Academy Sports & Outdoors is preparing to open a new store at 546 Mary Esther Cut Off NW in Fort Walton Beach, taking over a building with a varied history of occupants, according to documents submitted to the City of Fort Walton Beach.
- The sporting goods retailer will occupy the space that was once a Walmart and later split between ResortQuest/Vacasa and Liza Jackson Preparatory School. The school has since relocated to a new facility.
According to obtained documents, the project involves a complete buildout of the existing structure.
Site work includes resurfacing and restriping the parking lot west of the building, as well as expanding the eastern parking lot and truck docking area. The total project area spans approximately 131,241 square feet, with a sales floor area of 56,413 square feet.
The city has issued two permits for the project. An alteration build out permit was issued on Aug. 22, 2024, for the Academy Sports buildout, with the value of the permitted work at $4,300,000.
- A parking lot permit was issued on Aug. 19, 2024, for resurfacing and restriping, with the value of this work at $75,000.
Construction work is currently underway at the property. However, an opening date for the new Academy Sports & Outdoors store has not been announced.
A 37,087 sq.ft. space is available for lease next to Academy Sports and Outdoors.
3 Responses
This is an excellent! What used to be empty will be filled with families getting stuff to play outdoors
I love it!
Finally something useful in town!!! I think we are all sick of oil change shops and storage units. Now let’s put a Texas Roadhouse at the old Friday’s location
Did we used to have an Academy Sports Store here? I seem to remember one on the Cut-off but I could be wrong.