Panama City, Mayor José Luis Fábrega announced in July of 2019 a $120 million initiative to restore beaches in along Balboa Ave.

As one of the first major initiatives since Panama President Laurentino Cortizo was elected in 2019, this is great news for Panama as the city will go from a waterfront to a true beachfront city. Panama City's Mayor has the full support of the President in this project. Fábrega said at a press conference that the goal is to join other great cities like Barcelona and Rio de Janeiro that feature beaches as part of the urban city environment.

Access to sandy beaches is always seen as an added value, especially when it is in the heart of the city. Panama City real estate values and Balboa Ave in particular will be positively impacted by any project that brings beaches to the waterfront of Panama City

The Cinta Costera which was created in recent years has brought beautiful parks and walking and biking trails, but downtown Panama was missing the beach experience. This plan calls for the restoration of the Bella Vista and Calidonia beaches, which were largely buried as Avenida Balboa has developed over the years.

Plans also call for a wide variety of improvements along the waterfront, including kiosks, restaurants, a parking area, an amphitheater, and other recreational facilities. The plan will be developed in conjunction with more efforts to improve storm drains and the sewage treatment system that have been going on around the bay over the last 15 years. The project will create the beaches from sand dredged from the bay according to coverage in La Estrella.

concessions and fees raised by new facilities will be offset part of the cost of the project the Mayor noted in his talk to the media. His office is also considering launching a plan to re-evaluate other properties in the area, which may include anything from a museum to a Ferris wheel to help make the new Panama City Beachfront become the focus of life in Panama City.

Like most large projects I would expect some bumps and slowdowns along the way, but often once a project like this gets publicly announced it does get built. While it is a major project the city has been updating the sewage and storm drain systems for years now which is all the pre-work that had to be done before this project could get started. Compared to the the $1 billion per year going into Panama City roads, bridges, and metro system this is a pretty reasonable cost for a project that will have a huge long-term impact on the overall quality of this city.