The Baptist Legacy Campus narrative floated over the weekend was that West Moreno District residents who voiced concerns about the mayor’s recommendation to hire Bayou District Consulting to advise the city on the redevelopment of the old Baptist Hospital campus mistakenly “conflated Bayou District Foundation with the closure of the St. Bernard public housing complex, which Columbia Parc replaced.”
According to Mayor D.C. Reeves and the PNJ, most of the Pensacola City Council wants to give the consultants another hearing. The only obstacle is Councilman Delarian Wiggins.
- The insinuation is that if Wiggins gives in to the pressure, Bayou District Consulting will get the project, and everyone will be happy.
Lack of Connection with Community
At the Pensacola City Council meeting on Dec. 11, several citizens spoke out against hiring Bayou District Consulting. Yes, some talked about the Bayou District Foundation and New Orleans, but many more complained about the process and lack of any contact from City Hall over the past two years since Baptist Hospital abandoned its hospital.
One resident complained that the recommendation was considered “without the public’s knowledge, all of this before a single community meeting was held. That’s not leadership. That’s a setup. Y’all should be ashamed of yourselves.”
- He added, “Every one of y’all should call for the resignation of this mayor, who has sold out this community just like his daddy did.”
Sarah Brummet said, “D.C. Reeves and his clique of developers who run this city predetermined that they wanted this company to do the work. And so that’s why in 2023, our mayor invited Gerry Barousse to a private meeting with local developers. That’s why in 2024, our mayor took Pensacola’s powerful over to New Orleans to tour Columbia Parc.”
- She continued, “That’s why in 2025, y’all have ignored at every single turn the real and justified concerns of this community because the city already has a plan, and you think you can manipulate us into buying that plan. But it wasn’t rushed, and it wasn’t murky. It was just shady and sneaky and totally undemocratic the way this city does business.”
Community activist Hale Morrissette sounded the alarm about the redevelopment of Pensacola’s Baptist Hospital Legacy Campus. On my podcast, she discussed the city’s lack of communication about the project for the December council meeting.
- She wanted a pause so the community could be heard. “The demand and the hopeful outcome is that we get something on the calendar that says, as a community, we’re taking feedback, and we’re actually going to see that feedback show up.”
Strategy Mistake
Mayor Reeves decided not to engage the community living around the old Baptist campus until after he received funding from the Florida Legislature, accepted the property from Baptist, negotiated with the Escambia County Commission on its contribution to the project, and hired the demolition company and Bayou District Consulting.
- In April, he pledged that demolition would not begin before community input was gathered. “We will not send a wrecking ball through anything until we have started a conversation about what the community wants.”
Instead of having those “conversations,” the plan shifted to hiring Bayou District Consulting to hold them after the demolition work begins.
- The mayor had Baptist officials and GeoTech, who did the environmental assessment, speak before the Escambia County Commission, but not to the residents.
Baptist shut down its old campus on Sept. 23, 2023. The residents have reason to feel left out of the process.
Unexpected Solution?
What if Councilman Wiggins doesn’t submit to the pressure? What if he follows through with the commitment he made at the CRA meeting “to listen to my constituency and make sure that their voices are being heard”?
- Instead of holding a city council meeting solely focused on Bayou District Consulting, Councilman Wiggins could hold a few town halls in his district to listen to residents’ concerns so that he can ensure their voices are heard before any council workshop or vote.
The community could develop and present to Mayor Reeves and the Pensacola City Council the points it wants included in any redevelopment plan.
Stay tuned.
The redevelopment of the former Baptist Hospital campus represents one of the most significant public land decisions Pensacola has faced in a generation. And yet, despite the historic nature of this moment, the voices of the very people who have lived in the shadow of this hospital for decades, the families, elders, and homeowners who built and sustained this neighborhood—remain largely absent from meaningful decision-making.
