40 minute read
Transforming Baptist for the Future
by Morgan Cole
Baptist Health Care recently celebrated a major milestone during a topping out ceremony held in late February at the new state-of-the-art, 57-acre Baptist Health Care campus currently under construction off Interstate 110 in Pensacola.
In addition to Baptist Health Care leadership and special guests, more than 1,000 construction workers, contractors and subcontractors gathered at the new campus as crews lifted the final steel beam, which was signed by all of the workers, to the top of the 10-story main structure, signifying the completion of the framework of the new hospital building. achievement was held in what will soon become the “town square” of the campus, where members of the Baptist leadership team and Mayor Grover Robinson shared their excitement for the new campus project and the positive impact it will have in helping to better meet the health care needs of our community.
The $636 million project sits on Brent Lane, just west of Interstate 110 and is seven acres larger than the existing hospital campus that has been located on E Street for more than 70 years. The original founders first broke ground on Baptist Hospital in 1949 with the purpose of bringing more modern health care to our community. Continuing with the original founders’ bold vision and legacy, Baptist remains invested in transforming health care in our community to help improve the quality of life. The groundbreaking event held for the campus marked the single largest investment in health care facilities, services and programs in Northwest Florida’s history.
“The new Baptist Hospital campus will enable us to provide the next-level care that our community deserves. It will offer easier access, new and improved capabilities and the latest innovations in medical technology, all in a setting that has been thoughtfully designed to provide the utmost
comfort to our patients and their families,” Baptist Health Care Foundation President and hospital CEO Mark Faulker explained.
NWFL Business Climate Magazine had the chance to visit the new campus and gain a first-hand look at all of the progress being made as construction crews and the Baptist leadership team continue forging ahead with plans to have the new 57-acre hospital campus completed by fall of next year. During our visit, we also had the opportunity to catch up with members of the Baptist leadership team including hospital President and CEO Mark Faulkner to learn more about the project. The new ‘health care campus will consist of a main 10-story, 263-bed acute care hospital as well as a six-story, 162-room Bear Foundation medical office building and a freestanding behavioral health care center. The main entrance to the hospital will include a town square with healing gardens, walking paths and open air spaces for special gatherings and classes.
“Our goal is to create an environment that nurtures both health and healing,” Faulkner said. “This campus also provides a new entry into the City of Pensacola as travelers approach from the north.”
The modern acute care hospital will serve as the heart of the new campus, with more than 602,000-square-feet of hospital rooms, 54 intensive care unit rooms, 12 private labor and delivery suites and 198 medical/ surgical rooms. The hospital will also include a Level II trauma center with 61 exam rooms and three triage areas. There will also be general medical and surgical rooms, critical care areas, a mother-baby unit and a surgery department with 25 procedure and operations rooms. Treatment and procedure rooms for specialized cardiac care will also be located within the main hospital building, along with a full-service inpatient imaging department.
The 10-story, 178,000-squarefoot Bear Family Foundation Health Center will consist of 162 exam rooms and provide an array of multi-speciality services including, oncology, infusion, women’s health, outpatient imaging, bariatrics, surgery pre-optimization, cardiology, lab work and wound care. The new health center will also feature a conference center for public events, health education sessions and community outreach.
In May of 2021, Baptist announced that a new behavioral health center would also be placed on the new campus. The new facility eventually will be home to the existing behavioral health unit near the current hospital located on West Moreno Street. This freestanding unit will provide in-patient services to both adults and children and is separate from the Lakeview Center, which provides community mental health services throughout the region. The behavioral health unit at the hospital is meant to address more shortterm, inpatient psychiatric care for children and adults in mental health crises. Baptist leadership has said that specific building details are still in the works, but will be unveiled in the coming months.
In early April, Baptist also announced a new partnership with Catalyst Healthcare Real Estate (Catalyst), a fullservice health care real estate investment firm, who will develop an 80,000-squarefoot medical office building on the new Baptist campus. The Catalyst building will be located adjacent to the new 10-story Baptist Hospital building and the Bear Family Foundation Health Center.
Baptist Hospital CEO, Mark Faulker explained that the location was strategically chosen to provide patients with connectivity and convenient access to all of the services to be offered on the new 57-acre campus. Baptist Hospital administrator and senior vice president of strategy and business development for Baptist Healthcare, Brett Aldridge, said that the new
A rendering of the Bear Family Foundation Health Center that will be located on the new Baptist Health Care campus off Interstate 110.
An aerial view of the new Baptist Health Care campus scheduled to open in the Fall of 2023. Layout of the Baptist Health Care campus indicating the location of the new Behavioral Health Unit.
Catalyst medical office building will better assist Baptist in its goal to advance health care access, patient experience and outcomes for the community.
