Fallschase: A new beginning for the Village Center

Parking lots at the Fallschase Village Center are packed with shoppers zipping into the Super Wal-Mart for groceries, beauty products and other essentials.

Cheap gas attracts long lines at the region’s only Costco, where members rumble large carts inside for door-buster deals on bulk items. And newcomer Bass Pro Shop, a wonderland for outdoor lovers, is creating more foot traffic — all signs that the center could support future development.

The next burst of construction could transform Fallschase into the outdoor walking and shopping experience first conceived a decade ago. Progress depends on whether three parties – Leon County, developer Lormax Stern Development Co. and the Buck Lake Alliance, representing nearby residents, – come to terms on a design and revisions to their existing Buck Lake-Fallschase Agreement.

“The vision for the center is additional retail and restaurants on Mahan Drive and an anchor on the east end of the property like a theater that will serve as a catalyst to getting the Village Center portion going,” developer Daniel Stern said. “All of this would be interconnected with walking paths and bike paths with areas of open space within the development.”

The three-party agreement is unlike anything elsewhere in the county and was the result of controversy over the original development.

“Once that document is finalized and everyone agrees to it, then these will be given a green light to proceed forward,” said David McDevitt, director of Leon County’s Department of Development Support and Environmental Management, regarding terms for the design standards. “We’ve been through a couple of iterations and we’re getting close.”

The developers have a concept for the Village Center but have not yet submitted renderings to the alliance or the county. “Hopefully, it (the agreement) will be approved in the next month or so,” McDevitt said.

Developers submitted a conceptual plan to the county for Cobb Movie Theater, an upscale dine-in theater with reclining leather seats, but there’s no official agreement, Stern said.

“Unfortunately, at this time we do not have a deal with a movie theater. We do think a theater would be a great use for the property,” he wrote in an email.

Meanwhile, construction has begun for several new businesses on a chunk of land between Super Wal-Mart and Bass Pro Shop. Coming are an expanded outdoor boatyard for Bass Pro, Boot Barn, a country Western apparel store, and Dollar Tree. The developer is still looking for a tenant for 20,000 square feet of remaining space.

County Commissioner Kristin Dozier, whose district includes Fallschase, said the focus is getting the right type of development at the center. She wants it to be a place that encourages people to walk around and spend more time.

“I hope we are really moving away from large developments with a whole lot of asphalt in front of them,” Dozier said.

Learning from the past

Ten years ago Fallschase was the epicenter of controversy when residents and two commissioners tried unsuccessfully to prevent the removal of thousands of trees from the site. Commercial development stalled for years before a Super Wal-Mart opened, followed by Costco a few years later. Bass Pro Shop arrived in 2013.

“If you look at it now, it’s just scraped clean,” said former County Commissioner Bob Rackleff, a staunch Fallschase critic. “It’s a throwback to the old dredge-and-fill-and-develop-at-any-cost Florida. Nothing was supposed to go out there. It’s just more sprawl, which is the last thing Tallahassee needs.”

A speech writer in Washington, D.C., who still owns a Tallahassee town home, Rackleff last returned to the capital city for the holidays. Fallschase still makes his blood boil.

“It was the most visible calamity that’s happened in the last generation,” Rackleff said. “It’s sad what’s been happening, and there’s no real search for solutions. Who wants to buy a house next to that ugly shopping center that it’s become?”

But locals, including the Buck Lake Alliance, are not looking to repeat history. Activists want the center to feel like a community within a community.

So does Dozier, who disagrees with Rackleff on whether the center creates more dependence on vehicles. The development was a key issue between the two when Dozier defeated Rackleff in 2010. She said clusters of businesses, particularly with an outdoor shopping theme, help cut the number of car trips residents make.

“I don’t think we are cutting out travel entirely, but these types of developments will help us cut down on car traffic,” Dozier said.

