Pensacola’s Bay Bluffs Park may finally be moving toward a reopening next year after it was closed in 2023 when the city deemed the boardwalk too dangerous to remain open because some of the wooden posts buried under the sand had rotted.
The city won a $2.2 million state grant in partnership with Conservation Florida to reopen the park and ensure the park would remain public land forever. The city officially accepted the grant last fall. City officials were optimistic the project would be able to move forward quickly and even held a community input session in October 2025 about what the public would want to see at a restored park.
In February, Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves announced at his state of the city address that more of the boardwalk could be repaired than initially expected, but the city still didn’t have permission to begin spending the $2.2 million grant.
That authorization didn’t come from the Department of Environmental Protection until April 21, Reeves said earlier this month.
“The city of Pensacola could not spend $1, nor lift one finger or spend $1 in resources toward Bay Bluffs Park and this $2.2 million until April 21 of this year,” Reeves said. “So I can assure our citizens we’ve been diligent about asking when the money’s coming in, and since the money has come in, we’ve been working very diligently to get that going.”
Pensacola City Administrator David Stafford said on July 29 that HDR will begin work to produce construction plans that will be ready to go out to bid in March or April 2027. Construction could begin as soon as the fall of 2027.
“So as we sit here today, that’s the rough timeline,” Stafford said.
Stafford said HDR expects to have the work done and know exactly what parts of the boardwalk can be saved and which will have to be completely replaced by the end of October.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola Bay Bluffs Park reconstruction expected in fall of 2027
Reporting by Jim Little, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jim Little, Pensacola News Journal | USA TODAY Network
