T MINUS 240: The Silver Bullet

My construction manager is the best! I’ve always been a big fan of the company and now I get to see up close and personal what working with one of Tallahassee’s leaders in green construction is really all about. I retained the company at a rate of $2,500 about a month ago to get some real, practical numbers plugged into my financial projections. But before we did that, we had to ensure that the zoning and permitting for the proposed location would even allow Concept to exist there.

The Zoning Code prevents any establishment that serves or sells alcohol from being within 500 feet of any school, church or other establishment of similar nature. We took out a map and drew to scale a radius of 500 feet. They went on a field trip to scout out the area for establishments that would prevent Concept from being in that building and found a day care and a church. The Silver Bullet. It would have killed the project dead in the water. They called the City to get some clarification on that rule and as it turns out, we dodged The Silver Bullet. That 500 feet is 500 feet of walking distance and only includes ‘walkable’ spaces. Meaning, if there is an empty lot in the middle of the walking path that is not accessible to pedestrians, you subtract that space. The day care wasn’t included because it isn’t a school and their was something on the path to the church that made it more that 500 walking feet. So…we dodged The Silver Bullet.

The question that we come to now is parking. Even though Concept’s location falls outside of the Downtown Improvement Authority district, for all intents and purposes, Concept will be a part of Downtown Tallahassee activity…and parking downtown is always perceived as the most inconvenient thing about being downtown. The City of Tallahassee’s Growth Management and Planning Departments have minimum parking standards per zone. The zone that Concept will be in, the Capital Center Planning District, calls for 1 parking space for every 200 ground square feet; the structure that houses Concept is 15,000 total square feet. That means our parking requirement is 75 spaces.

The building is located in both an Enterprise Zone and the Frenchtown/Southside Community Redevelopment Area; the project gets 18.75 redevelopment credits bringing the net required parking spaces required to 56.25, or 56. The asking price for the building actually includes an adjacent lot that is approximately 43 x 130 square feet, or 5,590 square feet. It will take about 350 square feet for one parking space, meaning I would over 19,000 square feet just to build in the required number of parking spaces. I can always appeal to the Parking Standards Committee to reduce the requirement for the project but I have to be careful about that.

Let’s say my appeal to Parking Standards is approved and I can get away with the 30 parking spaces that are ‘included’ in the property that I will acquire. One of the revenue drivers for the Group is the conference center and meeting space. It won’t make much sense to have a conference center that meets the needs of my constituents and customers if they have nowhere to park- that’s like not having a conference center at all. We talked about the next step as engaging an architect but before that money is spent, it would behoove me to understand my options for parking. Are all the lots adjacent to the building, not just the one immediately adjacent, available for sale? If so, what would the asking price be for that? If not, what other options do I have to make easy access to parking a true amenity for the property? More than that, what did the previous tenants do for parking when it was occupied 5 years ago? What businesses or spaces in close proximity might allow me to make some parking lease arrangements to use their space for my customers’ parking options?

My line sister owns a car wash about 3 blocks from where Concept will be. It’s an open space that has 3 tented areas so the employees can carry out their service duties; I would say about 15 cars could park their easily. She is open to allowing me to lease the space from her for the purposes of the project. I would need to provide a shuttle service from her business to Concept to account for the distance but that allows for further opportunity for my employees to build relationships with our customers. Or, I could form a partnership with one of the transportation companies in town that would extend a business opportunity to them to enhance their clientele and form their own relationships.