The alliance represents the county’s east side, said board president Gerry Miller. That’s an area teeming with large subdivisions and neighborhoods, such as Meadow Hills, Avon and the Buck Lake Neighborhood.

Lormax Stern estimates there are 111,510 people with an average income of $74,281 living within a 5-mile radius of the development.

Miller said the group’s main goal is ensuring a community atmosphere throughout the Village Center area. That starts from the center’s first entry way near McDonald’s on Laginappe Way. It passes a large round-about anchored by a towering live oak and leads to Vermillion Boulevard – the terminus to the conceptual movie theater.

The street will be lined with more than a dozen businesses, sidewalks, street lights and landscaping.

“Representatives of our Buck Lake neighborhoods want to have a sense of community up there,” Miller said. “If the developers come through with rendition drawings that show more definition and clarity on the Village Center design standards, the project could meet that one- to two-month projection.”

In 2006, an agreement between then developer AIG Baker and the alliance was put into Fallschase’s development plan. Among other things, all future development or design changes require approval from all three parties. It created built-in insurance for residents. And Leon County could track each step.

Michigan-based Lormax Stern became the new property owner in 2009. However, the agreement on architectural and design site plans remains in place. The three parties have spent the last year retooling the terms. Conceptual pictures and renderings for the Village Center aspect are vital.

“We think it’s important to have consistency throughout all of the Fallschase commercial (area), in other words harmonious consistence in the aesthetic design,” Miller said. “We continue to talk about the design standards, but we haven’t gotten clarity.”

Walkable outdoor shopping

The alliance knows development is inevitable. Miller said the group wants to support what takes place.

But executive board members want to see how the center will function as a pedestrian-friendly draw for east-side residents. In theory, patrons would park at one of more than a dozen restaurants, shops or businesses and walk on wide sidewalks to spots within the center, including the movie theater, if it happens.

A movie theater was always an idea for the Village Center, McDevitt said. Originally, a triangular area between the north side of Buck Lake Road and Mahan Drive was identified as an authorized and agreed upon site for one.

County officials say Lormax Stern would rather develop in an open field on the east side of Vermillion Boulevard near Costco’s gas station. Building a theater in the original site would be costly and laborious. A ravine and slopes would complicate construction.

“Moving it over here would require some changes to the amendment of the concept plan,” McDevitt said. “You could put it there, but it would require you to put in tremendous fill to fill that area up. The site work to make that work would be astronomical … You would be impacting environmental features as well.”

Changes to the center’s development plan require commission approval. Considering the length of time that’s passed since it was created, Dozier is willing to look at it, but she wants the alliance to have a say in how the project moves forward.

“People could be real nervous about opening it up,” Dozier said. “But if there are ways to improve it environmentally or create this village feel, I would be willing to have that conversation.”

Open to potential

In the years since Fallschase first broke ground, other areas of Tallahassee have exploded with growth. College Town transformed the Gaines Street area with restaurants, shops and businesses. Midtown continues to grow its appeal, especially for the young professional crowd. Market Square’s boutiques, ice cream parlors and restaurants attract families.

Leon County Commissioner Bryan Desloge, whose district represents the affluent north side, said commercial real estate experts are looking to the east for the next big thing in Tallahassee. Outdoor shopping at Fallschase could be a draw, although another developer is reinventing Tallahassee Mall as a hybrid outdoor shopping center.

While Boot Barn, Dollar Tree and an outdoor boatyard lot for Bass Pro Shop are moving forward, other plans remain in limbo until all three parties agree on design site standards, county officials said. Lots are earmarked for future businesses, but county officials haven’t received official permit applications for any of them.

But Desloge said east-side residents may welcome robust development, including a movie theater, restaurants and businesses catering to day-to-day needs like a dry cleaners.

“Nobody puts these in because they think they are going to lose money,” said Desloge, adding he likes the idea of a movie theater. “The businesses have clearly decided there is a need and they are fulfilling that need.”