“As we continue to transform health care delivery in our community, we are very pleased with this development. The second medical office building will complete our robust presence at the Brent Lane location to further support our efforts to improve access to care and improve the overall health of the community,” Aldridge said.
The new health care campus will feature a number of special amenities in addition to the medical buildings, including a town square with walking paths, outdoor classrooms, rehab areas, outdoor event space and a healing garden to provide a place for quiet reflection and serenity. The main hospital will also feature its own cafe and coffee shop with both indoor and outdoor seating, along with a retail pharmacy and restaurant space, which has not yet been determined. Faulkner said that the scale and design of the campus will provide significant opportunities for growth in the future.
“We are born out of this community and for this community, and as the needs of the community change, so will we,” Faulker said. Faulkner also explained that the hospital building was designed in a way that the bed space is flexible in order to adapt to different needs and patient types, and that planners included as many details as possible to create a healing environment with optimal functionality for patients, hospital staff and physicians. “Our team members, physicians and providers live out our organizational values every day in service to our patients and their families. They know how the work environment can make it easy for them to best deliver that care,” Faulkner explained. “So, we sought their input from the beginning in order to build a facility that meets the needs of our team members and provides the comfort and ease our patients and their families require for healing.”
With more than 800 workers on site each day, the new campus has also served a
major contributor to our local workforce and economy. Since breaking ground on the new campus in January of 2021, a total of $8.9 million has been paid in construction wages. To date, a total of 1,041,240 man hours have been spent working on the project with approximately 40 percent of the project workforce team being local or minority.
“The new campus will bring modern, accessible health care to our region and it fuels local economic growth through job creation. Brasfield & Gorrie, who are our project contractors, share our dedicated focus on creating opportunities for local and minority contractors to engage in the project, infusing wages and experience back into our community,” Faulkner explained.
The Haas Center at the University of West Florida conducted an economic impact study, using an Implan analysis for the construction of a new health care structure and based on the center’s research, the construction project is expected to create 4,261 construction jobs with nearly $201 million in direct construction labor wages. Due to an increase in the demand for goods and services from the construction’s supply chain, the project is estimated to create an additional 735 indirect jobs, nearly $34 million in wages and $121.3 million in regional and revenue sales. Construction expenditures help to support not only direct jobs in the construction sector, but also general additional jobs for the community. The study also indicated that the project is expected to create an additional 956 jobs, $40.1 million in additional income to the region and contribute more than $128 million to the regional economic activity.
As construction continues on the site of the new health care campus, many are wondering about the plans for the old campus property on E Street. Baptist Health Care officials reported that a finalized plan for the old campus has yet to be publicized, but said that the plans would be made public when a final decision is reached within the coming months. However, during a weekly press conference, Pensacola Mayor Grover Robinson said that using the space for affordable housing is an idea that’s being looked at.
“We began gathering input on the future of the E Street campus the day after we made our announcement about the new campus in June of 2019 and we have engaged in numerous discussions with community members, stakeholders and neighborhood residents to understand their thoughts about the best use for these 51 acres for after we move and we have taken the results of those discussions to a special committee of our Board of Directors to develop an approach for the future of this campus that balances Baptist’s needs, the realities of the real estate market and community priorities,” Faulkner explained. “We are working to build partnerships with others who share our vision for this transformational redevelopment opportunity and expect to be able to share more details very soon.”
For more on Baptist Health Care and updates on the new campus transformation, visit eBaptistHealthCare.org. •
What’s New in Development?
by Morgan Cole Residents of Northwest Florida will be the first to tell you how much the area has
changed in recent years. With new largescale residential communities, townhome developments and apartment complexes being constructed in just about every part of town, Escambia and Santa Rosa counties are experiencing unprecedented growth. As our population only continues to increase, inevitably comes more developments and long-term projects to accommodate this growth. With a number of projects kicking off in the past few years, we have gathered up the latest details on some of the major developments to keep an eye out for in the coming year as they break ground, continue along in the wake of the pandemic or have been completed.
Adoorproperties.com
This new housing development project by aDoor Properties is located in the historic Tanyard neighborhood along the blocks of South H Street, South I Street and West Romana Street, just south of Garden Street in downtown Pensacola. Situated on the former site of the iconic Bartel’s Family Restaurant and Winery, which once contributed to the neighborhood’s lively atmosphere beginning in the 1930s, The Block at Bartels will consist of 18 two-story single-family homes with both 3- and 4-bedroom floor plans ranging from 1,674 to 1,903-squarefeet. The development features six different floor plans with a variety of layouts and optional upgrades. Each of the classically-designed Craftsman-style homes features modern amenities like custom cabinets, luxury vinyl plank flooring, quartz countertops and a full stainless steel appliance package. The home designs feature Americana themes and color palettes, as well as options to upgrade and add smart home features. Select floor plans will include upgrades such as garage apartments, covered patios, porches, balconies, courtyards and breezeways.
