The Empty Lot by the Marler Bridge Finally Has a Plan, and It Starts at the Seawall

What is going on with the open waterfront lot at the foot of the Marler Bridge? If you've sat in Highway 98 traffic coming off the bridge into Destin, you've looked at it. Close to two acres of harbor frontage sit right where the harbor meets the pass, and nothing has been built there in the three years since the city bought it.

The answer is now in the budget. On September 21, 2026, the Destin City Council adopted its Fiscal Year 2027 budget. That budget treats 1 Harbor Boulevard as the eastern end of the Harbor Boardwalk. The first money goes to the water's edge, $125,000 for a new seawall. That's far smaller than the figure discussed in August, and it's meant to draw grant money. It doesn't pay for the job by itself.

How a $9 million lot got here

The parcel changed hands twice in about 16 months. BK of Destin Inc. bought it in June 2022 for $5.5 million, when the site's best-known tenant had been a tattoo shop, Get The Coast reported. In July 2023 the City Council voted 7–0 to buy the nearly two-acre site for $9 million for public use, according to Get The Coast.

The way the city paid still shapes what can go there. Later Harbor CRA committee materials say the city bought five parcels under the 1 Harbor Boulevard address in October 2023. The purchase used a tax-exempt bond, and Harbor Community Redevelopment Area funds paid for a large share of it. City staff later asked bond counsel which uses that kind of financing allows. At the CRA's July 2026 meeting, the board discussed debt service on Harbor CRA obligations running until 2029. That debt affects how much harbor money is free for anything new.

Three years of ideas, in the order they arrived

The empty lot has drawn proposals since the week the city bought it. Each one shows a different idea of what this corner of the harbor should be:

1. A marina, August 2023. Harbor CRA committee member Capt. Jim Green presented a 41-slip marina with parking, as the Destin Log reported.
2. A natural amphitheater, September 2023. At the September 18 Council meeting, Councilmember Kevin Schmidt presented a concept with John and Ali Stephens. It used the natural slope as seating and added a stage, cultural and history features, and mooring for transient boats. Council members asked for more ideas and expected workshops, Get The Coast reported. The Destin Log's account of the same concept added grass tiers, an educational wall, a fishing area and possibly food trucks.
3. Paid parking, July 2025. The Harbor CRA Advisory Committee voted 5–1 to recommend a temporary paid parking lot on the site. It also recommended converting free city spaces inside the Harbor CRA to paid parking.
4. A list of revenue ideas, July 2026. At the July 20 CRA meeting, the Harbor CRA vice chair noted the lot was still unused. He suggested seawall repairs, a temporary parking area, a fishing pier or a boardwalk connection under the bridge, and a look at a municipal marina.

The fourth item matters most. The 2023 ideas each treated the lot as a destination of its own, with slips or a stage. The July 2026 list starts with the water's edge and with a link back to the existing harbor. The vice chair also noted two constraints. Department of Transportation utilities could limit what gets built there, and the bridge is expected to be repaired, not replaced, for at least the next 10 to 15 years. So any path under the bridge would be designed around the span that's already there.

The August number and the September number

At the third FY2027 budget workshop in August, staff raised a larger figure. The proposal was to set aside $750,000 from the city's share of the Okaloosa County half-cent sales tax as seed money. That would put a seawall and "Harbor 1" project on the capital improvement plan so the city could go after matching grants. Staff described it as leverage for outside funding, not the start of procurement. When asked for a rough total, staff said engineering design for the seawall alone would cost between $700,000 and $800,000.

The budget the Council adopted a month later, balanced at $54,211,194, carries a smaller line. The project sheet for "Seawall at 1 Harbor Blvd" in the September 21 Council packet breaks down like this:

The sheet lists nothing for FY2028 through FY2031. It says the budgeted money is expected to serve as a match for state and federal grants. Compare it with the August design estimate and the gap is clear. The full FY2027 amount is about one-sixth of what staff expect the seawall engineering alone to cost. How fast anything gets built depends on that FDOT line marked TBD.

What "open to the public" means in the city's own words

The capital plan states the Council's goal directly. Council asked the city to open 1 Harbor Boulevard to the public. The first step is replacing the existing seawall and stabilizing the land along the waterway. The second phase extends the Harbor Boardwalk under the bridge from the harbor to the property. The sheet lists the expected benefit as better pedestrian access to the water.

That puts the lot on a walking route. Today the Harbor Boardwalk ends on the harbor side of the bridge. Under the phase-two plan, people could walk past it, under the span, and onto the city's own frontage at the mouth of the harbor. The marina and amphitheater concepts aren't in the adopted plan. What's in it is ground the public can reach on foot.

The schedule in the same document runs on a calendar year:

• January 1, 2027: planning and design begins, with Project Review Team review
• February 1, 2027: engineering design, done in-house or through procurement under Florida's Consultants' Competitive Negotiation Act
• March 1, 2027: 30% design committee review
• April 1, 2027: 60% design committee review

These are design milestones. Even if everything stays on schedule, spring 2027 brings drawings for the seawall. Construction and a boardwalk come later.

The fundraising piece

The Harbor CRA has also been working on a way to raise outside money. On July 20, 2026, the CRA board unanimously recommended Resolution 2026-19 to the City Council. It would create a special revenue fund for donations and fundraising in the Harbor CRA district, kept separate from the tax-increment money that state rules regulate. Staff said they would bring recommendations to the Council in August. For a project funded at a fraction of its design cost, a way to collect private contributions for harbor projects could matter as much as the grant applications.

The lot's neighbors this season

The construction is still months away, but this end of the harbor is busy now. On Thursday, the Destin Fishing Rodeo is in its final days. It runs through October 31, with free daily weigh-ins from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. behind AJ's Seafood & Oyster Bar and Halloween on the Harbor on October 31. The Rodeo's event page lists the awards gathering for Thursday, November 5, at 5:30 p.m. in AJ's downstairs restaurant.

Farther down the boardwalk, HarborWalk Village's calendar has these dates.

• Rocktober concerts and fireworks on the remaining Saturdays in October
• Halloween Spooktacular, October 24
• Veterans Day event, November 11
• Grande Tree Lighting, November 27
• Santa's arrival on the harbor, November 28
• Mistletoe Market, December 12–13
• Destin Boat Parade and harbor fireworks, December 13

On the night of the boat parade, the view of the harbor from the Marler Bridge end takes in the lot the city hopes to bring into the boardwalk. The engineering design is set to begin about seven weeks after the parade.

The 30% seawall design review is set for March 1, 2027. If you'd like to talk about what changes along the harbor mean for a property you own or are considering nearby, Abbott Martin Group is a phone call away, and our family has watched this waterfront change for generations.