Visitor center to reopen
NAVARRE — The Santa Rosa Tourist Development Council is returning to the water.
Construction recently wrapped up on the new Santa Rosa County Visitor Information Center overlooking Santa Rosa Sound off U.S. Highway 98. The building will serve as the home for the Santa Rosa TDC and the Navarre Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.
“It’s absolutely gorgeous,” said Kate Wilkes, executive director of the Santa Rosa TDC.
The TDC is waiting to receive its certificate of occupancy from Santa Rosa County before moving in.
Wilkes said she expects the TDC and the chamber to be using the roughly 4,600-square-foot building by Dec. 5. While tourists and others will eventually be able to go inside to receive information on the county, the building will initially be used only as office space.
It won’t be open to the public until after the first of the year, Wilkes said. A ribbon cutting is expected next month and a grand opening ceremony will follow in January.
Storm surge from Hurricane Ivan destroyed the original visitor center in 2004. The new building was built in the original’s footprint but more than 12 feet above the meanhigh water line.
The chamber has operated out of the Navarre Community Center on Navarre School Road since the hurricane. The TDC staff splits its time between the community center, a small space at the Century 21 office in Navarre and the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce office in Milton.