Recent media reports have captured the growing frustration: community members rejecting the City’s consultant, residents protesting perceived disenfranchisement, and leaders from the Baptist neighborhood openly questioning whether this redevelopment will uplift their community or accelerate the displacement that has followed similar projects throughout the South.
Their concerns are justified. History tells us exactly what happens when major redevelopment occurs on public land in Black neighborhoods without concrete protection. As outlined in the framework, publicly led redevelopment in these communities “has historically resulted in displacement, destabilization, gentrification and loss of generational wealth.”
Pensacola now stands at a crossroads. It can continue on a path that has already fractured trust—or it can pivot toward the only proven model for equitable redevelopment: a legally binding Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) that is negotiated directly with the people who will bear the consequences of this project.
A Binding CBA Is Not Optional—It Is Necessary
A Community Benefits Agreement is a contract. It spells out, in enforceable terms, exactly how a redevelopment project will invest in and protect local residents. A CBA is not a wish list, not a consultant’s interpretation of community sentiment, and not a symbolic gesture. It is a legally enforceable roadmap for equitable development.
https://www.ebaptisthealthcare.org/news/baptist-health-care-shares-redevelopment-vision-for-e-street-campus 2020 After nearly three years of research, community discussions and guidance from urban planning experts, Baptist Health Care has shared a vision for the redevelopment of its current campus located at the corner of E and Moreno streets.
The redevelopment vision reimagines the campus as a mixed-use development that seeks to incorporate multi-family and single-family housing as well as community-enhancing services such as parks and other green spaces, economic opportunities, and social and health services. The seven main components of this redevelopment vision are:
Public investment in a new park on the western side of the main campus and a Moreno Street greenway.
Public investment to restore selected street connections to the original street grid, including the reconnection of I Street between Mallory and Moreno streets.
Baptist ensuring there is a solution for health care that meets the needs of the neighborhood and surrounding areas.
Mid-rise multi-family buildings built by housing developers possibly including both workforce housing and mixed-income developments.
Market-rate single family homes and/or townhouses built by housing developers.
Workforce single family homes and/or townhouses built by housing developers.
Non-residential active ground floor spaces to be used for neighborhood retail, community facilities and other community-enhancing uses.
Partnerships among local government entities and community agencies along with the investment and expertise of the development community are necessary for the realization of the redevelopment vision. As a next step, Baptist will issue a request for proposals for the property for real estate development, likely in June.
“We are pleased with the active engagement we’ve had with community leaders, residents of the immediate neighborhood and many other stakeholders,” said Brett Aldridge. Aldridge serves as Baptist Health Care senior vice president of strategy and business development and administrator of Baptist Hospital. “This is a transformational opportunity that will require the collaboration of many stakeholders. While we will continue to meet the health care needs of our community, we have also invested significant time, attention and resources into defining a comprehensive vision for the redevelopment of this campus that meets the needs of the surrounding neighborhood and broader community. Given the significant support from stakeholders for this vision, we will now be asking the development community to bring it to life.”
The redevelopment vision is the result of extensive research and engagement that has been ongoing since June 2019 when Baptist first announced that it was building a new campus at Brent Lane and I-110. At that time, a community advisory council was formed that grew to include more than 70 stakeholders from multiple sectors in the community. This group provided input on community needs that should be considered in the redevelopment of the E and Moreno Street campus. Additionally, feedback provided through 160 surveys completed by neighbors living within a one-mile radius of the current campus was considered. These inputs were supplemented by dozens of stakeholder interviews.
The resulting data was then reviewed and analyzed by a committee comprised of members of Baptist’s board of directors as well as additional community leaders. Baptist engaged JLP+D Urban Planners, a well-respected national firm specializing in urban planning and redevelopment, to work with Baptist leadership and the committee to create a redevelopment vision that balances Baptist’s Mission and best interests with the wants and needs of the community while also considering what the local market can actually support. This vision was approved by the Baptist Health Care board of directors and will be included in the real estate offering that will go to the market in the coming weeks.