Construction is well underway and is expected to be completed by Summer 2022. Some 4-bedroom homes are near completion and currently for sale with an average starting price of $579,000.
Local Developers to Convert Old Mount Lily Baptist Church to Affordable Studio Apartments
In early March, the city’s planning board approved a proposal from a local developer to convert a vacant church building in downtown Pensacola into six rental units as part of an innovative approach to bring more affordable housing solutions to Pensacola. The project would include a revamp of the rundown Mount Lily Baptist Church at 209 N A Street, which would involve gutting the existing interior and dividing the large open church space into six studio apartments targeted at the low-to-moderate workforce housing population in downtown Pensacola.
Inspired by local civic education program CivicCon, the team of developers — which consists of Ellis, Jordan Yee, Jamaal Warren and Alistair McKenzie — wanted to find a way to make a positive difference in the community. After reviewing the affordable housing task force report released in 2020, the team was driven to come up with an adaptive reuse project that could lend itself to an affordable housing development.
The planning board unanimously approved the proposal moving ahead with the project’s conditional use application but it will need to go before the City Council for final approval before developers can begin any construction work. Between the city approval process and construction, it would likely be at least 18 months until the studios are available to rent, though at that time, the aim is to offer those at a monthly rate that is affordable to residents whose income is at or below 66 percent of the Area Median Income. This affordable housing project gained support in a public comment period from Crystal Scott, Pensacola Habitat for Humanity vice president of development and the chair of the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee and from Scott Sallis, a prominent architect in the city with Dalrymple Sallis Architecture. The Mount Lily Studios project will now go before the City Council to either approve, modify or deny the planning board’s initial recommendation.
Construction to Begin on Six Luxury, $1.8 Million Downtown Pensacola Townhomes
Construction is set to begin on one of the last new build sites in the downtown sector. Six new luxury townhomes—the Terraces at Tarragona—will be constructed on the empty lot located directly across the street from the Bear Levin Studer YMCA and Southtowne development at 120 S. Tarragona.
Developer David Richbourg, project manager J. J. Zielinski and architect Scott Campbell drew design inspiration from Miami and Chicago while also embracing the warehousestyle of the Seville Historic District. Terraces at Tarragona will feature sustainable architecture and technology like environmentally friendly ICF construction, impact rated glass, underground utilities and a discrete generator, which will be located in the courtyard of each unit or “Villa.”
Each of the 3,300-square-foot, 4-bedroom and 3.5-bath Villas will feature high-end finishes, a third-level great room boasting 13-foot ceilings with built-inbookshelves, a full wet bar, wine cooler and stately gas fireplace. Kitchens will come equipped with premium appliances and feature an attractive galleystyle layout with large waterfall quartz countertops and open concept dining area.
In addition to ample indoor entertaining space, each Villa will also include its own private ground-level courtyard and 1,439-square-foot rooftop terrace. The rooftop terraces will be surrounded by sun screens for added privacy and each will feature a covered outdoor kitchen with walk-in pantry, double sinks, a refrigerator and gas cooktop stove and a separate 5-top bar-style entertainment area complete with a wet bar and covered living room situated around a gas fireplace with an optional hot tub.
The ground level of each unit was designed as a selfcontained suite with a separate kitchenette and full bath, ready for utilization as a private guest suite, professional office, or direct income generation for private long-term or short-term rental revenue. The designs were unanimously approved by the city’s Architectural Review Board in April and are now undergoing structural engineering plans. The townhomes are expected to start at about $1.8 million and ready for move-in by early 2023.
IHMC Makes Progress on new $20 Million Research Facility
Progress continues on the new research facility at the IHMC Pensacola campus. On March 29, the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) announced that DAG Architects and Cooper Carry were selected to serve as the lead architects for the new human performance research complex building. The team will partner to design and create a research hub for human healthspan, resilience and performance work. The team will be led by Northwest Floridabased firm DAG Architects and Cooper Carry, which is a national firm with substantial experience in biomedical facilities. The new Healthspan, Resilience and Performance Research Complex will serve as a leadingedge lab and office building for IHMC’s 100 Pensacola-based employees. The projected four-story 44,000 square foot facility will include space for administrative support, outreach and training, in addition to stateof-the-art laboratories for the scientific team.
Right now, IHMC broadly focuses on pillars of robotics and artificial intelligence, with the new trajectory of the healthspan team taking a more biological approach.
The new facility expands IHMC’s downtown campus to three primary buildings and dedicates a space for the center’s research into improving the resilience and performance of people. The new building will face Romana Street and be located behind the current facility on land IHMC owns between Alcaniz and Florida Blanca streets.
