The circular bandshell rising above Fort Walton Beach’s downtown waterfront has been one of the most complex pieces of the Landing park renovation — and it’s the one standing between the city and a finished park.
“We’re really closing in on it,” said Joe Garvie, owner of GLC Contracting Inc., during a presentation to the Fort Walton Beach City Council last month. “The structural steel on it has been really a custom job, very difficult job. That’s a complete concrete silo with all the rebar going, and just being a circular fashion, it’s just made it extremely difficult for everything attaching into it.”
- Garvie told council members his crews are targeting the end of March to complete the project, which has stretched past its original mid-December target. Phase one, which included the docks and seawall along the waterside, is finished. Work now centers on phases two and three simultaneously.
On the bandshell, concrete was scheduled to be poured the day after the meeting into columns supporting the steel structure. A structural engineer was set to visit the site to approve the upper roof and welds, a step that would clear the way for painting the structural steel and beginning work on a TPO roof that will sit above the existing metal roof. The lower roof had roughly two weeks of work remaining.
Other bandshell work included forming the concrete base for an HVAC unit, completing a final sidewalk around the structure and starting footers for the seating walls.
Phase three, focused on the park’s west side, is further along. The seating and retaining walls are complete, and artificial turf has been installed. One sidewalk remains to be finished, and irrigation work was scheduled to begin Feb. 16.
Garvie said three concrete crews, an electrical crew, a structural steel crew and an irrigation crew were on site, with a roofing crew ready to start once the engineer signs off. Handrails have been fabricated and are waiting for installation. All phase three deliverables are on site or staged for delivery, he said.
The roughly $8 million renovation is funded through a combination of Natural Resource Damage Assessment grants, Restore Act funds, Okaloosa County Tourist Development tax revenues, the county’s Half-Cent Surtax and the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, with no impact to the city’s general fund. Phase one delivered a reinforced 700-foot seawall, concrete boardwalk, renovated docks, a new kayak launch and a living shoreline.
Council Member David Schmidt asked about a potential phase four, which Public Works Director Daniel Payne said would cover everything outside the current construction fence. Drawings and documents exist for that phase, Payne said, but funding has not been secured.
- “We’ve funded through phase three…is where we’re at funding-wise,” Schmidt said.
Garvie closed his presentation by thanking city staff, singling out Payne for his communication efforts throughout the project.
“Daniel’s done just an awesome job with all his communication with everybody,” Garvie said. “I think it’s just gonna be a wonderful job when it’s done.”
