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Project North | Turbocor

stjoe

By stjoe
in Tallahassee

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Florida Megalopolis

Florida

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While we're on the subject of flooring, has anyone other than myself thought about the floors in both the Civic Center and the Governor's Square mall.

The Governor's Square mall would be such a much better place with a new shinny, engaging floor. The brown tiles that are down now make the place look dark and outdated.

Seriously, if the floor was updated in that mall, it would feel like a totally different place. Although I do sometimes wonder about people slipping on the shinny new floors. I've seen them in other malls, they have a shinny floor in the Tallahassee mall... why not to Governor's Square.

And then there's the Civic Center... I guess because its a facility that caters to a rough group of sports enthusiast its supossed to have an ugly floor. But what about performances, graduations, conventions and such? I think the floor at the civic center, of polished cement, makes the place look incomplete, as if they didn't finish. I'd get creative and lay a floor down in that place that welcomes visitors and reflects the true beauty of this community.

The Floor at the airport, I've never given much thought to, however now that you mention it... maybe it could use a little attention. I personally think the airport has a nice warm feel to it. If we can only get more traffic in there. I tell ya... if I were in charge around here....

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Florida Megalopolis

Florida

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City Commission Approved $1.6 million in incentives over the next five years for the relocation of Danfoss Turbocor Compressors Inc. from Canada. The company is expected to create at least 150 jobs by 2010. The County Commission on Tuesday also approved giving the firm $1.6 million in incentives. In addition, both the city and county approved $105,000 in matching funds to be eligible for $840,000 of state incentives to the company.

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Relient J Hamlet

Relient J

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taurean said it.... u just wont be as happy living away from tallahassee..

Well, we'll see about that in the long run. In the short run I'm very happy here in Middle Tennessee. I firmly believe that God has led me here for a purpose, and that gives me great happiness indeed! Tallahassee will always have a very special place in my heart, and indeed I very much enjoy getting to have these great discussions about a city I love with a great group of people who are passionate about that city's past, present, and future. Perhaps one day my wife and I will move back to Tallahassee. For now though, I really feel like I'm where i need to be, and that's a good feeling. :)

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Florida Megalopolis

Florida

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Yes. God did lead you there for a reason. Everything happens for a reason. GOD DOESN'T MAKE MISTAKES.

Whatever the case, I hope you're able to make your way back to visit from time to time as this city we all love so dearly changes.

What steps do we need to make as a community to improve what will become the tech sector of our community, the SW area near the airport? Should we build homes, apartments, schools, roads, parks, medical facilities, discount air carrier? What 2 things would you say would top your list of things to do to boost our ability to recruit high paying technology jobs?

I say we start with transportation facilities... Widen Orange and Capital Circle, make them work well with one another... then work hard and heavy to get another discount carrier into the airport and boost passenger traffic and lower fares.

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Florida Megalopolis

Florida

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I'm betting a little better than 95%. I don't know if the Democrat wants to admit it but they are reading this message board... someone is. And they are getting ideas from us.

Look at the patterns... we kept the Project North talks going, we speculated, we boosted our chances when FSU lured the research institution from Madison, WI, then they broke news of a possible deal, only to break news again that city and county leaders approved incentive packages, only to again break news that Turbocor liked our enthusiasm!

They liked OUR enthusiasm alright! Give yourself a pat on the back UrbanPlaneteer! (Sings: We're the planeteers, you can be one too... by saving our planet is the thing to do" Hero voice: "By your powers combined I am Capitan Planet!" remember that show!?)

Anyhow this is great news.

However I would like to share this little piece with you all... I was at city hall Wednesday for the city commission meeting. At 6 we had a dinner and I had the opportunity to speak with the demographer from the Planning department, he's the one responsible for publishing the Major Developments report (I won't say his name since he's not officially a public figure). However, he spoke to me on how our city courts different companies.