DAG and Cooper Carry have already begun working with the IHMC team on a National Institute of Health research building funding application. The next step will be soliciting a construction management firm to join the team. The goal is for the team to occupy the new building in January 2024. For complete project details and information on IHMC, visit ihmc.us.
Progress continues on a number of large development projects in the downtown area. These projects, along with the new projects we have highlighted, will transform the downtown landscape and demographics once complete. For complete details, see our October 2021 Downtown Development issue of Northwest Florida’s Business Climate Magazine online at ballingerpublishing.com.
Construction is well underway on the 15-room boutique hotel, restaurant and speak-easy style bar in downtown Pensacola at the former site of the old Mount Olive Baptist Church at 415 North Alcaniz Street. The project is expected to be completed by Fall 2022.
Bruce Beach Project
Work continues on this multifaceted waterfront connectivity project in downtown Pensacola and the project is currently in the final stages of planning. The revitalization project will serve as a catalyst for a more connected, walkable, and bikeable waterfront area throughout downtown Pensacola, along with a sister project called the Hashtag Connector. For updates and complete project details, visit cityofpensacola.com.
Hawkshaw
Located along Bayfront Parkway, the Pensacola City Council heard an update from the developers of the Hawkshaw Property for construction that was scheduled to begin in March. The project intended to bring 200 units with a seven-story apartment building on Romana Street and townhouse-style homes along Ninth Avenue.
However, rising construction costs have recently caused Hawkshaw developers to change up their original plans for the development. On April 12, Hawkshaw Architect Brian Spencer reported to the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) that inflation pressures in material, labor, cost of money, along with supply chain challenges, have created unprecedented uncertainty in the project’s ability to deliver quality rental units at price points the community can afford. According to Spencer, these conditions are now causing the developers to consider condominiums instead of apartments. While no final decision has been made, developers are now looking at building 68 to 70 condominiums that could offer price points with unit sizes affordable to a wide range of homebuyers.
Aldi Expands Across Gulf Coast
A grand opening was held on April 7 at the new Aldi grocery store at 2950 South Blue Angel Parkway, just west of Warrington in Pensacola. The new store is part of a planned 20-store expansion for Aldi in 2022. Aldi opened locations in Tillman’s Corner in Mobile and in Navarre in early 2022 with another location scheduled to open on Mobile Highway on May 5. An additional store is also currently under construction in Pace, but an opening date has not been announced.
Construction has begun on the new 240-unit apartment and carriage house complex located on the site of the former historic school board building at 605 W. Garden St. where Garden and Coyle streets intersect. The new complex will feature floor plans ranging from studio apartments to three-bedroom apartments and carriage houses. The developers, Kore Company LLC out of Birmingham, Alabama, are not seeking affordable housing incentives and expect to put the apartments up for lease at the current market rate at the time of opening. The company broke ground on the project in October and gained city approval for their plans back in December 2020 and construction is expected to last 12 to 14 months.
Hollice T. Williams Park
Adding to the expansion of downtown’s footprint, the Hollice T. Williams Park located underneath the Interstate 110 bridge between the Eastside and Long Hollow neighborhoods is currently undergoing a major overhaul. The site had previously been taken up by a homeless encampment that was not removed due to concerns with COVID-19 and the availability of resources for the population. In early 2022, the camp was shut down and relocated to pave the way for the construction work to begin.
Amanecer
Developers broke ground in April 2022 on this new private, luxury waterfront housing development which features seven inland townhomes, three water view townhomes and four detached singlefamily homes in the Sanders Beach neighborhood at 1510 Sonia Street. There are currently nine units left with a starting price of $840,000 for the 2,400-square-foot detached single-family homes, $1,100,000 for the 2,200-square-foot inland townhomes and $1,700,000 for the 2,500-square-foot waterfront townhomes. All units will feature four bedrooms and three full bathrooms with high-end luxury finishes.
Community Maritime Park Parcels
At times a hot-button issue, plans for the undeveloped parcels of Community Maritime Park in downtown Pensacola could be agreed upon in 2022, which would make a huge impact on the landscape of the city just west of downtown. Parcels 4 and 5 have been up for development for years and most recently, the city was moving forward with design firm Carson Lovell to develop a plan for those parcels with an emphasis on constructing a convention center, parking garage and residential units. For updates and complete project details, visit cityofpensacola.com.
East Garden District
The new East Garden District complex in downtown Pensacola consisting of retail, mixed-use spaces and a hotel is well underway. In February, the City of Pensacola held a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate complete street improvements to Jefferson Street as part of the East Garden District Project. Jefferson Street between Garden and Chase streets has been reopened after the street work that included widening sidewalks and landscaping to make the area more pedestrian-friendly. These enhancements to Jefferson Street mark the completion of the first phase of the East Garden District Project. The old Reynald’s Music Hall will be torn down to make way for Union Public House restaurant to move in, and developers are expected to break ground this spring on a hotel. For more on this project, visit eastgardendistrict.com.
