For decades, Emerald Coast locals have been battling tourism-congested commutes up and down Highway 98. In Fort Walton Beach, a convergence of local and transient travelers has created a bottleneck at the Brooks Bridge.

A new bridge, planned for completion in 2027, is set to solve some of these problems, but the interim has created additional traffic obstacles. Greater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Ted Corcoran says the benefits far outweigh the growing pains.

“We’ve got to do it; you can’t complain,” he says. “Time will pass, and we’ll say, ‘Oh my gosh, this is wonderful. I don’t even remember being inconvenienced.’”

In 1966, the Brooks Bridge experienced its first dramatic upgrade from two lanes to four, from wood to concrete, and from flat to curved. It was built with a 50-year life expectancy, but already after a decade, Corcoran says, traffic had increased from around 2,000 cars a day to upwards of 15,000 cars a day.

In 2005, local historian and business owner Tom Rice led the Emerald Coast Bridge Authority in brainstorming a solution.

“The capacity was terrible—there were too many cars for too little space,” Rice says. “But the DOT doesn’t give you any money for capacity.”

Without funding, Rice’s bridge proposal would have to include a toll facility. With a lack of consensus and money, plans fell to the wayside. Today’s bridge project, he says, is being funded due to age.

“This will be the third bridge in my lifetime,” says Rice, who can recall the original 1933-built Brooks Bridge. “It was a trestle. And the trestle moved when the boats would come down the sound. You’d hear the bell ringing if you rode your bicycle down there on main street, at the grocery store, or at Roberts Rexall Drugs.”

Today, the heavily traveled segment of Highway 98 experiences 66,000 drivers daily, according to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).

The new Brooks Bridge,
a $171 million project, will expand to six lanes with the addition of a 12-foot-wide pedestrian and bicyclist path in each direction. The paths will feature a safety barrier wall and scenic overlooks with shade structures.

The new bridge will extend past Okaloosa Island’s current Highway 98 and Santa Rosa Boulevard intersection. While drivers coming from Fort Walton Beach and headed to Santa Rosa Boulevard’s strip of condominiums and beach accesses will now exit the bridge at Pier Road, travelers driving from Destin to Santa Rosa Boulevard will exit after the Destin-Fort Walton Beach convention center then loop around the bayside corner.

“It will revolutionize Okaloosa Island,” Corcoran says, noting that this will increase visibility for businesses on the north side of the island.

But how long will these improvements accommodate our growth? According to FDOT, Florida’s population is projected to increase by 1,000 people daily for the next 30 years. In 2024, tourism numbers broke records with 142.9 million visitors to the Sunshine State.

Research for the new bridge began in 2016. Those numbers are already nearly a decade old. 

“It probably already is surpassing the capacity of that,” Corcoran says. “It will be interesting to see what happens in 50 years, how many more people will be coming here.”

A piggyback project, Around the Mound in downtown Fort Walton Beach, plans to help alleviate the bottlenecking, potentially diverting Highway 98 traffic around the Indian Temple Mound Museum, separating downtown from the flow of highway traffic.

“Right now, if there’s no Around the Mound, it doesn’t change downtown,” says Corcoran, who sees the project as downtown’s route to revolution. “Now, downtown becomes that strolling marketplace. Now, you’re driving down there to park and walk around downtown, like you walk around any cool downtown space.”

Rice says the redesign of downtown is a return to the old ways.

Rice is skeptical that “somehow all this property that’s south of that Around the Mound will blossom into something akin to what I grew up with, with Robert’s Rexall Drugs and Miss Eloise’s store. Somehow, this is going to be some kind of magic? I don’t know,” Rice says. “I haven’t been convinced by the arguments that it’s going to help transportation.”

An alternative meeting in February 2024 offered conceptualization of two options, one at grade and one elevated with bridges. Project cost estimations range from $299 million to $312 million and would require one residential relocation and between 69-71 business relocations. A final public hearing will be held before finalizing the PDE phase and moving onto design.

Already, $40.5 million has been invested in the project development and environment (PDE) study phase for Around the Mound.

Will a return to Old Florida be worth the cost?

