FSU Southwest Campus News

Squeezed on main campus, FSU seeks plenty of potential for its southwest location

http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2017/05/13/florida-state-universitys-southwest-campus-focus-future-growth/101567286/

While many may consider the impressive Doak Campbell Stadium, its expanded Champion’s Club and expectations of another football championship the future of Florida State, university planners offer an alternative vision.
Look southwest, they say. From the ramparts of Doak in the distance is sprawling university acreage that many believe offers the answer to the university’s core mission of providing high-quality academic and research programs.
As Florida State University builds on its quest in becoming one of the nation’s top 25 public universities, it also is keeping a laser focus on its future expansion.
For Tallahassee, that vision could lead to a dramatic change in the city’s southwest corridor where the university owns nearly twice as much land as its main campus occupies.

FSU officials soon will begin the process of updating the university’s master plan, which will serve as a campus-wide focus on plans for decades to come.
In the meantime, university planners are discussing how to prepare their southwest properties for development, which may be the key to the future of its landlocked main campus.
“At one time you couldn’t get anyone interested in the southwest campus,” said Mark Bertolami, director of planning and space management at FSU. “That is not true anymore. I can see the day the main campus and the southwest campus become one.
“We have to look at the southwest campus as an opportunity,” he said.
The university already has established its footprint on property it owns between Tallahassee International Airport to Gaines Street.

FSU Planning Map (Photo: Florida State University)

Today, there are 215 buildings on the main campus or a total of 6.2 million square feet. By comparison, there are 66 buildings on the southwest campus that total 1.4 million square feet.
Those properties include:

• The FSU Reservation
• The Don Veller Seminole Golf Course and Club
• National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
• Morcom Aquatics Center
• The 100-plus acre FSU Sportsplex intramural fields
• The FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
• The vacant property that once housed the sprawling Alumni Village
• Acreage between the golf course and Alumni Village
• Property within Innovation Park
• Various parcels along Lake Bradford Road.

Southwest campus

FSU's southwest campus roughly runs north of Orange Avenue, south of the CSX railroad tracks, east of Rankin Avenue and west of the Callen and Providence neighborhoods near Lake Bradford Road.
One current access starts at Levy Avenue, west of Lake Bradford, past the Providence neighborhood to the vast open space that once housed the sprawling Alumni Village housing complex, which was demolished two years ago.
Built about 1960, it included 96 buildings with nearly 800 apartments. Alumni Village was created to provide housing for older returning students, married couples and international students. Its two child care centers are still open but will soon be relocated closer to the main campus.

Another entry point is on Pottsdamer Street, off West Orange Avenue, where motorists are greeted by signs for The Don Veller Seminole Golf Course and Club, The FSU Broadcast Center and the engineering college.
FSU’s presence is almost immediate with the university’s tennis complex and the Morcom Aquatics Center.
For those venturing farther west on Orange Avenue onto Eisenhower Street, sits the FSU Sportsplex, a recreational campus in itself for intramural sports.
“It’s loosely defined," Bertolami said. “You won’t find a white picket fence around our property.”

This is a rendering of the entrance of FSU's Interdisciplinary Research and Commercialization Building at Levy Avenue and Engineering Drive. (Photo: Florida State University)

Preliminary plans being considered include a third phase of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, a possible expansion of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and the intramural fields.
A new Interdisciplinary Research and Commercialization Building at Levy Avenue and Engineering Drive is moving ahead, with legislators including $8 million in next year's budget toward construction.
Also housed on the southwest property is the Applied Superconductivity Center, the Aero-Propulsion, Mechatronics, & Energy Center, the Center for Advanced Power Systems and the High-Performance Materials Institute.

How the southwest property is further developed will be a key part of the discussions as the university deliberates on its master plan. That promises to be a huge undertaking involving academic programs, enrollment projections, research priorities and student needs.
Take Alumni Village, as an example.
“We never envisioned decommissioning Alumni Village,” Bertolami said. “We assumed it would be there forever. This (master planning) will give us an opportunity to determine the highest and best use for Alumni Village.”

Laying the groundwork

Meanwhile, FSU is taking steps to ensure its plans are in sync with the city and county's long-term vision. That means conversations with the intergovernmental agency overseeing the direction of Blueprint spending.
“This is planning the future of the FSU campus,” said Kevin Graham, executive director of the Florida State University Real Estate Foundation. “We haven’t gotten to the point of identifying the size of buildings, the use of buildings. We have this incredible land asset less than a mile away from the main campus. We want to be able to leverage the value of those land assets for the future growth and development of FSU.”
In February, Graham made a presentation to members of Blueprint’s intergovernmental agency.

