Wilson Green open space, northwest Tallahassee wetlands eyed among others as future TPD HQ

Karl Etters
Tallahassee Democrat
The Northwood Centre located on North Monroe Street Friday, April 5, 2019. A former Winn Dixie located on Paul Russell Rd. Friday, April 5, 2019. The building is a proposed site for the new Tallahassee Police Department.

The search for a new home for the Tallahassee Police Department has attracted several high-dollar proposals and touched off a free-for-all for possible locations for its headquarters.

With just under two weeks left in the city’s call for proposals, more than 140 ideas have been submitted. Almost half, 62, are site-specific land, buildings or both where people in the community, developers and others think the police station should go. Some locations were submitted more than once.

Of those, 42 fit the 9-acre criteria the city says it needs to house the 600-plus officers and support staff, as well as provide training facilities and community space.

TPD's operations have been run out of its 7th Avenue Midtown location since 1972. Continuing high maintenance costs, space constraints and a vision to make headquarters more community-oriented have prompted the search for a new home.

A plan several years in the making to put the department in a shopping plaza near the corner of South Monroe and Orange Avenue was abandoned by city commissioners in February. The move came abruptly at the end of a City Commission meeting, which followed two town hall meetings where the majority of speakers disagreed with the proposed site.

Criticism centered around the $60 million price tag, the requirement that leases of the dozen or so businesses in the plaza be bought out and the possibility the station would force vital economic resources out of the area.

The city last month set up a site to submit new possible locations and asked for very detailed criteria. Proposals can be submitted by the public through April 18, then the vetting process will begin.

The suggested locations center mostly along Monroe Street and Blair Stone Road but are dispersed throughout Tallahassee. They range from vacant buildings, empty undeveloped lots, occupied state buildings and former proposed sites of defunct local projects.

State buildings on Blair Stone Road and Apalachee Parkway were floated. So was the closed Winn Dixie on South Monroe Street and one still open on Magnolia Drive. The closed Toys-R-Us building on Apalachee Parkway and nearby shuttered Sears department store were submitted, as was the city-owned Hilaman Golf Course.

Shopping plazas on West Tennessee Street, Tharpe Street, the ailing Northwood Mall, Kleman Plaza, The Kearney Center, the Tallahassee Democrat building and the Fairgrounds were all floated.

The three largest sites submitted include a 66-acre property owned by Colin English on Orange Avenue, a conservation easement on Wilson Green Boulevard and a 214-acre site for sale from NAI TALCOR that parallels Capital Circle Northwest north from Tennessee Street.

The English property is adjacent to Hilaman Golf Course, across the street from the Veterans Administration Tallahassee Outpatient clinic. According to city documents obtained through a records request, English is open to donating an acre of land for every acre the city buys.

“As long as the city purchases a minimum of 20 acres, Mr. English will donate one acre for every acre the city purchases,” the submission says. Acres there have sold for $90,000 to $187,500 on the property according to the submittal.

English has donated land for city projects in the past. He, along with the St. Joe Co., donated land in the 1990s to the city for the Blair Stone Road project.

The 32.4-acre Wilson Green parcel is currently locked in a conservation easement as  green space to the adjoining subdivision. The easement, however, can be reversed if the holding parties agree, according to notes included with the proposal.

State records show the land is owned by a for profit company controlled by Steve Ghazvini, a developer of the Canopy at Welaunee project.

Welaunee developers were ordered in October to pay the largest fine ever leveled by the Northwest Florida Water Management District. The $112,400 penalty against the developers was part of a settlement with the state agency regarding noncompliance issues with one of the project's environmental permits. 

Gary Hunter – who is registered with the city as a lobbyist and represents the company behind the Welaunee project — reviewed the Wilson Green conservation easement document. Notes indicate a deal could be struck to remove the restriction, add housing and donate part of the easement for TPD's headquarters.

“If we can work a deal where we can leave some green space for the neighborhood, take some out for potential AFFORDABLE housing site that we retain ownership too (sic), then we can donate the city 5-10 acres at this location for the police station,” notes on the proposal say. “Straight up donation in turn for helping bring 70 percent of the property out of conservation.”

The 214-acre parcel for sale by NAI TALCOR is listed for $7 million on the company's website. The property is owned by the Faye C. Atkinson Revocable Living Trust. It sits on the headwaters of Munson Slough, which runs south to Wakulla Springs.

It was the focus of a complaint in the early 2000s by the owner, who died in 2017, when development of the Lowe's Home Improvement store was underway. Atkinson was concerned that wetlands would be endangered by development in the area.

The projects have not yet been ranked. City staff and construction managers will whittle down the final list of proposals to five to 10 sites. They will then take public input, and send written notices to residents who live within 1,500 feet of each property. A City Commission meeting will be scheduled to consider the staff's top three locations.

Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter