The Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) has contributed to twenty-eight projects in 2018, twenty-four of which are in Frenchtown/Southside and four of which are downtown. At a recent CRA Board Meeting, the Executive Director, Roxanne Manning, summarized the status of the large projects approved over the last two years. The first project, and the largest one […]
Even though members of the Community Redevelopment Agency had previously indicated they would not fund any more student housing projects, the members voted 6-1 at their last meeting to give grants totaling $325,000 to two student housing projects. Grants are monies that do not have to be repaid. Roxanne Manning, director of the CRA, told […]
At the January 25th, 2018 Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) meeting, the Board voted to approve changes to the North American Properties (NAP) Cascades project which will result in an additional $1.9 million in tax incentives. The CRA had previously approved tax incentives totaling $13.8 million for the downtown project. The change was due to the […]
The closeout of the 2017 budget for the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) shows that personnel expenses have increased approximately 66% over the last four years. During this period personnel expenses increased from $330,286 in 2013 to $547,872 in 2017. The growth in CRA personnel expenses is approximately nine times the growth rate of personnel expenses […]
A major assumption used by the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) to secure financial assistance for projects is being challenged by a downtown project that received no CRA financial assistance. This comes as the CRA is defending its existence and advocating for more tax breaks for another major downtown project. The CRA is quick to take credit […]
Members of the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) voted to gather more information about the ramifications of shutting down the downtown CRA and then the board voted to move forward with possibly providing financial assistance for the Washington Square project. Also, Mayor Andrew Gillum – who has refused to answer questions about his New York excursion […]
Tallahassee Reports has learned that a proposed development located in downtown Tallahassee at 227 S. Calhoun Street is seeking a $9.6 million refund of post-construction property tax from the downtown Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA). At the July 19th CRA Board meeting staff was directed not to bring any additional large-scale Downtown District projects to the […]
Leon County Commissioner Bill Proctor has sent a letter to Chairman Nick Maddox requesting that the county commission stop all funding for Downtown Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) projects pending clarifications of the numerous probes implicating the CRA’s role in various Downtown projects. On June 22, TR reported that the FBI served the City of Tallahassee […]
On June 13th, 2107 the FBI served the City of Tallahassee with subpoenas seeking information related to Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) projects and City of Tallahassee activities. See the subpoenas here and here. The subpoenas requested communications, documents, records, bids, applications, or proposals between a number of businesses/individuals and the City of Tallahassee and the […]