If Santa’s Enchanted Forest closes, an owner of The Wharf in Miami might move in

Miami-Dade’s Parks Department said Thursday it can accelerate a planned bidding process for the county land that houses Santa’s Enchanted Forest, and the owner of a popular riverfront entertainment spot is preparing to compete for the property.

Alexis Mantecon, a developer behind the popular Wharf Miami dining and drinking destination on the Miami River, hired lobbyists in December for a pending county solicitation to transform the current Enchanted Forest site into a year-round “park within a park” at Tropical Park.

It would likely still include a “holiday” carnival in the winter, but also playing fields, new buildings and other improvements the county wants in order to make the area more lively throughout the year. Tropical Park consists of 275 acres, and the county plans to allow an operator to lease a 17-acre site that includes the Enchanted Forest footprint.

“This Project was conceived as a way to utilize the unique central County location of Tropical Park to create a flagship venue drawing residents and non-residents alike to enjoy new state-of-the-art Park and recreation facilities and seasonal events,” reads a draft request for proposals from the Parks Department. “The County expects the Site’s development to provide a source of revenue to the County.”

It’s not known how much money Parks wants to generate with the new “Oasis at Miami-Dade Tropical Park” lease, or what new uses would be used to create more revenue. The proposal states the park area must remain open and free to the public most of the time, but suggests an operator could “profitably utilize” the area by running events there, including the winter carnival, farmers’ markets, events tied to the park’s equestrian center, and youth sports.

Mantecon said he had no plans to translate any element of The Wharf — a collection of bars and food trucks on a development site his company rents from the city of Miami — to Tropical Park. “The Wharf is not associated with this at all,” he said. “Tropical Park, in general, is our crown jewel of parks.”

He said the additions would focus on fitness, health and other uses “synonymous with what you would expect in a traditional park.” Mantecon said Santa’s Enchanted Forest “has become a staple for the city. ... We believe we can create something that would be similar in nature and create a better experience for people who go through there.”

The pending invitation for bids could mean the end of the yearly Santa’s Enchanted Forest fair in 2020, a combination of holiday lights and carnival rides that costs about $30 to enter. The for-profit entity behind the event will see its 1992 lease expire in March, ending an arrangement that gave the company owned by the Shechtman family control of the property for $300,000 a year. The proposed new lease would charge substantially more, including a portion of revenues generated by the new operator.

On Thursday, a County Commission committee moved to speed up the bidding process by scrapping legislation that would have required board approval before Parks issued the request for proposals. “Things are going well,” said the sponsor of the legislation, Commissioner Javier Souto. Parks Director Maria Nardi said the move by Souto, chairman of the commission’s Parks committee, means the department can start the bidding process “as quickly as possible.”

Maritza Gutierrez, the public relations representative of Santa’s Enchanted Forest, attended Thursday’s committee meeting. After, she said the Enchanted Forest owners were eager to bid to keep the land but that the process sparked worry about the event’s future.

“We are concerned,” she said. “These are folks that came to Dade County and offered services to Dade County when no one else was even looking at that land. Now, to dislocate them — that’s sad. ... What happens to tradition? What happens to alegría, happiness? What happens to Christmas for our children? ... We’re sad.”

This story was originally published January 17, 2020 at 6:00 AM.