Community Maritime Park

In 2007, the Community Maritime Park Associates, Inc. commissioned a team of experts in urban design, sports and assembly architecture, landscape architecture and waterfront park design, site and waterfront engineering, and development economics to prepare Design Criteria for the development of Pensacola’s Community Maritime Park. This planning process determined the direction for the 27.5 acre parcel in the heart of the Pensacola Waterfront. Its intention is to create a mix of public and private development meant to create a new focus for civic life in Pensacola. It is to include a number of cultural uses of public benefit, including a multi-use park that could accommodate minor league baseball games, other local sporting events, concerts, commencements, and other large gatherings. A Maritime Museum and Center, associated outdoor exhibit space, and a conference facility and auditorium are planned as well. Private development is encouraged to provide tax base for the City, and to support the development of public areas. Private development will introduce retail, offices, restaurants, as well as other private enterprises to enliven the district.

Hawkshaw Village

The City of Pensacola, the public, and others sensitive to downtown Pensacola redevelopment have focused on the reestablishment of the City Grid as the framework for redevelopment. Hawkshaw Village calls for the redesign of the street network for both pedestrians and vehicles. The streets will be tree-lined with public sidewalks that entice the public to walk along streetscapes which tie the Historic District, Aragon, Bayfront, and the Chase/Gregory mixed-use together. In line with a true mixed-use development, Caldwell Associates’ concept envisions the ultimate development to include a grocery store, housing, “work force” housing, shopping, dining, Hawkshaw Towers (to include a quarter of a million SF of office space), education, government, hotel, and recreation.

An important element of this project is Veterans Lake. Currently the inability to provide for storm water retention is a deterrent to development, as well as a cause for poor water quality in Pensacola Bay. Veterans Lake offers a unique opportunity to foster development in the area, provide for a quality recreation area, and improved water quality being introduced into the bay. It is to become a beautiful focal point for the public to picnic, jog, walk, and have family gathering with the views and vistas of Pensacola Bay.