College Town Phase II moving forward
Developers of Tallahassee’s bustling College Town could break ground for the next significant phase as early as March.
On Tuesday, the city’s Development Review Committee unanimously approved a site plan and two minor changes to development standards. Two steps remain: Secure financing for College Town’s Phase II and negotiate a land swap for the gravel parking area owned by the state of Florida and Florida State University for the proposed site.
The remaining steps are part of the process for the $30 million to $35-million project, which also includes a 600-car garage. College Town officials don’t foresee any major setbacks to prevent breaking ground in March, said Will Butler, a Tallahassee-based asset manager for Seminole Boosters Inc., who is overseeing the development of College Town on 5.74 acres on West Madison Street at Woodward Avenue.
If all goes as planned, Phase II will be located on a 1.80-acre area on the northeast corner of South Woodward Avenue and West Madison Street. It will include 89 apartments or brownstone housing, 21,130 square feet of retail and restaurants and 3,300 square feet of office space.
“We’re excited about the continued success in the district,” Butler said. “It’s important for the Boosters to enhance the overall experience when people come to Tallahassee, whether it’s for football or for session or for any reason. We’re trying to create a destination.”
Phase I, opened August 2013 with 71 apartments, retail and restaurants, and Phase II are two pieces to a larger plan that will lead to the construction of FSU’s premier projects — the Madison Mile and Arena District for the south end of the Tucker Civic Center.
Developer and builder Alan Hooper, who founded Urban Street Development, said construction for the mixed-use development of Phase II begins in May and could be completed by fall 2016. Construction for the garage is slated to begin in March and done by fall 2016.
Phase II will be just south of the current College Town building and will spill out into the plaza leading to Moda, 101 Catina and Urban Outfitters.
“Everything is starting to fill in,” Hooper said, adding money invested in the area by the city, county, Community Redevelopment Agency and Seminole Boosters “is going to make a huge impact.”
In other news, the Development Review Committee also approved a request by the city to abandon a portion of McDonnell Drive that’s the entrance to Railroad Square. The city wants to relocate the entrance 100 to 150 feet north of its current location as part of a bigger plan for the FAMU Way Extension, which is sliced into three main phases.
Construction is underway for phase one, said city public works director Gabe Menendez. It has two sub-phases: one between Martin Luther King Boulevard and Wahnish Way, and the second sub-phase is between Wahnish Way and Pinellas Street.
“In October, it’s our plan to have the first sub-phase open and that’s way of ahead of schedule,” Menendez said.
The second phase of the extension, which goes hand-in-hand with the Capital Cascades Trail project, runs from Pinellas west and south to Gamble Street. It could be completed by 2017. The final phase from Gamble Street to Lake Bradford Road is slated to be done in 2017 or 2018.
Also during the meeting, the committee heard concerns on a proposal to reduce a required landscape buffer — trees, shrubs and fencing — from 30 feet to 10 feet on the southern and western property boundaries of a .37-acre lot near Betton Road on Thomasville Road.
Wild Birds Unlimited has submitted a permit for the lot. It sells bird seeds, bird houses and other products.
“We are fine with a business being there, but we want to see a buffer retained,” said Lee Hinkle, president of the Thomasville Trace Homeowners Association, located north of the lot. “We think it’s not desirable to lessen the variance.”
Hinkle said she’s confident after hearing from planners with the project that adjustments will be made.
Shane Watson, senior designer at the Genesis Group, said the plan moving forward will be to plant the trees acting as buffers as densely as possible.
“The buffers we’re planning on planting will be more intensive than what’s there now,” he said. “It’s going to be nicer than what they have now, but we’re going to be able to meet what the city has required.”