Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves used his weekly news conference on Wednesday to defend plans for the Fricker Center and to address skepticism from Black residents who say trust has to be earned, not asserted.
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The Fricker project — a city-led renovation of a decades-old community center on the west side — has become a proxy for a larger conversation about whether public investment will benefit long‑time residents without accelerating displacement. Reeves said a two‑and‑a‑half‑hour community meeting earlier that day informed the design and helped “bust some myths,” but he acknowledged that confidence isn’t rebuilt overnight.
“I don’t expect … that trust is built in one meeting,” Reeves said, adding, “I don’t think lack of trust necessarily is built in two years (either). I think it’s built generationally.”
What the city says it is obligated to deliver
Reeves emphasized that the city is not simply workshopping ideas. He said the grant funding that underpins the project includes specific obligations.
“We can’t cash the check if the senior center isn’t put in,” he said. “The anchor parts … are absolutely obligations of the grant and something that we will be seeing through to the finish line.”
He listed those anchors as renovating the existing footprint and adding a senior center with health, economic, and educational opportunities.
Reeves framed the goal in straightforward terms: “We are trying to take a building that was built in the 1930s and make it a real amenity in a true community center for this neighborhood — period.”
Why trust remains a central issue
Reeves said he has been meeting with community leaders and residents, specifically in the Black community, and urged his administration not to take criticism personally.
“I try to not take it personally," he said. "I try to not have our staff or administration take it personally. And we just listen and do the best that we can to … end up with something that we all can appreciate.”
He also addressed anxieties that investment itself can trigger unwanted change.
“Sometimes … the lack of trust is because of the investment,” Reeves said, adding: “From my seat, the investment is because this is a neighborhood generationally that’s been left behind … but I understand the anxiety and concern with that.”
An affordability crisis
Those concerns are unfolding amid a citywide affordability squeeze. In the city’s latest Resident Satisfaction Survey, residents ranked addressing the cost of housing as a top priority (second only to reducing homelessness), and affordable housing at all income levels drew the highest net dissatisfaction.
City planning documents describe a tightening market: median gross rent rose 27% from 2015 to 2023 (to $1,209), nearly 47% of renter households are cost-burdened, and rental vacancy fell from 10.1% to 4.6%, all of which heighten pressure on lower-income residents. Home values also climbed sharply over the same span, widening barriers to entry for would-be buyers. The city’s long-range housing plan ties its strategies to the broader Strive to Thrive 2035 strategic goals, signaling that affordability and neighborhood stability are core city priorities.
Reeves framed affordability less as a question of intent and more as one of speed, process, and scale. He cited a peer city’s experience to argue that rules and timelines can erase the value of aid.
“They built houses on their own for about $170,000, and then they received grant funding," he said, "and by the time they built those according to the rules, it took longer and they were $339,000 each.” His takeaway: “Speed is our enemy as much as dollars available.”
He argued that small, scattered projects won’t keep up with demand and pointed to the city's efforts with nonprofits and at larger sites like the old Baptist Hospital campus.
“One house at a time is not going to cut it," he said, asking, "How do we attack this at scale?”
Gentrification — and how Reeves sees the city’s role
Against that backdrop, residents often reach for a familiar word: “gentrification,” the fear that rising costs and new investment will edge out longtime neighbors.
Reeves said the forces at work are complicated.
“Market conditions have a greater impact on those types of activities than anything a government can do,” he said.
He argued that while City Hall cannot “unequivocally say … this is going to happen or not happen in a neighborhood,” it can “take steps and tactics,” including controlling property to set priorities that are “mindful of the neighborhood.” He returned to Fricker’s purpose to make the case that the project’s benefits should be broad.
“This is the largest single investment that will ever go into … a community center in this city,” he said.
The political moment at City Hall
The debate over the Fricker Center is unfolding against a tense local political backdrop. Reeves, elected in 2022, will be on the ballot again next year. In recent weeks, some residents reported receiving an anonymous phone poll that criticized Reeves; the sponsor of the poll hasn’t been disclosed. Local observers have speculated that the polling could signal that a well‑funded challenger is weighing a run, but that has not been confirmed.
At the same time, Reeves is being pressed from multiple directions: from minority communities concerned about representation and trust in City Hall — concerns amplified by the Fricker discussions and by the departures of several Black leaders over the past two years, including the abrupt resignation of Police Chief Eric Randall — and from the state’s Department of Government Efficiency, which is auditing the city and scrutinizing equity‑focused initiatives such as diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Reeves has said the audit is routine and that the city will cooperate fully.
“My expectation is to be collaborative with the team coming in,” he said on Wednesday. He added that it was "premature and completely speculative" to say the audition was politically motivated.
"That is not the indication that I’ve received,” he said.
What to watch next
Wednesday’s exchange set expectations that the city will publish concrete milestones and translate “obligations of the grant” into visible commitments — both in construction and in programming. Reeves said the intent is to use community feedback to shape the “subjective” elements — “what you want to see in the weight room,” for example — while the “anchor parts” remain non‑negotiable.
At bottom, the measure of success will be whether the city delivers a project that residents recognize as their own.
