Lakeland CRA Shares Vision for Nine-Block ‘Mass Market Area’

Over the past decade, Lakeland’s Community Redevelopment Agency has quietly and strategically purchased land in the nine-block area bound by Massachusetts Avenue, Memorial Boulevard, North Florida Avenue and George Jenkins Boulevard.

Two of the CRA’s biggest purchases will go before the City Commission on Monday for approval:

• $2 million for four vacant lots on North Tennessee Avenue and four commercial buildings in the 800 block of North Florida Avenue — including the Vets Army & Navy Surplus store where former City Commissioner Michael Dunn shot and killed a shoplifter in October 2018.
• $765,000 for the building at 618 N. Massachusetts Ave that most recently housed the Nurturing Love Academy daycare center, as well as the four vacant parcels behind it. They are owned by Frank and Sonji Kendrick, founders of NuJak Companies.

With these key acquisitions — plus two homes the commission approved buying from Gospel Inc. last month — the CRA will own more than half of the nearly 40-acre zone north of downtown that it calls the “Mass Market Area.” On the map below, the CRA owns the purple-shaded areas. The ones in yellow are under contract.

A bold vision: For the past few years, much of the land has been vacant, surrounded by chain-link fencing and black and white “No Trespassing” signs.

But a newly updated Mass Market Area Plan, created by Straughn Trout Architects, offers visions of what different blocks could become — with a mix of restaurants, apartments, medical offices and parking structures. The Mass Market area is at the southern end of the 4,463-acre Midtown redevelopment district, which has lagged compared with other areas of the city.

The CRA will present the plan to the City Commission tomorrow morning, after the commission’s agenda study session.

The CRA has already developed many spaces in the 800-block of Massachusetts Avenue including Haus 820, DOU Bakehouse, the former Yard on Mass and the recently closed ART/ifact studios. It also developed The Well on Parker Street and owns the Market Loft apartments on Plum Steet.

Now it hopes to bundle parcels on other blocks and market them to civic-minded developers. But even with economic incentives, it might be a challenge to find builders with the vision and risk tolerance to create projects like those in the renderings.

A complicated location: At the center of the nine-block study area is Talbot House — one of the few organizations in Polk County that provides food, shelter, medical care and other services to people experiencing homelessness. The 45-year-old organization is widely lauded for its work. However, many of their clients have mental health or addiction issues that can cause public disruptions.

At a workshop last week, CRA Advisory Board member Lynne Simpkins asked how Talbot House fits in with the plan. The organization has several programs, but it is best known for its emergency dormitory-style shelter which can serve 120 people each night.

Check-in begins at 4 pm outside the Tennessee Avenue door. Shelter clients must leave after breakfast, which is served at 6 am Talbot House is a low-barrier shelter, meaning drug tests aren’t required.

“I am very sensitive to how we handle our homeless … We like to box them in, but they’re going to want to go to these places,” Simpkins said. “Talbot House is a place for them to come and eat. Someone get to stay there. But once they’ve been served, they have to stay outside. They don’t have a whole lot of places to go.”

CRA Manager Valerie Vaught replied simply, “They are a neighbor. … We continue to work with our neighbors to find solutions. And we continue to bring our advocates, our elected officials, and continue to say, ‘How can we make this more feasible for all involved?’”

An ‘island’ north of downtown: John Kirk, a principal architect with Straughn Trout, said the Mass Market area could serve as a transition between the downtown core to the south and the medical district to the north. However, he noted that the nine blocks are encircled by heavily traveled, 4- to 8-lane roads creating an “island.”

“Obviously, from a pedestrian standpoint, whether I’m walking or on a bicycle, it’s very dangerous to get outside of this block,” Kirk said.

He said it makes sense to “hold the corners” with two- to three-story offices and commercial buildings, and put apartment buildings on the interior with enhanced sidewalks.

What is, and what could be

Vets Army & Navy Surplus: The brick building that houses the Vets Army & Navy Surplus store has been in Becky Gridley’s family since 1958. Her father opened seven similar shops around Florida, capitalizing on opportunities he found while traveling the state for a shoe company.

The Lakeland store is the only one left, but Gridley, 73, said she’s ready to sell it and her other nearby properties to the CRA. Gridley and her husband were living in Tallahassee when her then-business partner Michael Dunn fatally shot Cristóbal Lopez, 50, a homeless veteran who had slipped a $9.99 hatchet down the front of his pants and walked out of the store.

