Community Center with basketball court, cafe planned for vacant lot at Pace & Fairfield

Escambia County is looking to build a new community center at the southeast corner of Pace Boulevard and Fairfield Drive for the citizens of the Englewood and Palafox communities.

Last week, Escambia County’s Board of County Commissioners approved a $1,020,108 agreement with Grace Hebert Curtis Architects to design a building that would serve as a temporary community shelter, incorporates a small business incubator around the street-front perimeter of the facility, and a community gathering place with meeting and continuing education rooms.

Why Escambia County owns the property

In 2016, the board voted to buy nearly 15 acres of property in that vicinity for $4.5 million as the site for the new Escambia County Jail complex after the old jail was damaged in a natural gas explosion in 2014.

The purchase included the area next to the jail, or what’s known as the old McDonald Shopping Center, at Fairfield Drive and Pace Boulevard.

As part of the motion to buy the property, the county agreed to develop a master plan for economic development and neighborhood revitalization within a 12-block diameter of the intersection of Pace Boulevard and Fairfield Drive.

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The board also agreed to develop a youth center like the Wedgewood Community Center facility and reserve some road frontage for economic development, especially for minority- and women-owned small businesses.

Escambia County District 3 Commissioner Lumon May represents the area and says the project is part of keeping the county's committment.

“I'm excited about it. I think it's good for the neighborhood. It's good for that corridor,” May said. “The concept is to build a community center up top and have some small business offices at the bottom.”

What is being proposed for the facility

Escambia County said the goal is to have the architect design the facility around a pre-manufactured metal building, approximately 30,000 square feet, that is capable of accommodating a NCAA-sized basketball facility with medium-sized businesses/shops and a small café-style restaurant along the street frontage, and at least two rooms large enough to be used for continuing education, meetings and training.

The remaining floor space would include locker rooms, restrooms for the athletic center and serve as a temporary emergency shelter.

The area above the basketball court would be used to accommodate an elevated walking track around the perimeter of the second floor.

May said he also sees the new facility being used as a community center for nearby communities like Englewood.

“I envision senior programs there, nutrition, sports and recreational programs, students being able to walk there, mentoring opportunities and one of the biggest things is probably childcare,” May said.

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However, some worry the location is not an ideal fit to provide community resources like that because it’s not within walking distance of neighborhoods and it would sit at a bustling, commercial intersection.

Larry Watson Jr., pastor of Englewood Baptist Church, said the location is ideal for a business incubator or to attract tourism with an NCAA-sized basketball facility.

He says it’s not well-suited for neighbors who are limited by transportation and mobility issues and regularly need to reach those community center-type programs.

Watson said Englewood was promised a community center 16 years ago and people are still waiting.

He said citizens had in mind a facility that is centrally located to neighborhoods, like the former Henry T. McMillan school that is being sold to a local developer to create affordable housing, or the building in the same vicinity as the jail that used to serve as the area community center, but Escambia County currently leases to the Boys and Girls Club.

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He said it seems like the county is trying to fulfill more than one financial commitment with the project by combining the youth facility, business incubator, and community center under one roof.

“It's not actually in the community,” Watson said. “I have concerns about elderly people accessing it, or anyone who doesn’t have transportation. If they used to walk to the previous center, putting the new one a couple miles away there’s going to be some transportation issues. I hope that they would consider all the variables.”

May said he intends for the county to get input from the community as part of the design process.

Mollye Barrows | Pensacola News Journal

April 8, 2025