Home2 Suites by Hilton
Construction has begun on a new Home2 Suites by Hilton hotel at 5109 Bayou Blvd. on the site of the old Mile’s Antique Mall in Pensacola. An opening date for the new hotel has not yet been announced but is anticipated to happen sometime within the coming year.
Innisfree Plans for Three New Hotel Towers on Pensacola Beach
Innisfree Hotels is proposing building a new 215room hotel on Pensacola Beach. The $85 million project would be located on what’s now a vacant lot at 20 Via de Luna in the former site of the Clarion Suites Resort, which was irreparably damaged during Hurricane Ivan. The initial design includes 11 stories, a zero-entry pool with a lazy river and slides, a two-story pool bar and lounge, a kids’ club, a poolside ice cream shop and a lobby bar. The initial concept for the hotel does not have a brand or a name but will specifically focus on sustainability. Developers expect construction to begin this fall for the hotel’s anticipated opening in spring of 2024.
This marks the third active hotel tower plan for Innisfree or its affiliates on Pensacola Beach within just the last few months. In addition to rebuilding on the site of the Hurricane Sally-damaged Best Western and the renovation and expansion to the Hampton Inn site, the former Best Western site is set to become 209-room Fairfield Inn and Suites and is expected to open next year. The Hampton Inn renovation—which includes renovating the existing hotel and constructing a new tower between that and Crabs on the Beach at Casino Beach—is expected to be complete by 2024.
Seven Tower Apartment Community Coming to Gulf Breeze
Construction is underway on the new seven-tower Azalea Bay apartment community on U.S. 98 on the former site of St. Sylvester’s Catholic Church at 3539 Gulf Breeze Pkwy. between Pensacola and Navarre. The new apartment community will consist of 222 individual units housed in seven three-story buildings on 20-acres of land. The property will feature one-, two- and three-bedroom units with spacious layouts and luxury finishes. Azalea Bay will offer both shortterm and long-term lease agreements with floor plans starting $1,625 for the one-bedroom units to $2,050 for the three-bedroom units. Community amenities will include a clubhouse and clubroom lounge with multiple TVs and ample seating, a fitness center, swimming pool, sand volleyball court, detached garages and a maintenance building with a designated car care and detailing area. Azalea Bay has now started leasing units for 2022 move-in dates and developers plan for construction to complete by the fall of 2022. The completion date for the second (westbound) span of the Pensacola Bay Bridge has been pushed back again. The newly projected completion date is now set for late summer or early fall of this year. The bridge, which is being constructed by Skanska and overseen by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), is currently open to two-way traffic on the eastbound side (Pensacola to Gulf Breeze), but the second span (westbound) of the bridge still remains under construction. The westbound span was initially set to be completed by this spring, but the project was significantly delayed due to weather conditions as well as the amount of time and resources it took to restore a span of the bridge that was closed to traffic due to significant damage from Hurricane Sally in September 2020. The second and final span of the bridge is now set to be complete by early fall of this year.
Pensacola Bay Bridge Expected to be Complete by Fall 2022
New East Bay K-8 School in Navarre Officially Open
After nearly two years of construction, the Santa Rosa County School District has officially opened one of its two new K-8 schools in Navarre. The new East Bay K-8 school celebrated its opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony in July 2021 and officially opened to students in the fall of 2021. The new school was constructed to relieve overcrowding at all the Navarre-area primary, intermediate and middle schools. The two-story, 160,000-square foot school sits on 42 acres and is located on Elkhart Drive, south of East Bay Boulevard and near the Holley by the Sea neighborhood. There will be three wings on both floors, with the first-floor hallways sprouting off from an atrium hub. The building will contain 25 primary classrooms, 20 intermediate and middle school classrooms and 23 Exceptional Student Education rooms.
The Pea Ridge Connector
Developers have broken ground on the new $8.8 million Pea Ridge Connector (formerly known as the Bell Land extension) in Santa Rosa County, which will connect Highway 90 with Hamilton Bridge Road in Pace. The Pea Ridge connector project is the largest road project in Santa Rosa County in 30 years and will provide much-needed traffic relief to a busy central Santa Rosa County corridor. The nearly 2-mile corridor will act as a parallel to Woodbine Road, Chumuckla Highway, West Spencer Field Road and State Road 87. The project includes both bike lanes and sidewalks and will provide connections between several identified activity centers. The project is within the FloridaAlabama 2045 Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP). The Pea Ridge Connector project was first identified as a need 20 years ago and has been included in the LRTP updates every five years since as required by federal transportation planning process. The analysis was developed based upon evaluation of future land use and traffic demand along the project’s corridor with a projected volume of 8,000 vehicles per day. The Pea Ridge Connector is expected to be completed in the fall of 2022. Funding for the $8.8 million project will come from the Local Option Sales Tax.