Apparently there are 30 cities our size in this country, and when it comes to bringing in private industry that doesn't cater to government, we have it harder than most because around 35% of our labor force is city, county, state employed. When companies relocate they like to be able to steal employees from among the pool of those already working in the market, in our case they would be stealing from the government, and companies don't like the thought of government running their businesses. Therefore we've got to work extra hard, harder than a non-Capital city our size to pull the jobs we want. But I'm increasingly confident we can do it based on the signs.

TCC has stepped up its efforts to recruit business by offering incentives for companies to bring their employees here and providing low cost training. FSU is agressively seeking to develop Innovation Park. Bringing in researchers is going to be key to getting tech and pharmacutical companies to look this way. I'm not sure of what FAMU is doing on an Economic Development level, but the school itself is coming back together with its new surpluses, and campus development. I think the work the city is doing on the southside of town will help to boost the FAMU area as I believe it will play a key role in the future of Tallahassee's new economy.

If you want to know where the next promising commercial road in this city will be, look no further than Lake Bradford. It links FAMU, FSU, Innovation Park, the Airport, and the Railroads . There's just the matter of getting it prepped for use by clean business. This means buying up some of the warehouses and worn torn garages, setting some building design standards. I also think this may become a prime location for Leon County's next high school as there are none in the immediate area.

Developers will see the public money spent on cleaning up and improving the infrastructure on this road and bring in, if nothing else some decent housing which will spark the need for restaurants, medical facilities, parks/community centers, fueling stations and there you have it! Lake Bradford is a HIGH POTENTIAL corridor and if I were Jim Davis at Blue Print 2000, I'd be talking with the city about making this road THE key element of the Capital Cascades Trail and linkage between downtown and airport.

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jpl02 Hamlet

jpl02

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One thing I don't understand - why has COT never thought to build more amenties near the airport? I mean, virtually every major city has hotels and shopping adjacent to their airports! Our airport is basically in the sticks.

We really need to make the Capital Circle NW/SW segment from I-10 to the airport a freeway. That's such a dirty word to many...but think of it in simpler terms. A four lane highway (up from 2 lanes now), with overpasses and limited interchanges (only at Tennessee, Blountstown/Pensacola and Orange). It would end at the front door of the airport, and have a 70 mph speed limit. Basically, something to move people quickly from the airport to I-10. Now is that all bad? I don't think it is. We don't have to build another 12 lane monster, but we need to build something. If only people could come to their senses about Capital Circle.

We need hotels next to the airport. I mean, the closest hotels are on the Parkway, which is quite a drive. Hotels next to the airport means more convenience and less hassle for travelers and tourists, and that also means they're more likely to stay in the southside and spend money there. It's a start to a better economic situation on the southside.

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Florida Megalopolis

Florida

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Turbocor Hooked on City

Timeline

May 6: Turbocor arrives in town in its technology demonstration vehicle parked at the Capital City Bank downtown, discretely looking to move its headquarters from Canada.

May 20: Tallahassee submits relocation proposal to Enterprise Florida.

June 8: Request for incentives sent to Mayor John Marks.

June 21: Innovation Park approves $1 million incentive package.

June 22: Turbocor has 1st site visit. (They fell in love, with a straight face)

June 28: County votes for $1.6 million incentive package.

July 13: City votes for $1.6 million incentive package.

July 25-26: Tallahassee officials visit Montreal. (City leaders were frost bitten and had to return quickly. Their shivering was mistaken for excitement. Among those that made the trip were Mayor Marks and Commissioner Katz.)

August 17th: I posted I was waiting from some news from Project North after hearning nothing in the paper since mid July. UrbanPlanet conversation heated up.

Aug. 29: First meeting on memorandum of understanding.

Oct. 21: Turbocor signs memorandum.

Oct. 24-26: Innovation Park, county and city sign memorandum.

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Florida Megalopolis

Florida

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One thing I don't understand - why has COT never thought to build more amenties near the airport? I mean, virtually every major city has hotels and shopping adjacent to their airports! Our airport is basically in the sticks.

