Krystal's coming to town

PANAMA CITY BEACH, FL - The Krystal Company has broken ground on a new Panama City Beach restaurant and will open the location this summer, a company spokesman said Monday.

In an e-mail, Krystal spokesman Brian Cooley said the new Krystal will be located at 9958 Hutchison Blvd. Cooley did not have an exact opening date or how many employees the new location will hire.

In a released statement, Krystal CEO Fred Exum said the Chattanooga, Tenn.-based company was excited to open the Panama City Beach location as part of a recent expansion of company-owned stores. In addition to popular traditional menu items such as the Krystal hamburger, the new location will feature in-store digital menu boards and is a designated "Krystal HotSpot," with free Wi-Fi Internet access.

Krystal has carved out a niche in the Southeast over the past six decades as one of the region's most popular fast food restaurant chains. Founded in 1932, the company is the oldest quick-service restaurant chain in the Southeast and the second oldest in the U.S.

The closest Krystal locations to Panama City are located in Dothan, Ala., and Mary Esther, according to the company's Web site.

Earlier this month, Cooley had confirmed the company would be opening one or more Panama City-area locations, after an extended hiatus from Bay County.

Cooley said the company's re-emergence in the Panama City area was part of Krystal's plans to grow through the addition of more company-owned stores in existing and new Southeast markets. By the end of 2009, Krystal will have opened 20 new company owned stores since 2007 and created 800 jobs in 11 states, he said.

"This will be a corporate-owned Krystal, not a franchise, and part of Krystal's expansion," Cooley said April 2.

The company has been absent from the Panama City market since September 2003 when Krystal closed its Tyndall Parkway and Front Beach Road locations.

Those locations were franchises and closed after Krystal terminated its franchise agreement with a local franchisee, according to a News Herald story.

There also used to be a Krystal on West 23rd Street, at the site occupied by Chick-fil-A since 1998.