New Multi-Use Pathway & Wetlands Trail Boardwalk in Gulf Breeze
A new multiuse pathway is currently being constructed along the entire length of Shoreline Drive and Fairpoint Drive in Gulf Breeze. Better known as “the loop,” this 4-mile multiuse pathway will provide a safe route for all forms of wheeled travel (bikes, skates, scooters and carts) separate and apart from routes for non-wheeled pedestrian travel. Part of the $5 million infrastructure project will also include the construction of a new wetlands trail boardwalk in the undeveloped portion of Shoreline Park, west of the existing access roadway to the park. The trail will begin and end in uplands, originating at the existing trail opening just south of the dog park and ending at Williamsburg Drive/Colley Cove Drive. The primary purpose of the trail boardwalk will be to increase connectivity between Shoreline Park and the adjacent residential areas located to the west. The trail will also provide ADA access to the beach along the Santa Rosa Sound waterfront. Construction began in November 2021 and the project is expected to be completed by the end of summer. For complete details and project updates, visit cityofgulfbreeze.com. Construction began
Total project cost: Approximately $985,190
Funding: Florida DEP appropriation grant = $492,595 or 50% of total construction cost, City of Gulf Breeze non-tax dollar reserves = $441,667 and Santa Rosa County Tourism Development = $33,333
District 5 Commissioner Colten Wright Discretionary Funds: $25,000
District 1 Commissioner Dave Piech Discretionary Funds: $5,000
U.S. 90 Expansion
After five years of public input and state engineering, a Project Design & Engineering study determined that expanding U.S. 90 through downtown Milton was the best way to alleviate traffic on that corridor. Last summer, city officials said they would continue looking into the Berryhill Bridge concept and whether it was a feasible infrastructure project for the city as an alternative to building four traffic lanes. The proposed bridge concept involves a secondary, two-way traffic bridge that spans northeast from the intersection of Berryhill Road, Willing Street and Broad Street over the Blackwater River to a new lighted intersection near the current entrance to Russell Harber Park. However, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) said that it was not interested in funding the Berryhill idea or any other alternative and that they would move forward with the design phase on the project. The Florida Department of Transportation is slated to begin its design phase in the fiscal year 2023 for the segment of U.S. 90 that runs through downtown. The design phase will likely last several more years and will include more chances for public input on the project.
New Pace K-8 School
In October, the Santa Rosa County School District broke ground on its second kindergarten through eighth-grade school, which school officials believe will help alleviate overcrowding in Pace area schools. The 33-acre property will house the second K-8 school in the county. The new school will be located at the corner of Chumuckla Highway and Wallace Lake Road on what is currently an empty parcel. The school is set to hold just under 1,200 students and is meant to relieve overcrowding at SS Dixon Primary, which is at 93 percent capacity, SS Dixon Intermediate (89 percent capacity) and Sims Middle (96 percent capacity). The two-story building will have 45 classrooms and a covered physical education building. The new $39.8 million school, most of which was funded by Local Option Sales Tax revenue, is scheduled to be completed in time for students in fall of 2023.
Milton Wastewater Treatment Facility
City officials began looking at the possibility of relocating the site of the new Milton wastewater treatment facility almost a year ago, but since have reassessed their options and remained steadfast that the original location — an approximately 25-acre site diagonally-located to the county’s correctional institution in East Milton — is still the best spot for the facility. The current plant on Municipal Drive is expected to reach full capacity by the end of 2023. The new plant will replace the old facility and will process 8 million gallons of wastewater a day, compared to the current plant’s 2.5-million-gallon perday max capacity. The city originally chose the East Milton location in 2009. City officials broke ground on the facility early last year, but when bids for construction came back at almost $54 million, nearly double the anticipated amount, the city began looking for ways to drive that cost down. In February, Santa Rosa County Commissioners approved the completion of the site analysis for the 100 acres planned for the RIB system and agreed to a deal exchanging the land for capacity at the plant. The new location will allow around 6,000 locations in the area to come off septic tanks. The city is now effectively a year behind schedule as officials plan to bid the project again.