We really need to make the Capital Circle NW/SW segment from I-10 to the airport a freeway. That's such a dirty word to many...but think of it in simpler terms. A four lane highway (up from 2 lanes now), with overpasses and limited interchanges (only at Tennessee, Blountstown/Pensacola and Orange). It would end at the front door of the airport, and have a 70 mph speed limit. Basically, something to move people quickly from the airport to I-10. Now is that all bad? I don't think it is. We don't have to build another 12 lane monster, but we need to build something. If only people could come to their senses about Capital Circle.

We need hotels next to the airport. I mean, the closest hotels are on the Parkway, which is quite a drive. Hotels next to the airport means more convenience and less hassle for travelers and tourists, and that also means they're more likely to stay in the southside and spend money there. It's a start to a better economic situation on the southside.

Where did you come from! :thumbsup: I absolutely agree with you on this. We have talked several times on here about spur routes from I-10 to the airport for this very purpose and to make North-South travel easier for those living in the costal big bend counties. Where would the land come from needed to create the route? Only God knows, but you're right one is needed.

Currently work is underway to widen the segment of Capital Circle from I-10 to Tennessee Street. I don't know if you all have noticed the new signage along Capital Circle also, but there is new signage now. Tennessee to the Airport is my concern. Blueprint can't decide on a route, when one is clearly already paved. We have NIMBYs at work on this issue. NIMBYs and those who say traffic will cause an environmental backup into a precious area lake... Im sure there's a way to mitigate these concerns. People should have more confidence in thier city planners and traffic engineers. It bothers me when everyone wants to become an expert when its time to get something done. Capital Circle has good room to expand to a 6-lane divided road much like it is on the other side of town, we don't have time to waist on this. Look at what happened to North East, Eastern Capital Circle after they completed it... its now one of the city's busiest streets and one of the more attractive and fun to drive on.

As for the development around the airport. Community leaders are aware of this, so is St. Joe Arvida who has even cleared some property and layed infrastructure calling it The Airport Industrial park, or something along those lines. I'm not sure how much success they are having with trying to bring in tenants. I think one of the major hold-ups with this project is waiting for work on Capital Circle to start and finish. That's just my thinking. We definately need a hotel in this area. It may not be a bad idea to throw an Outback or something out there just so people will drive to it and create some traffic along that side of town. Once developers see the pickup in traffic they'll probably be more inclined to bring in a hotel, something as simple as a little Marriott Residence Inn or Hilton Garden Inn.

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DaiDreamer5 Hamlet

DaiDreamer5

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I wish there was a city bus directly to Innovation Park and the Airport. I hate having to walk all the way from Alumni Village to get to work. :(

It doesn't surprise me that the Democrat reads this board. I managed to find this board on Google looking for more information about one of the enviromental developments. Blogs and forums seem to be the new "in" source for the media these days.

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DaiDreamer5 Hamlet

DaiDreamer5

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yes we need a University shuttle system that is timely, and makes stops everywhere... it goes out to innovation park, and all the way to the reservation on a reduced schedule, possibly a few times during staurday and sunday.....

The university needs to fund this.

The University has a bus that goes out to innovation park but they share it with Famu, so it only stops once an hour. There is talk, however, to split the bus route, considering more people are now using the engineering shuttle.

The University bus system needs a serious overhaul. They need a few buses for night classes and maybe some shuttles that run on Saturday (to publix, walmart, etc). I was talking to a bus driver once a few year ago and him mentioned that at one point there was a shuttle from FSU to the malls, but it wasn't used to often. I think this is because there are many city buses to the mall already. Not to many buses to publix and walmart. :)

However, I do believe that there needs to be a City bus to Innovation Park. Most of the people who work here are not students.

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DaiDreamer5 Hamlet

DaiDreamer5

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Its amazing that we don't run buses to Innovation park or the Airport. I don't think I've seen the "College of Engineering" bus at school in quite some time.

Maybe Danfoss Turbocor moving to town will cause TalTran and the Commission to make some adjustments to this.

The engineering bus still runs at FSU and FAMU. It only have two stops at FSU (non engineering students were using it to get to westcott and traffic is bad at FSU) and about four or so at FAMU.

My far flung theory is that the cab companies are paying the city to NOT put bus routes to the Airport :D

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