Developers
poised to begin new projects
But 'amazing'
plans held up by lawsuits
After almost four years of negotiations, legal wrangling and
hurricanes, Navarre Beach's biggest development finally could break ground this
summer.
One of the last untouched stretches of sand is to become Port
Navarre -- 23 acres of high-rise condominiums, a hotel, shops, restaurants,
marinas and, yes, a Botox-ready spa and salon.
The sprawling, Destin-like community would almost double the
number of residential units on Navarre Beach and would expand the number of
shops there 20 or 30 times.
"If it happens, it truly will be spectacular," said
Santa Rosa County planner Bill DuBois, who is reviewing plans for what will
amount to a $300 million city-within-a-city, with 700 condo units and 100 hotel
rooms.
Roger Festa, the Atlanta-based developer best known for his
housing developments in northern Georgia, described the project as "a real
town center" for Navarre Beach. He estimates it will take about three
years to complete.
"It's going to be amazing," he said. "Nothing
else like it."
If lawsuits between the current and former landowners don't
derail the plans, Port Navarre will be the largest among a number of
residential and commercial projects planned or under way for the
hurricane-ravaged Navarre area.
The projects are just the latest sign that Santa Rosa County,
from the coastline to Whiting Field, is rapidly becoming one of the
fastest-growing counties in the Panhandle. More than 90 projects have been
approved for development in the county in the last year, and many more are on
the way, records show.
But not everyone is convinced that Port Navarre will get off
the ground, at least not this year.
For one thing, the sound-side property is the subject of
dueling lawsuits over who is the rightful owner.
A lawsuit filed by previous landowner Chris Ferrara, a
Louisiana businessman who's also building the first post- Katrina casino in
Mississippi, contends the principals are at such odds with each other that the
project is now "impossible."
A trial date has not been set in the lawsuit, which was filed
in Santa Rosa Circuit Court last summer, and the court has not issued any
orders to halt the project.
Festa said all concerns will be resolved. Ferrara did not
return calls for comment.
"The lawsuit is all about greed and stupidity,"
Festa said. "It's not going to slow us down. We're moving ahead with
things pretty quickly."
Festa is so confident, he said, that he recently bought a house
in Gulf Breeze.
The engineering firm of Hatch, Mott, McDonald also is
proceeding with plans, said engineer Mike Broussard of the firm's Pensacola
office. Developers asked county planners just last month for a variance on the
amount of parking and landscaping required.
A growing trend
Port Navarre reflects a growing nationwide trend among upscale
developers to build entire communities, from living space to offices to
shopping to recreation.
"The landscaping will be as nice as anything I've seen --
as nice as Disney World, put it that way," Festa said. "You'll see a
whole skyline, not just four sticks in the ground," he said, referring to
four planned condo towers centered around a commons area.
One of the amenities will be concealed parking, he said.
The parking garage will be underneath the condominium units,
hidden on one side by landscaped berms. On the sound side, the boardwalk and
stairways to the numerous shops will hide the garage, an approach Festa said
he's rarely seen in community developments.
The sound side also will include a lighthouse with storage for
beach equipment in the base and a penthouse on top. An amphitheater will host
bands and shows.
White-tablecloth restaurants will nestle alongside mom-and-pop
cafes, Festa said.
High-speed ferry boats will take golfers to the finest courses
on the Gulf Breeze peninsula.
"We have arrangements with all the courses," he
said.
But no WaveRunners or Jet Skis allowed, he said.
Festa has no plans for pre-selling the condominium units, although
he's had plenty of people interested.
"We just don't do that," he said. "That can
mean the buyer's out of his money for a long time."
Mounting traffic issues
The only concerns so far involve traffic, Santa Rosa County
officials said.
One issue is whether enough parking spaces will be available.
Another is whether Gulf Boulevard will have to be widened to handle all the
traffic in the peak summer months.
Festa has asked the county to reduce the number of required
parking spaces, which can be as high as 2.5 spaces per bedroom.
"Everyone's not there year-round," he said.
