Christopher Ferrara, who lost a 2021 battle to allow an RV park on 23 acres he leases on Navarre Beach, is now moving forward with plans to construct condominiums on the Intracoastal Waterway site.
The property is located on Santa Rosa Sound, across Gulf Boulevard from Springhill Suites. The current Navarre Beach wastewater treatment plant is located on a county-owned parcel adjacent to the west side of the project property. A vacant portions of that adjacent county-owned site is being considered as a landing point for a future new Navarre Beach Bridge, per state transportation officials.
Engingeer Ryan Sieg this week submitted related project information to the Santa Rosa County Development Office.
The revised Port Navarre project includes the construction of three condominium/hotel towers comprising roughly 400,000 square feet, per Santa Rosa County.
The proposed complex will also include a clubhouse and recreation area for the exclusive use of the tenants. Supporting infrastructure inclusive of onsite parking, utilities, two new driveway connections, etc. will also be permitted and constructed. Stormwater runoff is to be routed to multiple stormwater treatment ponds located throughout the parcel.
Ferrara purchased the parcel for $3.2 million on November 1, 1997. Initial plans called for a $300 million development which included a 100-room hotel, shops, restaurants, spa and marina, plus 700 condominiums. But those plans didn’t survive multi-year negotiations amongst Ferrara and others in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
Back in 2021, the Navarre Beach Leaseholders and Residents Association oppossed a lease amendment request which would have allowed construction of a 171-lot RV park on the site. Subsequently, Santa Rosa County Commissioners denied the request, which was upheld in court.
The new plans, which are allowed per the county’s land development code, include three condominium towers each with a roughly 25,375-square-foot footprint plus the aforementioned tenant-only amenities.
