TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – The future of the North Florida Fairgrounds is now under debate as the fair association and high-level county leaders enter into a negotiation window about oversight, spending and improvements at the fair.
On Tuesday night, Leon County commissioners voted unanimously to authorize the negotiations.
As for the status quo, the North Florida Fair Association rents the grounds for $1 per year for decades to come. Miranda Muir, the executive director of the fairgrounds, said that relationship was established years ago to ensure the land wouldn’t be used for other purposes.
The lease was renegotiated in the 1990s, she said, but the framework remained largely the same.
Now, a joint city-county board that oversees a one-cent sales tax wants to spend approximately $30 million to renovate the site. But to do so, the lease between the county and the fair association would need to change.
Fair leaders first raised the alarm that a hotel, strip mall or other “mixed use” development is possible under Blueprint’s plan, which Muir said would disrupt the iconic Ferris wheel, carnival and parking lots.
She added the fair board does want public investment, but not plans that substantially disrupt the North Florida Fair.
Right now, the fair board is meeting to drop up its list of issues it would compromise on, and those it would not. Muir said she expects county staff, led by the chief executive, County Administrator Vince Long, to reach out soon.
Several county commissioners have criticized the lack of oversight over the fairgrounds. They say that while the county is the landlord, they have little control over a public asset.
That includes Commissioner Brian Welch and Commissioner Bill Proctor, who previously called for an investigation into an expensive watch gifted to a former fair association employee. Muir said $10,000 of the watch’s cost was covered by a private donor, and another $18,000 came out of the fair association’s budget, not taxpayer money.
A proposal from county staff would also see county officials added to the fair board, including at least one commissioner, the parks and recreation director and others.
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Muir said the fair association is open to more county oversight, but pointed out that any member of the public is free to apply for a spot on the board.
If nothing changes, the fair association can continue to lease the land for at least another 45 years. Welch said he’d like to see the lease taken over by the county government now.
“If it was up to me, we would seek a legislative remedy to dissolve the NFFA and let Leon County take over the fairground so that we could adequately invest in it and redevelop it into something really awesome and anchor the south side with a really cool redevelopment,” he said.
After news of the watch vote was broken by Red Tape Florida, Sheriff Walt McNeil and others resigned from the fair board. Muir said she expects the board to be back to 15 members this spring. Welch addressed the resignations on Tuesday night.
“I think that speaks to the mentality, the kind of cult of personality that exists within the NFFA’s board,” he said. “I think you saw a lot of high level resignations from that board after that.”
Despite some feistiness at Tuesday night’s meeting, Muir believes it was successful and that both sides can come to an agreement over the future of the grounds. Back in 2024, the Blueprint board, made up of all city and county commissioners, voted to accept the “Fairgrounds Master Plan.”
Muir said Blueprint, however, cannot begin that plan unless the fair association agrees and amends its lease with Leon County.
The master plan calls for a “mixed use development” along South Monroe Street, which Muir called the front door to the fair. She worries a hotel or strip mall might be built there, taking away the midway.
“Yeah, you do want a hotel on the site so that people that come to the fairgrounds can stay on a hotel, stay in a hotel on the grounds,” Welch said. “And so I think if it was me personally… we’d relocate the fairgrounds to a better location.”
The plan also calls for a “sports core” that would replace the current RV and overflow parking, a “residential and preserve natural area” along Paul Russell Road, and a new indoor meeting space nestled between some of the current buildings and Gene Cox Stadium.
Muir said the fair association board and county staff will attempt and come up with an agreement on which of those ideas, if any, the fair association can live with. She added that some of the $30 million could be used to renovate the current structures and create more indoor bathrooms.
The county commission’s vote on Tuesday night called for staff to report back in 90 days about the status of the negotiations. Right now, the master plan calls for Blueprint to authorize construction of a renovated fairgrounds by “mid to late” 2026, though that’s also contingent on a lease negotiation.
“There’s no way that you’re going to tell me that the fair association wants to forego $30 million of investment into the property. I don’t believe that,” Commissioner Nick Maddox said. “And I think it’s all because they don’t feel like they’re being heard. Commissioner Proctor, I bet you if we told them, ‘Hey, we want to build bathrooms on your site.’ They probably say, ‘okay.’ I don’t think they turned that down, but there’s something that it’s like, ‘well, you’re going to build bathrooms.’”
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