Dive Brief:
- A Cincinnati-based developer has proposed a $158 million park-centered, mixed-use development for downtown Tallahassee, FL, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. The Tallahassee CRA will decide later this month whether or not to accept NAP's proposal and begin negotiations.
- The project — spearheaded by North American Properties, the only respondent to the Community Redevelopment Agency's Request for Proposals — would include the adaptive reuse of historical buildings, including the first Leon County Jail, and would see mid-rise residential, retail, entertainment, office, restaurant and hotel space built to maximize views of the adjacent 24-acre Cascades Park.
- NAP said it would retain important architectural elements during the redevelopment, which the city hopes will encourage demographic diversity, spur more overall activity in the area and provide increased connectivity and access between the project and downtown.
Dive Insight:
Initially driven by the razor-thin budgets so common after the Great Recession, adaptive reuse projects like this proposal for Tallahassee have become more popular as both public agencies and private companies seek to turn unsightly infrastructure elements or buildings into modern gathering places or up-to-date, mixed-use developments. These projects can not only provide sustainable routes to new use, but they can also be the launching pads for surrounding growth and expansion.
For example, HYM Investment Group in Boston is using an unsightly 1970s-era parking garage as the base for its near-3-million-square-foot, $1 billion-plus Bulfinch Crossing mixed-use development, which will ultimately feature two glass skyscrapers. Thomas N. O’Brien, founding partner and managing director of HYM, told Construction Dive last month that "throwing something away is not the best solution if there's a way to use what already has been created."