"You don't need 2.5 spaces for every unit all the time."
But the peak summer months are different, Santa Rosa's DuBois
said.
"That argument doesn't hold water with us," DuBois
said. "It's got to be able to handle the peak traffic."
Engineers also have had to slightly revise storm-surge plans.
The water now would flow through the garage, a plan that
leaves shops and residences above virtually unscathed, engineer Broussard said.
Port Navarre also will tie in nicely with Navarre's new zoning
and infrastructure plans, officials say.
The town of Navarre, across the sound, has launched plans for
revamping the central area near U.S. 98 and State Road 87, turning it into a
Destin-like town center. Festa said boats will ferry people to the center.
Next door to Port Navarre, on the west, is the wastewater
treatment plant for Navarre Beach. It soon will undergo an $8 million upgrade
and will have plenty of capacity for decades to come, officials said.
It's unclear what will happen to the prime acreage on the
beach side of the Port Navarre property, where the Holiday Inn stood before
Hurricane Ivan destroyed it
Owner Marilyn Hess said she doesn't yet know if Port Navarre
will affect her plans.
"We'll have to see what's going in over there," she
said. "It does sound like something that will be wonderful for us and for
Navarre."
From the beaches to the hills, Santa Rosa County
is in the midst of a major development boom that won't slow down for decades,
planners and developers say.
The towns of Navarre, Holley and Gulf Breeze all are ripe for more commercial
and residential development and redevelopment, according to real estate
professionals and plans filed with county officials.
In the north, the hotbeds of Pace and Milton are poised for major new projects
as thousands more people move annually to areas around U.S. 90, State Road 87,
Avalon Boulevard and Woodbine Road.
Long-term, Quintette Road, also known as State Road 84, from Pace all the way
to Cantonment, will see enormous commercial and residential growth, long-range
planning experts say.
In 20 years, the development along Quintette Road will rival what Nine Mile
Road north of Pensacola is today, said Karen Thompson, chief of long-range
planning for Escambia County.
People already are buying property there for long-term investment, she said.
Besides Port Navarre, Santa Rosa Commons and Navarre Town Center, four of the
biggest projects under way or planned to break ground this year are:
The Boardwalk, a 20-acre condo and shopping center in Navarre, on the north
side of U.S. 98, between Ortega Street and Elk's Way.
Waterside and Benton-By-The-Sea, two residential developments near the western
end of Navarre Beach that will include more than 200 units when completed.
Ashley Place, 179 new homes to be built on the 40 acres just south of Santa
Rosa Commons.
Chris Ferrara, a Louisiana businessman who is the previous
owner of the property on which Port Navarre is being built, and Roger Festa,
the Atlanta-based developer who now owns the property, are antagonists in a
lawsuit over the project.
Ferrara, a Baton-Rouge businessman, purchased the parcel in 1997 for $3.2
million, according to Santa Rosa County records.
Ferrara then sold the property in March 2004 for more than $12 million to Festa
and another partner in the deal, the Atlanta development firm of Avary-Wallace,
the records show.
Together, Festa andAvary-Wallace paid Ferrara $6 million in cash, Ferrara's
lawsuit says.
Ferrara agreed to invest the other $6 million into the project and become a
minority partner in return for the promise of even greater returns as Port
Navarre was developed.
By one account, Ferrara's eventual return would amount to more than $26
million, according to the lawsuit.
After the March 2004 sales agreement, things began to deteriorate rapidly,
according to Ferrara's lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims Avary-Wallace tried to "flip" its share of the
project, to which Ferrara and Festa objected.
Festa filed an arbitration claim against Avary-Wallace, Ferrara's lawsuit
contends. Avary-Wallace countersued. After more than a year of inactivity on
the project, Ferrara filed his own suit.
Ferrara, president of BackBay Development, which recently became the first firm
to receive Mississippi's approval for a land-based, post-Katrina casino, did
not return telephone calls seeking comment. Avary-Wallace principals didn't
either.
Festa said he's confident the suit will be resolved.