New South End High School in Midway
The Santa Rosa County School District also purchased a parcel for a new high school to be constructed on the former property of the Gulf Breeze Flea Market at the south end of U.S. 98 in Midway located just across the street from the Gulf Breeze Zoo. DAG Architects was selected as the architect for the project but still needs to be approved by county commissioners. Conceptual drawings have already been provided to the district, which reveal a three-story structure. As soon as the project architect gets approved, the county will be ready to move forward with the design. The county also hopes to have the design for the new high school ready to bid out by early next year. The school district paid $7.49 million for the roughly 34-acre parcel, which sits directly adjacent to another empty parcel that the district is in the process of purchasing. The additional parcel would allow the new school to utilize those residential areas as an additional entry and exit option to the ones already planned along U.S. 98. Superintendent Karen Barber reported that the new south end school will have an academic emphasis on career, science, technology, engineering and math education. District officials hope to have the school open in time for the 2025-2026 school year.
Woodbine Road Improvements
The Santa Rosa County Commission identified drainage and stormwater needs as the No. 1 priority for the county at a strategic planning workshop in February 2021, and the commission finally set forth both funding and a long-term plan to deal with congestion and flooding on Woodbine Road in Santa Rosa County. Woodbine Road serves as a major corridor running through one of the most richly-developed neighborhood areas in Santa Rosa County. The commission reallocated $315,000 to the engineering company Baskerville-Donovan as part of the company’s second phase in the Woodbine Road and Chumuckla Highway drainage improvement plan. In March 2021, the commission approved the company to begin conducting the study and were presented with the findings in late September of 2021. In June, District 1 Commissioner Sam Parker expressed he wanted to spend up to $24 million on road infrastructure, specifically Woodbine, highlighting that even more attempts at roadway and infrastructure improvements can be expected in the future.
New Santa Rosa Courthouse Slated for February Completion After Long Delays
After problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic, poor weather and supply chain issues, the new Santa Rosa County courthouse is nearly complete. The new $42-million courthouse located on Avalon Boulevard in Milton will replace the historic downtown courthouse that was built in 1927. A contract change order pushed back the original project deadline which was initially set for early January of this year. Santa Rosa County has a 20-year loan for the project and is expected to pay $2.4 million per fiscal year during that time. The new 115,000-square-foot courthouse includes a two-story lobby, seven courtrooms, judges’ suites, jury rooms, clerk offices, Public Defender’s and State Attorney’s offices as well as suites for hearings. Contractors first broke ground on the new courthouse back in November of 2019. According to county officials, construction crews are wrapping-up final work inside of the building and the new location is expected to officially open sometime this year.
Lakes of Woodbine Subdivision in Pace
In late March, Santa Rosa County Commissioners approved a developer’s application to rezone 22 acres of land off of Woodbine Road in Pace from residential to commercial, clearing one more hurdle for a 726-lot subdivision that has divided residents of the surrounding community. The Lakes of Woodbine rezoning request got a unanimous thumbs up from the four commissioners. The rezoning means Olson Land Partners, the Destin-based company that is overseeing the project, will be able to develop 22 acres of the project’s 240 total acres as commercial property. If the board hadn’t approved the rezoning, those 22 acres would have been developed as home lots, bringing the project’s home total from 726 to more than 800. However, some local citizens are against the rezoning, citing concerns about increased traffic that would come along with the new commercial development and its impact on infrastructure and the already stretched Woodbine Road. The Lakes at Woodbine is a planned neighborhood community located on the west side of Woodbine Road in Pace. The new development will include a variety of single-family home designs, recreational and social amenities as well as a commercial parcel that will serve the new community and local area. The 22-acre commercial parcel contiguous to the Lakes of Woodbine is anticipated to include neighborhood shops, medical and dental offices, climate-controlled storage, a coffee shop, an ice cream shop and a hair salon. Development of the commercial area is expected to occur within two to five years. The residential areas will be constructed in four phases and continuing over an estimated period of eight years.
COMMERCIAL
Map view of the new 22-acre, 750-lot Lakes of Woodbine community and rendering of proposed commercial space to be located on the west side of Woodbine Road in Pace.
RESIDENTIAL AMENITY
The Jubilee Project
The Seaside-like planned community, which is set to include a collection of homes, schools, shops, dining areas and a medical park, submitted a draft of the preliminary housing plat to the county last month. This first phase’s plan includes about 260 homes on 260 acres. This is just one segment of the 2,700 acres included in the entire Jubilee project, which sits between Willard Norris and Luther Fowler roads. Plans for Jubilee began taking shape in the mid- to late-2000s but were derailed by the tumultuous times of the Great Recession. Sometime in 2016, there was talk about potentially donating the land to the county but nothing ever came of it. Right now, the phase one proposal is with the county’s Planning and Zoning Department and the Engineering Department, and staff will give feedback to the project’s engineer. Clearing the land and setting infrastructure can only take place once the construction plans are OK’d by the engineering department. County Planning and Zoning Director Shawn Ward previously told the News Journal that because the project is so large, there is consideration among county officials to hold both County Commission and a zoning board meetings for projects exclusively attached to Jubilee.
