project broke ground in July 2024, the plan called for shops and restaurants to open in May 2026, with 204 apartments on the three floors above. May came and went. In late September the commercial leasing team announced six signed leases, as reported in the Palm Coast Observer on Oct. 1.
| Tenant | What it brings | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| 6th Street Deli | Kettle-boiled New York-style bagels, deli sandwiches, Lavazza coffee, patio seating, an Italian dry goods shelf | Second location; the original opened in Flagler Beach in 2022 |
| Fleet Feet | Running footwear and apparel, plus fun runs, walks and training groups | Specialty running retailer |
| The SIM Lounge Golf & Sport | Indoor golf simulators and a multi-sport bay | Owned by Palm Coast resident Dorian Adams |
| Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop | Nostalgic candy store | Franchise with shops in The Villages and Ocala |
| Enchanted Medical Aesthetics | Boutique medical spa | Two Volusia County locations, Ormond Beach and DeLand |
| AdventHealth Sports Rehab | Sports rehabilitation and physical therapy | Newest of more than a dozen Central Florida locations |
The deli has the most local history. 6th Street Deli runs its first shop at 109 6th St. S. in Flagler Beach, where the menu centers on New York-style bagels, house-made cream cheese, breakfast sandwiches and Boar's Head meats, served on a deck. The Town Center version adds an Italian dry goods counter with specialty olive oils, pastas and baked goods.
The SIM Lounge describes two GolfVX golf simulator bays and a Full Swing multi-sport bay that handles golf, baseball, basketball, football, soccer, hockey and kids' games. Grandpa Joe's lists more than 250 candy bars, over 100 bulk candies, glass-bottle sodas and a $5 candy buffet.
Set the six side by side and they fall into three groups. Two are health appointments, a med spa and a physical therapy clinic. Two are retail errands, running gear and candy. That leaves a bagel and coffee shop and a simulator lounge. The Observer's announcement describes the mix as retail, dining, health and wellness, and sports and recreation. None of the tenants is a bar, a taproom or a full-service dinner restaurant.
That matters because of how Town Center works now. FlaglerLive pointed out that the restaurants along State Road 100 offer an easy, visible draw nearby, with traffic that "seldom dies as it does in Town Center at night." A deli, a running store and a candy shop give people a reason to come by on a Saturday morning or after work. They don't, on their own, give anyone a reason to stay past dark. Of the six, the SIM Lounge is the most likely to keep a group out for an evening.
Fleet Feet adds something the others don't. The Observer says the store plans fun runs and walks, training groups and in-store seminars. The setting suits that. The city describes Central Park, right next door, as a lake ringed by a half-mile brick walking path, with City Hall at one end. No group-run schedule has been published yet.
The city knew a taproom was the missing piece. It went out and asked for one.
In January 2026, Palm Coast issued RFI-ED-26-33, a request for information seeking an "anchor brewery and taproom" operator for the Promenade. The city framed the district as "food, beverage, and entertainment-oriented." The document's terms:
The document says outright that it was "solely for information-gathering purposes" and did not obligate the city or the developer to move forward with anyone. According to FlaglerLive, it drew no interest. The outlet also reported that efforts to land a taproom, pub or bar, a priority for the leasing team and the city, have come up short so far. The reporting found no city council decision on what happens next.
Even with up to $80 a square foot in incentives on the table, no brewer stepped forward. FlaglerLive offered one explanation: possible operators may worry that Town Center doesn't yet have enough customers to support a space that size.
The opening timeline has been reported several ways, and none of the estimates is a firm date.
The same News-Journal story gave a second timeline. Signing a lease, pulling permits and finishing a buildout typically takes about 90 days, and tenants will open in phases, much like the apartments are leasing building by building. That staggered approach is why no grand opening has been announced. A city spokesperson told FlaglerLive in September that "nothing is scheduled at this point." The SIM Lounge's own website still says "Opening Soon" and lists its opening date as "To Be Announced."
The reports also disagree on size. The October announcement puts the street-level commercial space at about 53,000 square feet, while FlaglerLive's September story cited 68,000 and noted that the leasing team's own release used the smaller number. The News-Journal describes the whole project as about 237,000 square feet in one passage and 273,000 in a photo caption. The ground floor was first planned as 12 units of varying sizes. It has since been split into around 16, and neighboring spaces can be combined for one large tenant.
The leasing side is betting on more people living close by. In the News-Journal story, a leasing agent pointed to almost 1,800 residential units approved and planned around Town Center and said that would make the district "a vibrant little network of its own." The Promenade's own 204 apartments are part of that count. Leasing has started in the completed buildings closest to Bulldog Drive, while the other half of the project is still under construction.
That ties back to the empty taproom. A brewer weighing the space is asking whether enough people will be around Central Avenue at 8 p.m., and the honest answer depends on how many of those planned units fill up and how quickly. The tenants still to come are where the evening could change. A national gym brings early-morning and after-work traffic. One of the unnamed food tenants could be a dinner spot. The leasing team has said it won't name anyone until contracts are signed.
In the meantime, Central Park keeps drawing crowds to Town Center on its own schedule. The Flagler County Cultural Council's Fall Arts & Crafts Festival is set for Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026, from 1 to 6 p.m. at Central Park, 975 Central Avenue. It will have arts and crafts vendors, an International Row, children's activities, story time and food trucks. The city's event page still shows Nov. 8 with a graphic labeled 2025, so the organizer's date is the one to go by. If the September forecast holds, the first Promenade storefronts could open in the same weeks as the festival, right across from the lake.
At Lighthouse Realty, we watch Town Center the same way you do, one storefront at a time, because what opens on Central Avenue shapes everyday life in Palm Coast. If you'd like to talk through what the Promenade and the planned housing around it could mean for your part of town, Contact Us. We're glad to share what we're seeing, with no pressure.
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