Revitalizing the Tallahassee Mall: The Case for a New City Park | Ben Grubbs

2023-11-20 08:01:02

Ben Grubbs
 |  Your Turn

Hidden behind the Trousdell Gymnastics Center and the old Tallahassee Mall (now The Centre of Tallahassee) is the perfect spot for the next city park that might help bring people back to the area around the languishing mall. The small holding pond located there, and the surrounding land, might provide both a recreational and an educational draw to the area. With the city already in possession of the land and plenty of parking nearby former mall site, many of the pieces are already in place to provide a new benefit to the Tallahassee community.

The main recreational benefit of the park would be a walking trail around the holding pond. Together with the nearby Macon Community Park and Trousdell, this new park would create a multi-purpose recreational spot within walking distance of several offices and residential areas, like Myers Park. Residents and workers, as well as parents waiting for their children’s swimming or gymnastics lessons to end, would have a nice outdoor walking space to enjoy. Additionally, the bat house at the park might serve as an educational resource to the community.

At the University of Florida, the bat houses by Lake Alice are a community gathering spot every night when the bats fly out at sunset. There is an information kiosk nearby explaining the history of the facility that provides information regarding the bats that inhabit the house and local area. A similar setup and creation of a new local tradition would be relatively simple to put together.

Finally, the park would bring more people back to the now quiet mall location. The parking lot is filled with empty spots that can provide both parking for the new park and an area for the mall to expand and bring the two together. The movie theater is already on that side of the mall and adding in food options in the empty sections of the mall or expanding around the east end might serve as a draw.

For people living or working nearby or using the Trousdell facilities, this would make the mall accessible via a short walk through the park, rather than having to drive. Additionally, it would add a pedestrian-friendly social gathering spot akin to Railroad Square. I’ve spoken with a resident living in the area, who was lamenting the fact that more such spaces were not present in Tallahassee.

Just in our own city, we’ve seen what projects like Cascades Park can do to revitalize an area. What was once a brownfields site is now a draw for people to get outside with their friends and family or socialize at nearby bars and restaurants.

Outside of the movie theater, The Centre of Tallahassee has no big draw, so creating a social, recreational, and educational space around it might provide the people of Tallahassee with more than one reason to visit.

Let’s see if lightning can strike twice and have a new park bring people back to the “Tallahassee Mall”.

Ben Grubbs is an employee with the Department of Environmental Protection and a graduate student at the University of Florida.

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