http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2016/10/03/cra-spends-big-college-development/91298102/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
"The Community Redevelopment Agency — the joint Leon County and city of Tallahassee body tasked with improving blighted areas — will spend millions to help build retail space, put on downtown and south side special events and complete street infrastructure next year.
The CRA board, consisting of county and city commissioners, passed the agency's $7.2 million budget on Thursday. It includes about $4.2 million for the Greater Frenchtown/Southside Community Redevelopment Area and nearly $3 million for the Downtown Community Redevelopment Area.
Funding for the CRA comes from taxes generated by increases in city and county property values.
Among the projects to receive funding include:
$366,409 for College Town-related infrastructure improvements along Madison Street.
$290,000 for the Onyx, the $48 million student housing complex on College Avenue. The money will be used for infrastructure and public parking improvements, retail design as well as hardscaping and landscaping.
$216,000 for the Catalyst, a West Madison Street student housing complex, for retail space and design improvements to create a look similar to Gaines Street.
$125,000 to serve as matching funds for a quarter-million dollar state Historic Preservation grant for the Waterworks building. The other $125,000 will be in next year’s budget.
$50,000 for roadway, stormwater and cleanup improvements for 601 S. Copeland, a student housing complex.
$37,500 for the 2016 Florida Jazz and Blues Festival
$37,500 for the 2017 Word of South Festival
CRA executive director Roxanne Manning gave an update on the CRA's plans to redesign the sites of the the Bloxham Annex and Firestone buildings on Gaines Street, just north of Cascades Park. The sites are likely part of a plan to use $5.5 million in bed tax revenue to create a Cultural District.
Manning said proposals for the Bloxham Annex and Firestone buildings are due by early November. Recommendations for the site, she said, will be ready by the CRA board's January meeting. The CRA had asked for proposals earlier this year, but didn’t receive any responses.
Commissioner Kristin Dozier also requested CRA staff come up with an analysis on using the performing arts money to support murals."
http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2015/12/04/arts-groups-pushing-big-plans-cultural-district/76576464/
"Local arts, culture and heritage groups are putting forward huge plans to revitalize downtown with theaters and public art now that they find themselves with millions in government money and ample space around Cascades Park.
In the coming months, the Community Redevelopment Agency board – made up of the Tallahassee City Commission and four Leon County commissioners – will whittle and refine a list of 13 potential arts, culture and heritage projects to be paid for out of $5.5 million in bed-tax revenue left over from a failed performing arts center.
The decision about what to do with the money will coincide with the sale of two large parcels of land just north of Cascades Park. The goal is to use that space for mixed-use development and to create a centralized cultural district that will make Tallahassee a culture and arts destination.
It’s a rare opportunity for city art groups – most of which rely on private donations and government grants – and they’re eager to seize it, bringing forward ambitious plans. Audra Pittman, executive director of the Council on Culture & Arts, has called it the “Blueprint for the Arts,†a nod to the city-county program that pumps millions of dollars into infrastructure projects each year.
Possible projects include a black box theater and event space on the edge of Cascades Park, green rooms and dressing rooms for Capital City Amphitheater acts and public art along FAMU Way and Gaines Street.
The Cultural Plan Advisory Committee, a COCA offshoot dedicated to identifying goals and objectives to promote local arts, has its own ideas, including moving COCA’s offices to the historic Waterworks building on Gaines Street, and building a 15,000-square-foot space for the LeMoyne Center for the Visual Arts just steps from the amphitheater.
The Community Redevelopment Agency will sell the site of the Firestone building on the edge of Cascades Park to a developer. Using $5.5 million in bed-tax money, the CRA hopes to incorporate art elements into the developer's plans.
(Photo: Takumi Harada)
But the ink is far from dry on any final plan. In fact, there only exists a collection of potential uses with loosely estimated costs. Any final decision on how to use any of the money must receive approval from the CRA board and the city and county commissions.
Over the last year, local arts supporters have held dozens of workshops and meetings to determine the best way to use the funds, which the Leon County Tourist Development Council has directed the CRA use on arts, culture and heritage programs. They’ve received a range of input. In October, CRA staff presented eight ideas and the board asked that the community come up with more ideas on how to use the money. COCA, which has an 8,000-person mailing list, held a few workshops and came up with five additional ideas.
“We don’t need to rush this,†said CRA executive director Roxanne Manning. “We have one chance to do this right so we need to choose very carefully.â€
The projects
To make the plan a reality, the CRA must find a balance between meeting the city's arts goals while still allowing a buyer the flexibility to build a mixed-use development with residences, restaurants and shops.
The CRA money comes with conditions attached. It must promote tourism and be used on publicly owned projects for public use. Manning said the CRA has several options on the structure of property ownership and project construction. One option would be to pass the deed onto a local government for management. The agency will have to work with its chosen developer to incorporate the public and private enhancements and determine where they will fit on the property.
But Manning hopes the $5.5 million, which the agency is bringing to the table to finance the envisioned public art elements, will be an incentive to a buyer.
