The Pensacola City Council will consider hiring Bayou District Consulting, LLC, to provide development advisory services for the redevelopment of the Baptist Hospital Legacy Campus. The recommended contract is for one year, with an option to extend. The initial work authorization is for 180 days with a budget of $310,000.
Who is Bayou District Consulting? The PNJ reports the principals are the same as those of the Bayou District Foundation, which is behind the Columbia Parc development in New Orleans that Mayor D.C. Reeves and city leaders visited last year. Locals on the team include Clark Partington, Jerry Pate Design, Geosyntec, SMP Architecture (Brian Spencer), and Impact Campaigns (Travis Peterson).
Proposal Basics – Without Word Salad
Baptist Hospital Campus Redevelopment Project Description
The former Baptist Hospital campus in West Pensacola closed in 2023, with demolition planned through 2027. The site sits in a predominantly lower-income, Black neighborhood with single-family homes, vacant lots, and minimal infrastructure for transit, bicycling, or pedestrians.
Key Challenges:
The project sits at the intersection of healthcare infrastructure transition, neighborhood equity, and urban revitalization challenges.
- Community concerns about displacement amid broader Pensacola gentrification
- Stark contrast with wealthier neighborhoods east of A Street
- Uncertain whether the hospital historically benefited or burdened the community
- Need for public-private partnerships and appropriate risk allocation
Core Need: A comprehensive planning effort to establish a shared vision with feasible, achievable goals that integrate the campus redevelopment with the surrounding community while addressing displacement concerns and ensuring West Pensacola residents benefit from the change.
Program Goal: “To feasibly redevelop the legacy Baptist Hospital legacy campus into a mixed-income, mixed-use, people-first neighborhood with social, health, economic and environmental benefits that is connected, contributing and uplifting to the surrounding community.
- Redevelopment should be approached with emphasis on preserving neighborhood character while minimizing the potential for residential displacement.
Engagement
This engagement process outlines a multi-layered approach to community involvement in a redevelopment project. Here’s how it works:
Core Strategy
The approach combines three engagement methods:
- Personal outreach (direct conversations, meetings)
- Digital platforms (online surveys, social media, websites)
- Partnership tactics (working through existing organizations)
The Community and Partners Program (CPP)
Rather than only holding traditional public meetings that often miss certain voices, the CPP:
- Identifies intermediaries – community groups or individuals who already have trust and connections with underrepresented populations.
- Leverages existing networks – these intermediaries can reach people who might not typically attend city meetings or respond to official surveys.
- Provides compensation – offers modest stipends to community groups and potential service providers for their participation time.
Reality: Community engagement for the first 180 days will comprise yet another website and additional social media platforms; 20+ “stakeholder” meetings; and two town hall meetings.
A Tale of Two Cities
Why Community Engagement Matters? Last week, I received a letter from former Councilman Ronald Townsend, who lives two and a half blocks south of the Baptist campus. He wrote, “My wife and I are 92 years old and are extremely concerned about the safety issues and the risks that are surely associated with this project.”
He requested a public meeting on the safety issues, such as “damaging dust” from the demolition. “We need transparency and information as to what assurance all of the environmental issues have been addressed as required by all regulations.”
Townsend added, “During my tenure as a councilman, I had to constantly use the term ‘the Tale of Two Cities’ when I was trying to get a meager amount of money for parks, street pavements and needed projects for the westside of Pensacola. Hopefully, one day, the citizens of the westside can say with pride, ‘I love living on the westside,’ just like the citizens on the eastside are showing signs that they love living on the eastside.”
Work Plan
Five “Work Streams”
1. Project Administration & Coordination
• Weekly coordination with Impact Campaigns
• Biweekly meetings with City/CRA
• QA/QC for outreach materials, messaging, and content accuracy
• Master schedule and critical path management
• Contract and compliance support
2. Community Engagement Infrastructure & Strategy Support
• Redevelopment feasibility and policy alignment for all public-facing content
• Coordination with demolition sequencing
• Support meeting design, agendas, facilitation prep
• Collaboration with technical partners for accuracy
3. Advisory Services for Redevelopment, Policy, and Funding
• Review land-use, infrastructure, and demolition materials
• Guidance on governance, partnerships, and implementation
• Briefing memos for City leadership
4. Stakeholder & Partner Coordination
• Participation in 20+ stakeholder meetings
• After-action synthesis for redevelopment implications
• Coordination with institutions and civic partners
• Direct participation and coordination in town halls and community meetings
5. Documentation, Reporting & Synthesis
• Monthly executive summaries
• Review and refinement of Impact Campaigns’ Engagement Findings Report
• Development of dashboards, briefings, and decision-support tools
• Final redevelopment pathway memo
Integrated Timeline (180 Days)
Phase 1 — Mobilization (Weeks 1–4)
• Client kickoff sessions
• Website + engagement platform launch (Impact Campaigns)
• Infrastructure/demolition review (BDC + Geosyntec)
Phase 2 — Engagement Launch (Weeks 5–10)
• Stakeholder meetings begin (Impact Campaigns)
• Survey deployment
• BDC provides content QA/QC and redevelopment framing
• Initial themes generated
Phase 3 — Public Meetings & Visioning (Weeks 11–18)
• One town-hall meeting (Impact Campaigns)
• Technical validation by BDC, Manjeet, Geosyntec, Leland Consulting Group
• 2 nd Survey deployment
Phase 4 — Synthesis & Alignment (Weeks 19–24)
• One town-hall meeting (Impact Campaigns)
• Draft Engagement Findings Report (Impact Campaigns)
• Redevelopment implications (BDC)
• Draft 180 Day Pathways Memo, recommendations for continuing the strategy (BDC)
• Funding/governance alignment (Manjeet)
Phase 5 — Evaluation and Next Steps (Weeks 25–26)
• Final Engagement Findings Report
• Final 180-Day Redevelopment Pathway Memo/ Next Steps recommendations
• Presentation to City/CRA
RFP 25-042 Bayou District Consulting Proposal
Exhibit C – Negotiated Terms – 1st 180 days (1)
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