After years of discussion, the Niceville City Council unanimously approved a resolution to execute a 30-year lease agreement with the U.S. Department of Air Force for the Twin Oaks Park Mullett Festival Site at Tuesday’s meeting.
City Manager David Deitch said he’d been negotiating with Eglin Air Force Base, which owns the land, for “almost the entire time [he’s] been sitting in the seat.” The finished agreement will cost the city $65,000 total for the first year of the lease.
“$48,000 and change [of the $65,000] will be a cash payment,” Deitch said. “The remainder of the balance will be in-kind services for water services, sewer services, trash — things of that nature. Now, there’s a 3% escalator annually — 3% or CPI, whichever is lower — but that also applies to our income services.”
At the Niceville City Council meeting on Tuesday, Councilman Douglas Tolbert asked about a specific provision in the lease agreement.
“I did notice there’s a provision in there for the Air Force to approve any improvements we make on that property,” Tolbert said. “How long a process did they hint that that might be?”
Deitch said approvals should be “relatively expedient by federal government timelines,” and doesn’t expect the Air Force to take issue with enhancements the city makes on the site.
Deitch also said the lease agreement includes “get-out-of-jail-free language … in case revenues go sideways, so [the City of Niceville] isn’t locked in if the money isn’t there in the future”
The nearly 50 acres of land was the site of the Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival, which took place annually over Columbus Day weekend from 1976-2019 and featured carnival rides, live music, food stands and more. Emerald Coast Entertainment Services originally planned to bring the fest back in 2024, but it proved impossible due to licensing issues.
Matt Mckinnon of ECES said the Mullett Fest won’t be back for 2026, but the lease agreement is a big step in the right direction.
“We got set back because I guess we were pushing the envelope a little bit too fast,” Mckinnon said. “So we will be getting back with David Deitch and the mayor, and just kind of sitting out with them because it still depends on what they really want to do. … Rest assured that we will be having conversations with them over the next several months now that [the lease] has been taken care of, and if they allow us back over there, we’ll do it, but I don’t really know what their plans are for that.”
