The Navarre Beach Boardwalk Is a Menu, and the Oct. 19 Workshop Won't Order From It

If you have followed the boardwalk fight on Navarre Beach since August, what exactly is the county being asked to approve? The bid documents give the answer. It is a list of separately priced choices, and the cost of those choices has already moved well past the number first set aside for it.

The project is officially the Navarre Beach Event Hall and Boardwalk Complex. It is planned for undeveloped, county-owned land inside the Navarre Beach Marine Park, just south of the Navarre Beach Sea Turtle Conservation Center. Santa Rosa County opened three construction bids on Sept. 17. The commission has scheduled a public workshop for 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19, in Milton. That workshop is for information only. The board will not vote there.

What the $8.3 Million Actually Buys

The building has shrunk since the August coverage. Navarre Press described an elevated "education and office building" of roughly 10,000 square feet in its Aug. 21 report. The county's current figure is 6,523 square feet. Of that, 3,710 square feet is an event hall with a maximum occupancy of 248 people. The rest is a lobby, two meeting rooms, an A/V room, a warming kitchen, storage and restrooms. In September 2025 the board decided the building would be entirely for public use, with no office space. It is also designed to hold Board of County Commissioners meetings, much like the current meeting space at Tiger Point.

The county asked bidders to price the project in two layers. The first is a base package. The second is five independent options the commission can add or leave out. The low bidder, Crucible Construction LLC of Spanish Fort, Alabama, priced it like this:

The five options are retail shops with a canopy, a food truck plaza with a platform and canopy, an additional public restroom building with a beach walkover, a composite decking upgrade, and a movable partition system for dividing the event hall. The restroom and walkover option alone came in at $1,761,139 from Crucible.

One detail clears up a common point of confusion. The parking lot and restroom are already inside the $8.3 million base figure, and the walkover option is a second restroom building on top of that. Crucible was the low bidder on both the base package and the full package. The county's bid tabulation lists Empire Builders Group of Pensacola at $9,485,466.86 and Green-Simmons Company, also of Pensacola, at $9,836,748.

Deputy County Administrator Jared Lowe said the bids were structured this way so commissioners could "pick and choose" among the options. That means a vote on this project could go several ways. The board could approve the base package alone, the base with some add-ons, or a smaller version. Commissioner Ray Eddington proposed that smaller version in late August, when he asked fellow board members to drop everything except the boardwalk itself. The other commissioners called the request premature because the bids had not yet been opened.

The Number Set Aside Was $5.5 Million

In 2024 the Tourist Development Council voted to earmark $5.5 million for a boardwalk. The lowest base bid is $8,321,183, about $2.8 million more than that earmark before a single option is added. Crucible's price for the event hall, boardwalk and stairs, without the lot or restroom, is $5,127,608. That is the piece closest to the original earmark.

The tourism money has a specific source. The county FAQ explains that the tourist development tax is collected from visitors staying in short-term lodging and that state law limits how it can be spent. Design work has cost $823,109 so far. Dewberry Engineers Inc. was paid $106,600 for the parking lot and restroom design, and STOA was paid $716,509 for the boardwalk and event hall. According to Assistant County Administrator Sabrina White, all of it came from the Tourist Development Department's budget. As of mid-September, that budget's bank balance was a little over $6 million. The proposed 2026-27 budget for the tourism department is $5,746,370, up 3.66 percent from the previous fiscal year.

The FAQ does not say how the gap between the earmark and the bids would be covered, and it does not say the full construction cost is committed. Those are fair questions to bring to Oct. 19, because the answer affects which options are realistic.

Dunes, Lighting and the Nesting Calendar

Much of the opposition centers on the site. Navarre Press describes the land as undeveloped and covered in sea oats. Cinnamon Tyler of the Navarre Beach Sea Turtle Patrol told the paper that the marine park is one of the least developed stretches of Navarre Beach. Sea turtles nest there from May through October, and artificial light can lead hatchlings toward the dunes instead of the Gulf. Least terns and black skimmers also nest in the marine park.

The county addresses these points in its 16-question FAQ. It says the project sits north of the dune line and the Coastal Construction Control Line, the same line that applies to the pier, existing walkovers and condos. It says the project must follow the county's Marine Turtle Protection Lighting Ordinance, and it cites the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's position that walkovers keep foot traffic off nesting dunes. The procurement file includes an "FWC Approved Exterior Lighting Plan Package" for the parking and restroom work. The site carries the same Navarre Beach Conservation/Recreation zoning used for the Navarre Beach Pier, the Sea Turtle Conservation Center, the Marine Education Center and the beach fire and rescue facility.

The nesting calendar also shapes the construction schedule. The bid documents expected a Notice to Proceed after or shortly after the 2026 migratory bird nesting season, which they say usually ends around Sept. 1. They also note that the county was pursuing permits to allow work during the 2027 season if needed. That timing was planned before any contract existed. It is not a construction start date.

Where the Decision Actually Happens

The Oct. 19 meeting is one step in a longer process. According to the county FAQ, the procurement sequence runs like this:

1. Procurement staff review the submitted bids for compliance.
2. Staff and the department running the project recommend an award.
3. The Board of County Commissioners approves or rejects that recommendation.
4. The county signs a contract with the selected vendor and oversees the work.

As of early October, the county's procurement portal shows no vendor selected, and no date has been announced for a contract vote. At an Aug. 25 commission workshop at the Tiger Point Community Center, Assistant County Administrator Jared Lowe said the board would take no action until a potential contract came back to it.

The workshop is still on the county calendar for Oct. 19 at 6 p.m. in the BOCC Boardroom in Milton. Public comment has been heavy. Opponents filled the public forum at the Sept. 22 commission meeting in Milton. As of Sept. 17, two Change.org petitions asking the county to drop the project had a combined 12,591 signatures. Navarre Beach resident Erika Thomas started one of them. She and Tyler are part of a community group called Save Our Beach, and Terry Light, co-owner of Pik-Itz Art & Antiques, hosted a meeting with several of its members.

The vote history helps explain the timing. A majority of the board voted at a Committee of the Whole meeting on Sept. 11, 2025, to move ahead with a scaled-down design. On Sept. 25, 2025, the board formally approved it 2-1. Two commissioners were absent that day, and Commissioner Rhett Rowell cast the dissenting vote. Eddington represents District 4, which includes Navarre Beach. He lost the August primary to Dean Light and leaves office in November. If the award comes to the board after that change, the District 4 seat will have a different commissioner when the board chooses from the bid options.

For anyone who wants to read the county's own explanations before the workshop, the Navarre Beach Boardwalk Project page links to the FAQ. The FAQ also links to recordings of the July 21, 2025 board discussion, starting around the 37:23 mark, and the Sept. 11, 2025 discussion, starting around 1:14:28. The bid tabulation and the lighting plan are posted on the county's procurement portal.

Public projects in the marine park affect what life on the island feels like, and in time they come up in conversations about what a Navarre Beach home is worth. If you own on Navarre Beach and want help thinking through how projects like this one could matter to your plans, Andra Morgan would be glad to talk it over with you calmly and in detail. Let's Work Together.