Last spring, the original investors of the huge housing development in the Pace area put on an expensive “grand opening” event in the Saenger Theater. Travi Tritt performed. There were tons of free food and booze. Palafox Street itself was redecorated for the event. Hundreds of the local leaders were invited. In the weeks leading up to the event, there were teaser billboards around town – showing silhouettes of children playing.
The project was Jubilee. And millions of dollars later, it has become mired in lawsuits and financial problems (Developers’ ‘Jubilee’ sours ).
I refused to attend the Saenger event because I know this project was doomed. There was no good reason for the developers to spend so much of their budget on that event. It was cute and got attention, but no one attending that party was going to buy a lot in Pace. People had stopped buying spec lots in hopes of flipping them long ago.
There was no local market for 500+ homes that far from Pensacola. I asked dozens of people who attended the party – remember Pensacola loves free things. Few had any interest in either investing or living in Jubilee.
The out-of-town marketing firms have cute ideas and will spend thousands on those ideas. But rarely do they work in this area.