After years of discussion and almost a dozen offers, Escambia County approved a sale agreement for 540 acres in Beulah known as OLF 8 with Tri-W Development and Chad C. Henderson Enterprises of Pensacola II for $42.5 million.
The board voted unanimously to make the deal at its June 5 meeting.
During their discussion of the offer, commissioners said they are excited about what Tri-W will do with the property .
District 5 Commissioner Steven Barry said he and the commissioners have had multiple opportunities to talk with them and he’s confident they are a good choice.
“I think we have the right partner in place for a generational and transformational project,” Barry said.
District 1 Commissioner Steve Stroberger, who represents the area where OLF 8 is located, also supported the decision, although he had initially wanted another developer, Beulah Town Center.
“With time I have come to a different decision,” Stroberger said to the Tri-W developers. “I believe you will do a fantastic job out there.”
Board chair Mike Kohler said it has been a long wait, pointing out the many developers who showed interest in developing the property, but the wait was worth it.
“I didn’t think we would get here,” Kohler said. “This is good for the community. Not everything can happen downtown, and this will be a place the community can be proud of.”
Tri-W is a partnership that includes Chad Henderson, founder and chief executive officer of Catalyst Healthcare Real Estate, and former Pensacola mayor Ashton Hayward, as well as Jim Wilson and Associates, a Montgomery, Alabama-based commercial real estate development.
Tri-W offered $42.5 million to buy all 540 acres in a single payment at closing.
Henderson thanked the board for the opportunity to develop OLF 8 and said he and his partners don’t take it lightly.
“All of the confidence you and the community have put in us is not lost,” Henderson said. “It’s a great honor to move this project forward.”
The sales agreement states that once both Escambia County and Tri-W approve the agreement, Tri-W will get a six-month inspection period to do the things required in a land purchase agreement, such as a title search and engineering test of the land itself.
The agreement calls for the deal to close 45 days after the end of the inspection period.
If both sides approve the agreement in June and the inspection period begins right away, the deal could close in early 2026.
However, the deal allows for several extensions and if they are all taken the sale would not close until the end of 2026.
Several people who live in the Beulah area spoke prior to the vote saying while they support Tri-W, they want to make sure they follow the DPZ Master Plan, which was developed by a “world class urban design and planning firm.”
“The DPZ Master Plan and the Beulah Design Code are evergreen and based on concepts that are longstanding,” Beulah resident Theresa Blackwell said, who has long followed the process. “It’s crucial for Beulah’s future. It must remain intact, and any changes should go through the normal process, not a firm chosen by the buyer and changes need to serve the community and not buyer.”
Escambia County hired DPZ CoDesign to develop a Master Plan for the property, which includes a mix of commercial and residential development and a town center with amenities within walking distance like shops, restaurants and other services.
Part of the OLF 8 property is also dedicated to light industrial and job development. Tri-W developers say they are committed to working with economic development groups like FloridaWest to bring commercial development to the project, as is outlined in the Master Plan.
Henderson said Tri-W will hire DPZ CoDesign or another firm “reasonably acceptable” to the county to make any changes that could be needed to the Master Plan.
Any changes to the master plan will have to be approved by the Escambia County Commission before the sale can close.
Since listing the property for sale in 2021, Escambia County has had multiple offers. Some buyers have walked away and come back, including Tri-W.
Others simply walked away including Beulah Town Center, a company that made several offers for the property and negotiated with the county on two of them, but neither effort resulted in a contract.
Developers with the company, Fred Hemmer and Chad Horne, sent a letter to commissioners earlier in the week.
“Beulah Town Center and its partners, including Metro Development, wish the county and the community of Beulah all of the best with OLF 8,” the letter said. “We remain here to help should the county wish to re-engage with us.”
Navy Outlying Field 8 was a former 640-acre Navy aviation training field the county obtained in 2019 after spending more than $17 million building the Navy a new training field in Santa Rosa County.
Navy Federal Credit Union bought 98 acres of OLF 8 for $4.2 million and committed to bringing an additional 300 jobs to Pensacola.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Escambia County finally approves sale agreement for OLF 8
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