Growth at Santa Rosa County Industrial Park
Santa Rosa County’s industrial parks could see some big announcements this year as developers continue to eye the Panhandle for expansion. In particular, an as-yet-unnamed Fortune 500 company entered a bid for 50 acres of space at the Northwest Florida Industrial Park for an initiative called “Project Unstoppable.” An announcement with more specifics on the project is expected to be made in the coming months.
PENSACOLA’S UNIQUE DRAW
I regularly ask my clients why they wanted to move
to Pensacola. While the answers are varied, the word I use to summarize is: unique. Since everyone’s impression of “unique” is different, it takes explaining to capture its meaning. Yes, we’re famous for our beaches and expansive shorelines, including the longest stretch of protected seashore in the country. But Pensacola boasts a colorful history and a cornucopia of surprises that make us unique.
But, I’ll back up a bit. Lately it seems everyone has fallen in love with Florida and people are moving here from all over the globe. Why? Because it’s brimming with a synthesis of history, culture, architecture and geography, incomparable to anywhere else. If you visualize Florida, surrounded by water on three sides, the Florida Peninsula itself is a microcosm of the entire country. From sprawling cities to tiny towns, from farms, ranches and groves, to hills, natural springs, caves, rivers, streams, lagoons and magnificent seashores. What’s not to love? That’s not all we love. Try no state income tax, short winters, mild temperatures and a vacation kind of atmosphere year round.
So why is Pensacola unique? Well, there’s water everywhere, giving the town a nautical feeling. Folks travelling here for vacation never forget it and inevitably want to return. Pensacola Bay was once one of the most important ports on the northern Gulf Coast, affording the deepest anchorage and a large protected harbor. It brought commerce to our shores and the town flourished into a busy village bursting with life. Our allure springs from distinctiveness: We are not Orlando, Tampa or Miami. First-timers feel comfortable and discover a dreamy sense of being, unlike anywhere they’ve been before.
Pensacola is comprised largely of active military, retirees, and their families. In addition to being home of the famous Blue Angels, NAS Pensacola is the training command post for Naval Aviators since the late 1930s and currently employs 16,000 military and 9,000 civilian personnel yearly. NAS Pensacola was the first Air Station commissioned by the U.S. Navy in 1914. Within 70 miles of NAS, there are four other bases, including Whiting Field, Hurlburt Field Air Force Base and Eglin Air Force Base, the largest military base in Florida.
Our settlement predates St. Augustine by six years and Jamestown by 50. Today’s city has much charisma with its architecture and brick-lined sidewalks. It began with the settlement of Native Americans before the Spanish landed and claimed the land in 1559, then ceded it to America over 200 years later. Steeped in history, downtown offers an allencompassing look at who and what made Pensacola the town it is today. Its archaeology tells the story of battles on the water; its position as the Middle Passage during the days of slavery, its industry, the arts; and its people. Downtown is very walkable with parks and green space everywhere. There’s a varied genre of musical offerings, art museums, galleries, and historic sites. Every structure tells a story. St. Michael’s, a Gothic Revival-style church, was dedicated in 1886 and is one of Pensacola’s oldest churches. Vinyl Music Hall is located in the restored Masonic Temple. And the Saenger Theatre hosts the ballet, the orchestra, concerts and Broadway shows. The architecture of downtown Pensacola is reminiscent of that found in New Orleans French Quarter, prominent at Seville Quarter’s dining and entertainment mecca. town. A wide plaza stretches down the center of the street and is home to a weekend market with local vendors and activities year round. From candy and ice cream, tacos and tapas, to the finest in haute cuisine; downtown Pensacola has everything you need to satiate your hunger, your sense of adventure, or fun shopping at local stores and boutiques.
I love festivals, and we’re overflowing with them! Seafood festivals, jazz festivals, art festivals, Mardi Gras, the Blue Angels Air Show, monthly Gallery night and Christmas, when downtown transforms into a captivating wonderland.
Of course, Pensacola Beach is our pride and joy! Don’t expect miles of big-box hotels and franchised stores. Instead you’ll relish our locally owned restaurants featuring fresh Gulf seafood and blocks of retrograde shops and boutiques. I’m a beach-lover and I rejoice each time I encounter the emerald waters and white sand.
On the Island sits 160-year-old Fort Pickens where we can camp, hike, explore and travel back in time to when cannons protected the waterways; visiting the fort where Geronimo was imprisoned defining his legacy as one of the most famous Indian warriors in American history. We are not your typical high-rise laden beach fronts, but there’s activity to charm everyone and a familiarity to make you feel at home.
Unique! It’s the word that comes to my mind every time someone says Pensacola.
Locally owned, Conna O’Donovan Real Estate is staffed with professionals committed to their communities and customers. Conna is known as “The Resort Specialist” in the NW Florida market.