Gridley was still recovering from brain surgery at the time, but came back to Lakeland to manage the aftermath. She and her husband have been in different cities for much of the time since.

“I’m tired of it,” she said Tuesday. “I want to retire.”

The Mass Market Area plan — which Kirk emphasized is strictly conceptual at this point — envisions a mixed-use office building, two restaurants and a pedestrian courtyard on the land where Gridley’s properties stand.

The renderings show a roughly 8,000-square-foot office on the corner, with possible retail on the ground floor. Site work would cost an estimated $500,000, with another $4.5 million for construction.

The two restaurants would share 40 parking spaces and would both open to the courtyard. The designers estimated the site work would cost $1.5 million and construction would be $3 million.

Residential block

The CRA-owned lots north and south of Myrtle Street are undeveloped. Tennessee and Kentucky Avenues both come to abrupt dead ends south of Myrtle Street, buffered from George Jenkins Boulevard by barriers, reflective signs and a row of trees.

The Mass Market Area plan envisions a mixed commercial and residential development in the blocks south of Talbot House and north of Bartow Road/George Jenkins Boulevard.

The design shows three buildings with both covered and surface parking for 224 vehicles. The designers estimated that the lots could accommodate 70,000 square feet of residential space — about 250 units — and 5,000 square feet of commercial space.

The cost estimate includes $1.5 million for site work, $22.75 million for the apartments, $2 million for the commercial spaces and $10 million for the parking structure.

Medical office block

The CRA does not own the buildings along Memorial Boulevard between Walgreens and Herts, which currently house Young’s Beauty Supplies and Blvd Customs car audio and window tint.

However, the Mass Market Area plan envisions those parcels someday housing a two-story, 24,000-square-foot medical office building that could serve as a bridge between the area just south of Memorial and the medical district immediately north of it.

The CRA does own most of the land behind the proposed building, which is shown on the plan as hosting 116 surface parking spaces for the building.

Last month, the City Commission approved the purchase of two homes opposite the Tax Collector’s Office that would make up part of the parking area. According to the property appraiser’s records, the home at 914 N. Kentucky Ave. was built in 1901 and the one at 918 N. Kentucky was built in 1925.

The CRA has a contract to buy them from Gospel Inc. for a combined purchase price of $180,000. Vaught said the CRA will evaluate the condition of the homes and if it’s feasible to move them to another location.

“We’re still in due diligence. We haven’t closed yet,” Vaughn told CRA Advisory Board members last week, pointing to the homes shaded in yellow on a map.

Many properties for sale

Unlike the game Monopoly, where players collect contiguous properties with the goal of making a profit, the CRA’s land acquisitions are meant to boost others’ fortunes by galvanizing economic development.

The CRA typically seeks to sell land it owns to private developers or partner with them on projects. In rare cases where there isn’t private-sector interest, the CRA will develop properties itself.

It’s unclear if any landowners in the Mass Market area were influenced by the CRA’s plans, but there are currently several commercial properties in the zone that are listed for sale:

• The distinctive brick building at 701 N. Florida Ave. that formerly housed Silver Cloud Estate Jewelry, Gun & Pawn is for listed for $972,676.
• The large multi-lot plot at 841 N. Florida Ave. that houses All American Furniture is listed for $2,999,000.
• The buildings at 901 and 915 N. Florida Ave. that currently house Mobility Express and the two vacant lots behind it are all for sale by the same owner.
• The buildings at 711 and 717 N. Kentucky Ave. that currently house the Barber Skate Shop and We Build Polk CDC Inc. are for sale for a combined price of $675,000.

Market Lofts Apartments

On Tuesday, Steve Rose was using a mop on a long pole to remove wasps’ nests from the eaves and exterior windows of the CRA-owned Market Lofts apartments where he lives. The 12-unit complex at 310 Plum Street is in the heart of the Mass Market area, a stone’s throw from both the Tax Collector’s Office and Talbot House.

Rose said he and several family members live there, including his wife Becky and daughter Rachel, both of whom work for Gospel Inc. He said he and his neighbors have no issues with the homeless population. “Most are very friendly. They’re just people down on their luck.”

He added that between the Lakeland Police patrols and the security at the Tax Collector’s Office, they feel especially safe.

Rose said the complex is being sold to Brian Seeley, founder and former CEO of Gospel Inc., who plans to add four more units.

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