Okaloosa County commissioners unanimously approved moving forward with the design of a 50,000-square-foot multi-purpose event center at the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Rigdon Center on Tuesday, the next major step in a years-long effort to transform the Northwest Florida Fairgrounds into a regional tourism and local event destination.

• The board voted 4-0 on both items — authorizing the design phase and appointing a six-member special selection committee to handle procurement. Commissioner Paul Mixon was absent.

Deputy County Administrator Craig Coffey told commissioners the proposed facility would feature a dividable main event hall of 35,000 to 40,000 square feet capable of seating 2,500 to 3,000 people, with 45-foot ceilings, durable floors, a mezzanine, an elevator and a hardened metal structure designed for hurricane resiliency.

“We’re trying to design that right as far as making it a very multiple-use facility that can accommodate a lot of different events,” Coffey said. “Married up with the existing space, it’s going to make us in a whole new market of clients we can attract and bring to our county.”

The new building would join roughly 50,000 square feet of existing renovated space, 20,000 square feet of storage and 15 acres of outdoor area on the Rigdon Center campus, which sits on more than 35 acres.

RELATED: New kitchens, restrooms coming to Northwest Florida Fairgrounds in $1.9 million project

Phase I progress

The county has already made significant headway on Phase I improvements, including demolition of about 20,000 square feet of dilapidated buildings, along with upgrades to electrical systems, walls, lighting, ceilings and drainage. 

A 3,000-square-foot building with catering kitchens, a concession stand and restrooms is under construction, and facade and entrance improvements along the frontage road are about 90% through the design process, Coffey said.

Flooring, security cameras and an audio-visual technology package are still in the works.

Cost and funding

Coffey said the exact cost won’t be known until the design phase is complete, but estimated the building could come in between $12 million and $15 million based on a comparison to the Gulf Air Group hangar at the Crestview airport, which he described as a 90,000-square-foot hardened metal building with high ceilings that cost more than $17 million.

• Site work for parking, stormwater and landscaping could add another $1 million to $2 million, with professional services running $1.2 million to $1.5 million.

Staff proposed funding the project without direct taxpayer dollars. At least $9 million to $10 million would come from Gulf Consortium funding, which provides roughly $2.4 million per year through 2031. If the project reaches shovel-ready status by next March, the county would seek a legislative appropriation of more than $2 million during the 2027 session and a $500,000 state agriculture grant for fairgrounds improvements. The remainder would come from tourism funding.

Design alone could take up to a year, Coffey said, meaning construction would likely not go out to bid until 2027.

Convention center comparison

Coffey noted the current Destin-Fort Walton Beach Convention Center has a 22,000-square-foot main room that accommodates about 1,800 people for sit-down events like the All Sports Association Banquet, but some events are outgrowing that space.

The convention center also has limitations in parking — roughly 660 spaces — no adjacent hotel rooms and limited usable outdoor space. 

• By contrast, the Rigdon Center campus has two hotels with more than 200 rooms next door, an 18-hole municipal golf course with a restaurant across the street and multiple restaurants in the works on neighboring property.

Coffey presented plans from the Alachua County Sports & Events Center at Celebration Pointe in Gainesville as a concept for what the facility could look like. That facility is approximately 150,000 square feet — significantly larger than what Okaloosa is proposing.

Chairman Trey Goodwin said the Alachua facility is impressive but that scale isn’t right for Okaloosa County.

“We’re talking about right-sizing this thing at the 50,000-square-foot level. I think that’s really smart,” Goodwin said.

Protecting legacy events

Commissioner Carolyn Ketchel voiced support for the project but reiterated her ongoing concern that local organizations not be displaced by larger tourism-driven bookings.

“We must honor our legacy,” Ketchel said. “Those who have been there, they have got to be able to put their names in and say, this is the week we want to have it. They need to have a place where they can have their quilt shows and their gun shows and all of those kinds of things.”

• Coffey said staff is working on that concern and plans to identify all legacy events and treat their booking windows differently from other clients.

Goodwin said the combination of renovated existing space and the new 50,000-square-foot facility would allow the county to honor both commitments — protecting local events while attracting tourism.

“We’ll be able to accommodate both, keep our promises to our local citizens and stakeholders, and at the same time keep our commitment to following the requirements for use of TDT funds,” Goodwin said.

‘The next natural step’

Commissioner Sherri Cox thanked Fair Board President Charles Rigdon for his involvement and said she believes the county has been more careful in its approach than what she’s observed at the larger Alachua County facility.

Rigdon told commissioners the expansion is a natural continuation of the master plan developed by the original advisory committee.

• “What this does, this next phase gives her more bullets in her bag to be able to bring more things into the county,” Rigdon said, referring to Tourism Director Jennifer Adams. “It allows for bigger events that a lot of people have to leave the county to go participate in — volleyball tournaments, cheerleading tournaments, things of that nature.”

Goodwin said the timing of the project is ideal, noting the surrounding area has developed significantly in recent years with new hotels, restaurants and other amenities that weren’t in place a decade ago.

“A lot of things are lining up from a timing perspective that make this just really strategically smart,” Goodwin said. “And I think it’s exactly what we promised the public.”

The special selection committee will include PJ Berg, the convention center manager; Charles Rigdon; Jeff Peters, the facility and parks director; Jay Odom, the adjoining property owner and developer; Ron Shumard, the sports marketing coordinator on the TDT sales team; and Charlotte Dunsworth, the deputy director of finance and compliance.

County staff will now begin the Consultants’ Competitive Negotiation Act process to secure professional design services, funded by tourism dollars.