Baptist continues to proactively build partnerships that will bring about the greatest potential to meet community needs in the redevelopment of the E and Moreno Street campus. After more than two years of research and planning that involved the engagement of various individuals and groups, the organization is excited to share this vision with the community.
Baptist will continue to share information as details evolve.
Well stated Melissa! Thanks ?
Sarah Brummett is the campaign manager for Mayoral candidate Jasmine Victoria Brown, whose campaign should get more coverage as should Trawick’s.
I don’t know that the mayor particularly has a reason to resign. They can be recalled once one fourth into a term. I don’t see that happening this close to election. And as to resignation, this is an election year. I expect a runoff for any number of reasons.
Ultimately, the people have a vote on this administration in August, and possibly November, dependent on any number of things. That’s why elections are elections and how the system works. It goes to a vote.
It is a distinction without much difference, as the whole thing needs to go back to the drawing board anyway. I missed many of the speakers before getting up on the issue, as we were over at the BCC meeting putting on public record how horrendous and ridiculous the County’s slop job on the new no camping measure is. But I did skim through all of the speaking the next day, and heard the community load and clear on this particular developer. My personal opinion that night, and still, is that this particular developer or any other should be considered and handled as an absolute moot point until
(a) the community is welcomed to multiple town halls, round table discussions, break out sessions–real ones please, skip the rainbows and unicorns, push-poll charrettes,
(b) *all* of their concerns, desires, AND IDEAS are documented to get them in reasonable, workable order to determine what things are most crucial for the community;
(c) there is a list of *guaranteed* amenities and services agreed upon BY THE COMMUNITY, and
(d) THAT agreed-upon list becomes the backbone of a totally new RFP, one that any developer, including the various development forces that put fourth this hydra-headed consulting mirage, can make a PUBLIC pitch for.
**This would require that the mayor and his administration could actually run a procurement straight for once–hell, even shoot for best procurement practices. To this point, they have seemed incapable of even keeping it on the up and up, and we all should have done a better job of getting their act of kicking Hale out of the developer pitches up their in lights while speaking that night. Without knowing more about that, I can’t even say whether I believe it was legal for them to do so. They have certainly committed procurement illegalities before, in my opinion and to the best of my understanding, regardless of whether they were held accountable for them.
If some of the City Council members were going to spend so much time on a whisper campaign over the holidays, it *ought* to have been in the service of supporting their fellow councilman continue to hold strong in the face of grotesque authoritarianism that the mayor has only escalated, including with his self-adulating, puffed up “Ima gonna get worse” piece front and center in the PNJ post meeting.
I won’t hold my breath. The strong mayor form of government seems to quickly and fatally transform open minded individuals into obstreperous mayoral brutes on one side of the policy making, while just as rapidly draining well-meaning council people of most principles, ethics, and spine to wholeheartedly embrace some of the worst incumbent’s disease I’ve ever seen a body plagued with. Not to mention a handful of them being ga-ga for their various favorite developers masquerading as placemaking community benefactors while simply hell-bent on grabbing up that almighty buck.
That is not on developers. That is what developers DO, shimmery face-people aside. It is the job of council to represent the COMMUNITY, not split hairs to stay cozy with their chosen developer peeps.
As out of control as the mayor is, it is astonishing that no council members are apparently going to run against him, and an indication of just how cowed that legislative body is. It is widely accepted among all corners that despite the community’s deep and well-placed fondness for Ann Hill, she won’t even be able to get a real campaign off the ground, let alone win. For whatever reason, although the current mayor is the definition of beatable, nobody seems to have the fire in their belly to do better than he is doing–which wouldn’t be difficult.
So I predict that the majority of council members will continue on their craven trajectory of getting back in good with the mayor and snuzzling back up to their developer idols. Council, please prove not just me but your growing number of naysayers wrong, and snap out of your complacent comfort zones. It would be really, really nice to be surprised for a change by policy makers doing better than expected.