Frenchtown Committee Reviews Plans for Medical Center, Retail Stores

Improvements to area around FSU campus.


Frenchtown Committee Reviews Plans for Medical Center, Retail Stores


"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Preliminary plans are coming into focus on Tallahassee's Southside and the Frenchtown area.
The Greater Frenchtown/Southside Community Redevelopment Area Citizens Advisory Committee has plans for a Big Bend Cares Medical Center.
It also reviewed plans for a redeveloped Frenchtown, which involves a grocery store, urgent care clinic, retail stores and housing.
"That's what's at the heart of the project is really to have a crosscut of the socioeconomic fabric of our community living in that area," said Donald Gray of the Fitzgerald Collaborative Group.
The committee also discussed next year's budget, which is estimated at a little more than $2 Million."






Frenchtown Project: Excitement & Unanswered Questions

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Tallahassee -- Developers are presenting more details of an ambitious plan for a stretch of West Tennessee Street.
Property owners propose a revitalization project including new townhomes and businesses, even an urgent care clinic.
But city officials say there are still many unanswered questions.
The project would cover a large area in the 400 block of West Tennessee Street, surrounding the former homeless shelter.
A group called Frenchtown Redevelopment Partners envisions apartments, townhomes, a public courtyard, and retail areas including a grocery store.
"It would benefit the greater community, cause these are uses that are vital for downtown, for residents downtown. A grocery store within walking district, right? Residents downtown, students, residents of Frenchtown," said Donald Gray with Fitzgerald Collaborative, the urban designer who came up with the conceptual plans for the development.
Right now, the block includes just a few businesses among empty lots and vacant buildings.
Gray envisions retail space for existing and new stores, a banking center, a business incubator, along with apartments, condos, a parking garage, pedestrian areas, even an amphitheater. He says the project could really boost the attitude of people living in the neighborhood.
"Not only feeling like I belong in the community but feeling like I have a stake in the community," said Gray.
Just across the street from the area, Mary Jane Banes-Egina is encouraged by the plans. She and seven partners just opened the city's only Filipino restaurant, REAL Sarap. Banes-Egina calls the current scene on West Tennessee old and dire.
"This area needs a facelift, something modern, something that people will say, 'Okay let's go visit this new place!' Because curiosity always brings people," said Banes-Egina.
Tallahassee's Community Redevelopment Agency says at this point, plans for the site are very preliminary. There's no estimated cost or timeline.
CRA Executive Director Roxanne Manning says the developer needs to conduct a market study to determine feasibility and provide more information about tenants and funding.
Mary Jane calls it a long shot, but hopes to see big changes across the street.
"This is a positive thing, something you're changing the facade changing the impression of the area," she said."