Is the magic ending for Santa’s Enchanted Forest? County putting land up for bid

Miami-Dade may be clearing out Santa’s Enchanted Forest this Christmas season as the county invites other bidders to compete for the amusement park’s rented land at Tropical Park.

The for-profit event’s 1992 lease is finally up on March 14, triggering a required bidding process for the public land that’s home to the nine-week holiday fair with a Santa theme and a carnival feel. The company behind Santa’s Forest is expected to bid for a new lease but could face competition from other entities wanting to take over the fairgrounds and offer Miami-Dade a similar winter event with significantly higher rent and more offerings to the public.

“I think the prevailing attitude is we have an event that the public seems to enjoy,” said Michael Spring, the senior county administrator who oversees the Parks Department. Spring said he expected Miami-Dade to demand more benefits from the next operator, including increased spending on security and “enhancements” to the event site itself.

Santa’s Enchanted Forest, which reports more than 1 million attendees each year with an adult ticket costing about $35, pays Miami-Dade $300,000 a year in rent, according to the Parks Department.

Open since 1982, the fair combines Christmas light displays and carnival rides, with closing times that stretch to midnight and beyond. It’s a smaller, winter-themed version of the Youth Fair, which rents space at Miami-Dade’s Tamiami Park and is held in the spring.

Along with increased rent revenue, the county may want to consider a more year-round schedule for the 16-acre Enchanted Forest site at Tropical Park, said Parks Director Maria Nardi. Santa’s Enchanted Forest runs between Halloween and the first week of January.

Nardi said the “Santa’s Enchanted Forest” name belongs to the company that runs the fair, an entity owned by the Shechtman family. So even if a new operator wanted to run a Christmas fair there, it wouldn’t have rights to the name without a separate deal.

Management executives for Santa’s Enchanted Forest were not available for comment Friday night after legislation to seek new bids was posted on a county website. A hearing on the proposed bidding process is set for 2 p.m. on Thursday.

Nardi said a year-end fair would likely continue at the site under any proposal, and that Parks is trying to rush the procurement process to have an operator in time for the traditional Forest opening in 2020.

“Our goal is to expedite this,” she said. “We’re trying to do this as quickly as possible so we can have an event there at the end of the year.”

This story was originally published January 11, 2020 at 6:00 AM.