“If we want Fort Walton Beach to have a downtown and to turn into a destination and not just a drive-thru, then absolutely I think it’s worth it,” Corcoran says. “I think it will be one of the most dramatic changes ever to Fort Walton Beach.”

A loss of some 70 businesses sounds like a heavy blow. But Corcoran says most business owners wouldn’t mind the eminent domain payout. If the business is viable, they’ll have the funding to move elsewhere in town.

Rice’s business once benefited from an eminent domain buyout. When Publix arrived at the Paradise Point Shopping Center across the street, Magnolia Grill got the boot. The funding helped him purchase and renovate the historic home where Magnolia Grill lives today.

He admits, “Sometimes change can be really good.” ▪

Itwas just after developer and cofounder of Sandcastle Resorts and Hotels Frank Flautt had purchased a 10-acre beachfront lot that would house the future Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa that he placed a call to his friend Ernest Shahid.

Shahid, who developed the first major condominium in Destin in 1971, asked him what was wrong.

“I said, ‘Ernie, I think I made a tremendous mistake … I’m sitting here in Sandestin at night, and I don’t see a single light anywhere,’” Flautt recalls of the conversation. “There was no infrastructure here, and on the beach, there was nothing to speak of.”

In the early ’70s, other developers had purchased the 2,400 acres of land in Miramar Beach that we now know as Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort. By the ’80s they had only begun to establish infrastructure across the vast acreage. In purchasing the plot of land for the future Hilton Sandestin Beach, which is located within Sandestin gates, Flautt had unwittingly bought into a bright future for his hotel resort.

But back then, Sandestin’s beachside was hardly more than sand.

“When I came here in the ’80s, it was so primitive, we would have to buy groceries in Fort Walton Beach,” Flautt says. “There were a couple hamburger places, but no real infrastructure in place, no health care.”

Flautt, who previously operated a company that developed numerous Holiday Inns around Florida, saw potential in the paradise plain.

“It was very difficult to get started because interest rates were about 21 percent, and nothing made financial sense with that kind of debt,” Flautt says. “So, working with Destin developer Peter Bos, we made a plan to the develop the Hilton and sell units as a condominium.”

Hilton Sandestin Beach, which officially opened in 1984, got off to a rocky start. Flautt said things were “thin” for the first five or six years, just barely making enough profit to sustain operations and payroll.

Then, Flautt said the area began to take off. Peter Bos made great strides in Destin. Then, there was Keith Howard across the road in Sandestin, who would ultimately create Grand Boulevard, the Silver Sands Premium Outlets, and several resort residential communities, and who Flautt says “did a fantastic job of putting the whole area on the map.”

“That’s what people want to come here for,” Flautt says. “They want the sun and the sand, but they also want something to do—shopping, eating, recreations. Development has been so positive since I’ve been here, and our customers have been the greatest. There are new ones every year, but many are people who come here to stay each year and have been growing up alongside us and the property.”

As more hotels and condominiums began popping up along the coast, there was one luxury resort destination that would open in 2007 and became one of Destin’s most identifiable landmarks.

Comprised of two 13-story towers nestled within the Destin Harbor, the Emerald Grande at HarborWalk Village had been in the making since Peter Bos visited the area in the 1970s and swore he’d build a hotel.

The proposal was met with some controversy, recalls Greg Featherston, vice president of special projects for Legendary Marina and director of operations for the Emerald Grande.

“I remember hearing one of our past mayors at a city council meeting say, ‘What is that monstrosity that blocks the sun?’” Featherston recalls with a laugh. “I think attitudes have changed; the market has changed. Growth is going to happen no matter what, and the best you can do is to control it within reason.”

Featherston has been working alongside Bos for the past 44 years. Now 78, he has no plans of retiring anytime soon. A local since the mid ’80s, he is proud of the way Bos has developed the area, not only with the Emerald Grande but with infrastructure and attractions such as the Destin Commons, Legendary Marina, and Regatta Bay Golf & Yacht Club.

“The impact of the Emerald Grande and HarborWalk have been significant,” Featherston says. “Next to Eglin and Sacred Heart, we are one of the bigger employers in the area that have provided careers for people who have been with us for many years. And I think the tax implications over the years—not only bed tax paid by what is generated here but real estate taxes paid by all our different owners—is pretty significant.”

