From the archive: This story was first published on January 31, 2023.

Niceville may rival Pensacola, Fort Walton Beach or Panama City in the next decade for tourism. But that dream must be bidded out to the best engineering group for realization at a meeting on Thursday, February 2nd. 

The Niceville Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) will make a decision at their Thursday meeting about who will design the downtown area of Niceville to attract industry, tourism and commerce. 

A Community Redevelopment Agency is an physical area of a town or city where increased property taxes fund a revitalization of an area considered to be slums or have blight.

What will this downtown area include? According to the current plan on the City’s website, it includes upgrading Turkey Creek, restoring the lumber mill site, adding old-time downtown retail shops, building residential developments and restoring the landing area. 

Over the last decade, the Niceville CRA, has renovated the land it’s responsible for – primarily the land abutting the northernmost part of Boggy Bayou and the Turkey Creek Nature trail and portions of the city of Niceville, west of Partin Drive. This includes the nature trail itself and the landing. 

CRA members will decide which civil engineering firm will get a contract with the city to create the plans for the future. 

“The idea is to make this more of a destination for visitors and for families – and for industries, for that matter,” said Lee Lewis, the Niceville-based Vice President of AVCON – one of the contractors vying for the city’s business. 

The CRA will meet at the Niceville City Council Chambers at 6pm. Meetings are open to the public.