The current bid request for the land, which is expected to go out in mid-January, doesn't have hard-and-fast rules about what needs to be included. Those final decisions will come once the board chooses a developer. However, the bid includes a few specifics, such as a request that the developer include in its design the CRA's arts goals, and save trees and part of the Firestone Building – a place where civil rights leaders were jailed and has historical significance. The bid includes design guidelines to maximize the views from the park into the district and vice versa. They also want to maintain views of the Capitol.
The bid request, however, has no requirement the buildings be saved. Manning warned if such a requirement were tied to the deal, it could jeopardize the CRA's ability to sell the land because it would cost millions to bring the buildings up to code.
“If we were to say, ‘We want you to buy this, but we’re going to save this building,' that effectively takes that property off the market,” she said. “Nobody is going to buy the property if we’re not going to let them use it.”
Public arts projects
When deciding which public arts projects would be chosen, the CRA sets up four criteria for consideration: Projects must market the arts, provide educational opportunities, grow programs and facilities and produce enough revenue to be self-sustainable. The criteria are based on Cultural Plan goals.
Among recommendations to be considered by the CRA at its Thursday meeting are a visitors center for the arts and an arts school, both which were previously nixed by the agency’s board at an October meeting. The visitors center would provide information on regional artists and galleries and would include sales space, events space for lease, classrooms and studios. The arts school, which is being pushed by the Tourist Development Council, would include studio space and classrooms and could house an artist-in-residence annually.
The theater could share green room and dressing room facilities with the Capital City Amphitheater in nearby Cascades Park. Other ideas include public art projects in prominent locations throughout town, other event space for lease and civil rights memorials, including one at the old Leon County Jail at the Firestone building.
New LeMoyne Center?
The Cultural Plan Advisory Committee, which presented its tentative plan at a meeting on Monday, also has grand visions for what it could do with the leftover performing arts center money.
It wants to spend $2 million to rehab the historic, city-owned Waterworks building on Gaines Street, across the street from the Firestone building. The committee would like to use it as a gathering, promotional and rehearsal space for local artists and organizations, or a display space for Tallahassee history. The money also would be used to outfit a two-story building on the Waterworks site where COCA wants to move its offices.
Under the committee's plan, $1 million would be set aside for a 15,000-square-foot building as the new location for the LeMoyne Center for the Visual Arts. The new building would be constructed at the location of the Meridian Point building next to Cascades Park. The total project cost would be about $2.2 million. As envisioned, the new LeMoyne center would include gallery spaces, a lobby, a gallery shop, an art education center with classrooms and studios, staff and volunteer offices, a conference room, a catering kitchen and a sculpture garden.
However, LeMoyne board member Kelly Dozier said she'd like $2 million to be used for the building. LeMoyne, she said, would bring $500,000 to the table through a capital campaign and the sale of its buildings on Gadsden and Call streets.
"LeMoyne has been talking about this for years now and really would love to be down there and are quite flexible with our desires rather than just wanting to be there," Dozier said.
The committee also wants to use $100,000 to conserve and install six tile mosaics by the American artist Anton Refregier. The mosaics depict six explorers and were given to the city in 2011 by a hotel builder in Miami. The mosaics, which are about three feet wide and 12 to 15 feet tall, used to decorate the second-story lobby of the famous Bal Harbour Americana Hotel in Miami. According to city Commissioner Gil Ziffer, who visited the hotel as a child, the mosaics were appraised four years ago at $120,000.
City Commissioner Nancy Miller, a CRA board member and ex officio board member at COCA, said she's a supporter of public art and the Community Canvas among other uses. She also wants to see LeMoyne and COCA move closer to the park.
"We just have an amazing opportunity open to us right now,” she said. "We should be able to market our community as a community that’s really interesting to come to.”
Leon County Commissioner and CRA board member Kristin Dozier said she wants to use the money to empower local artists and fulfill the needs of the arts community, but not duplicate what is already being provided. It's important, she said, that projects generate revenue so a local government won't be stuck footing the bill to manage property.
"I think one gap we could fill is a space that allows artists to sell their art to gain some experience so that they can be stronger entrepreneurs,” said Dozier, who is the stepdaughter of Kelly Dozier.
Manning said the board will review the proposed uses on Thursday and likely bring the information back to community partners for more input. She also expects the board to review the bid request one more time to make sure all concerns are met before it goes out next month.
The CRA will continue to vet projects while the bid request is out, looking at real dollar figures and plotting where the potential arts components could fit on the site.
"That’s our baseline," Manning said. "If somebody wants to be seriously considered, they need to step up and be able to do some of these things.”
Contact Sean Rossman at srossman@tallahassee.com or follow @SeanRossman on Twitter.
Possible project uses
15,000-square-foot space for the LeMoyne Center for the Visual Arts near Cascades Park
Refurbishing the historic Waterworks building and moving offices for the Council on Culture & Arts to the site
Civil rights memorials, including one at the old Leon County Jail at the Firestone building
Black box theater for performances and rehearsals
Green rooms and dressing rooms for the Capital City Amphitheater
Digital art display on the 160-by-60-foot west-side wall of the DoubleTree Hotel
Conserving and installing six tile mosaics by the American artist Anton Refregier
Visitors center for the arts to provide information on local artists and galleries
Arts incubator with classrooms and sales and lease space
Display and sales space for local artists
An arts school with studio space and classrooms
Public art projects in prominent locations throughout town"
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