Featherston expects an even greater impact soon, as they get ready to begin phase two of the Emerald Grande. The eastward expansion will include a larger parking garage capable of holding about 1,500 vehicles, an additional 350-plus hotel rooms, a new water feature, a large arcade for rainy day entertainment, and a slew of new restaurants.

“The city has been working with us very well,” Featherston says. “I know traffic is a problem, but whatever should have been done about that to prevent it, should have been done a long time ago. You can look at 30A and see they are going through the same issues. If they could only look forward to try to figure something out while there is still vacant land there.”

Featherston says the cost of living in Destin is an issue. Exorbitant rent expenses are pushing workers out to areas including Fort Walton Beach, Crestview, Niceville, and Navarre. Their commutes get them caught up in tourism traffic and contribute to congestion.

“You’ve got places like the apartments north of the Walmart, but they’re asking so much for rent you’ll have four or five workers grouping up in one unit to afford it,” Featherston says. “It would be nice if we had the space for low-income and affordable housing, but that’s just not feasible without government subsidies, and the price of land is so high it would be difficult to turn a profit. It’s very unfortunate.”

Featherston says while beachfront space is now essentially nonexistent, he does foresee the area growing a bit more on the northern side. “It’s just got to be smart and sustainable,” he adds.

Flautt shares the same sentiment. “My hope for this area in the next few years is we don’t get too overdeveloped and unappealing,” he says.

After all, there is a reason the Emerald Coast has been a must-visit vacation destination for generations.

“All of this new development looks fresh and good now, but my theory is we’ve got to continue to put money back into these properties and make it a place people want to come,” Flautt says. “It can’t get dirty or unpleasant to be here.

“We can’t let it lose its charm.” ▪

E. F. San Juan and partners Weather Shield Windows & Doors and Loewen proudly sponsored the lecture “Creating a Classic: Exploring Timeless Collaborations in Architecture and Design” by the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art (ICAA), Florida Chapter, at Authentic Provence on Nov. 15, 2023. This insightful event, which showcased collaborations within the ICAA membership, including past Addison Mizner Award recipients, also marked the announcement of the 12th annual Addison Mizner Award call for entries.

The panel featured E. F. San Juan’s long-time partners Marieanne Khoury-Vogt and Erik Vogt of Khoury Vogt Architects, the Town Architects of Alys Beach. They highlighted their Addison Mizner Award-winning projects and discussed their collaborations over the years through engaging conversation and imagery. Marieanne Khoury-Vogt, has recently been acknowledged by the Urban Guild as this year’s recipient of the Barranco Award. The Urban Guild recognizes excellent architectural design within the context of good urbanism, with the Barranco Award going to “individuals who not only distinguished themselves in design but who also demonstrate a gift for building relationships beyond architecture, and inspiring coalitions for transformative change in the lives of families and communities.”

E. F. San Juan President, Edward San Juan, expressed his enthusiasm for the event, stating: “We were thrilled that Marieanne and Erik were able to address the group, and everyone I spoke to found their story very interesting. There were a lot of positive comments on the event being a conversation rather than a lecture. We appreciate E. F. San Juan’s association with ICAA and feel blessed to be able to partner on events such as this.”

Save the date for the Addison Mizner Awards Gala at The Colony on April 20, 2024 — an eagerly anticipated event in the architectural community!

Additionally, E. F. San Juan is excited about their upcoming partnership with Seaside Institute™ as the keystone presenting sponsor for the esteemed 2024 Seaside Prize Weekend, set for February 2–4, 2024.

About E. F. San Juan Inc.

The San Juan family’s roots in woodworking can be traced back to the mid-1900s. At that time, Eddie San Juan, father of company founder, Edward F. San Juan, was the family patriarch and a master craftsman whose skill and entrepreneurial spirit formed the basis for E. F. San Juan Inc. Three generations later, the E. F. San Juan companies have evolved from modest facilities and equipment to a state-of-the-art facility featuring the world’s finest woodworking equipment based in Youngstown, Florida. Coupled with a highly-skilled and dedicated workforce, the company continues to set the standard for quality architectural millwork in the markets it serves. Visit EFSanJuan.com to learn more.