Monroe County tourism council awards $9.7 million for Keys projects

New restrooms, shade structures and landscaping at Mallory Square will take the biggest slice of Monroe County’s latest tourist-tax spending, with $9.7 million set to flow into projects from Key West to Key Largo across the county’s five tourist development advisory districts.

The largest award, $3.62 million for phase-one work at Mallory Square, includes $1.92 million for public restrooms, $1 million for shade structures and $700,000 for landscaping and aesthetic upgrades. City Manager Brian L. Barroso said the money will produce visible changes at one of Key West’s most recognizable gathering spots, where the nightly Sunset Celebration draws both residents and visitors.

The city’s broader Mallory Square Master Plan shows the project is about more than a prettier plaza. It also calls for stormwater upgrades, seawall rehabilitation, new construction, hardscaping, wayfinding and possible pump-station installation, all aimed at hardening the waterfront for sea-level rise. That makes the investment one of the clearest examples of tourist-tax dollars being pushed into infrastructure that has to serve both the visitor economy and a shoreline under pressure.

The county says those dollars matter because tourism still drives the local economy. Monroe County’s FY 2025 annual report says visitors spend about $3.5 billion a year in the Florida Keys, generating almost $400 million in tax revenue and supporting more than 24,000 local jobs. The report says that visitor spending saves each household about $11,500, including $1,124 in property taxes, a number that underscores how heavily the Keys rely on nonresident spending to carry the cost of public services and amenities.

Outside Key West, the spending spreads into projects with a different kind of payoff. The Lower Keys will get $1 million for an artificial reef project designed to help new divers get comfortable around man-made structures before heading to natural coral reef sites. Monroe County received $10 million in state funding in August 2023 to start its artificial reefs program, hired Hanna Koch in early 2024 to run it and has said the first projects could use 37 hollow 50-foot power poles from Florida Keys Electric Co-op’s Sea Oats Beach project in Islamorada.

Other awards widen the map further. Marathon’s Old Seven Mile Bridge will receive $562,655 for maintenance, Marathon International Airport will get $800,000 for an access-control system, Islamorada’s Founders Park boat ramp will receive $750,000 for a second launch and redesigned trailer parking, and Key Largo’s John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park is slated for $2 million toward a new visitor center and aquarium, alongside a separate $50 million state investment.

The council says its project-management office handles grant compliance inspection and capital work for parks, beaches and boat ramps, a reminder that this is not just marketing money but a reinvestment fund for public-facing infrastructure. The spending push also follows audits critical of TDC financial practices in 2023 and the July 2024 hiring of Kara Franker as the agency’s first president and CEO, adding a sharper layer of oversight as the county steers tourism dollars back into the places visitors see first.