Kevin Graham, executive director, FSU Real Estate Foundation, center, with Associate General Counsel Dustin Dailey, left, and Tom Jennings, VP of University Advancement, right. (Photo: Bruce W. Palmer)

He presented a map showing FSU properties in the southwest corridor of the city. He said FSU, in its role of being a good steward, was interested in making sure its future was being considered as the planning panel identifies infrastructure projects, such as roads, coming before the agency.

In that presentation, he noted several developments have sparked interest within the FSU community:

• The Florida Department of Transportation plans to widen Orange Avenue from South Monroe Street to Capital Circle Southwest. “The expansion would run in front of the FSU campus, the property that fronts the golf course,” Graham said.
• The university’s razing of the buildings at Alumni Village. “What’s left out there are rolling hills and beautiful oak trees,” he said. “We are asked what our plans are for Alumni Village.”
• FSU’s agreement with Nicklaus Design, an international firm founded by golf legend Jack Nicklaus, for a future design of the Don Veller Seminole Golf Course and Club.

“All of these factors have caused us to focus on this portion of our campus and to ensure we are planning appropriately for the next 50 years,” Graham told the Democrat recently.
“It’s important that we pay attention to the land assets that we have and make sure we are good stewards of these resources.”
FSU and the Blueprint staff agreed to continue meeting to identify infrastructure priorities the university would need to have in place before drawing up development plans. That report will come back before the Intergovernmental Agency, which is comprised of city and county commissioners.
“It’s always exciting to hear about growth in our community and FSU is a leading force for vitality in our region,” said Ben Pingree, director of Tallahassee-Leon County Department of Planning, Land Management and Community Enhancement. “We are coordinating with FSU now to leverage their growth, as they look at their next round of major improvements, to maximize the greater community benefits."

Collaboration is key

Graham says it's important that FSU's ideas for the southwest campus mesh with the city and the county's plans for that sparsely developed quadrant.
The availability of land opens possibilities for FSU. The main campus includes 475 acres and is considered land-locked, making FSU one of the highest density campuses in the state university system.
That compares to the nearly 900 acres in the southwest corridor. Of that, about 600 acres are available for future growth.
“There’s almost twice as much (land) outside the main campus that it is within,” Graham said.

Exploring a new access from Orange Avenue

FSU wants to explore creating an access road to the FSU property from West Orange Avenue. That connector road could run past the golf course through Alumni Village with a connection to Lake Bradford Road.
“It opens up the interior of FSU’s property, making it more accessible,” Graham said.
Under current conditions, motorists wanting to access the golf course of even the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering have to turn on Pottsdamer Street, which runs by the Callen neighborhood with its brick homes and well-maintained yards.
“That is not being the best steward of the neighborhood street,” Graham said.
What’s needed, he said, is a second entrance road that would improve entering and leaving the campus.
“It would have a positive impact on the (Callen) neighborhood,” he said.

But a new entrance from Orange Avenue raises also concerns. What impact a new road would have on the golf course property?  What impact would the road have on future building?
In addition, there are environmental considerations to add to the discussion, Graham said.
For their part, city and county officials also have big plans. Pingree said Blueprint has the Airport Gateway project in the 2020-2040 set of projects.
According to the Blueprint website, the project is designed to create a gateway from the airport into the city. Improvements on Springhill Road will focus on bicycle and pedestrian safety.
The improvements along Lake Bradford Road would complement the nearby Gaines Street redevelopment, which has drastically altered the landscaped just south of FSU. It also would focus on improving safer pedestrian, bicycle, and vehicular infrastructure within walking distance to FSU, FAMU, and Gaines Street.
“At this point, staff has been directed to research and provide an analysis of the opportunities that could happen as a result of any new partnership with FSU in relation to our Blueprint 2020 project: Airport Gateway,” Pingree said. “We are in the initial steps of performing this analysis now. “
Pingree said Blueprint also is planning a Southwest Area Transportation Plan that addresses future mobility needs and supports future development.
“In other words, we are initiating a rigorous study of the growth in this area that will take into account FSU’s perspectives as well as FAMU’s, the Airport, the Leon County Research and Development Authority and existing neighborhoods,” he said.
The most desired outcome, Graham said, is agreeing on what works best for the university and the larger Tallahassee community.
“When we look at all the major stakeholders, we have an opportunity to plan in a silo or work together. We choose to work together,” Graham said. “If Blueprint believes there is increased value to creating this complimentary connection through the FSU property then those are the opportunities the community can study.”