Tallahassee Democrat from Tallahassee, Florida • Page 53

C7 Another big market gain fni-fH tf? ill mil eMBaJ i J. 2 A Stores galore migrate north to 1-10 mecca GRADY" COUNTY. GEORGIA THOMAS COUNTY liFntwii LEON COUNTY Mil tr-r I northwest yjl I mnmm mmmmM. i. I i 1 J3 CO tO (S CO CM tt to ay cp eg op" qT: 1970 1976 1980 1985 ullilMsJ 1 I 'IS 1 northeast" Ji "r' i ipRAN AREA Ql "JL 111 1 1 Wfr'H'WiWirti 1 1 Harold Gibbs: 'I feel this is the greatest growing area in Leon County' A-' SOUTHWEsOr1 B0 I SOUTHEAST vi Cr r- in it I jt oo uv Jfj tn 1970 1976 1980 1985 I Eat.

Est. 1,... LEON COUNTY I 1970 1976 1980 1985 nrpPpl WAKULLA COUNTY St. E.t. E.

1970 1976 1980 Source: Tallahassee-Leon County Planning Department UMIMIIJ 1970 1976 1980 1985 Est. Est. Est. Democrat art bv Sam Westbrook Map shows 1970 census figures and growth estimates Timberlane: specialty center i r-r r-1 if 1 1 if mm -v. II III i I I fit MTHr By ED HARDEE Democrat staff writer With three big malls now slugging it out for a share of each Leon County shopping dollar, you'd think commercial development in Tallahassee would slow down awhile.

But nooooooo. Just ask Harold Gibbs, a 40-year-old Tallahassee businessman. Gibbs developed Timberlane Shops on the Square, and when it opened in 1977 it was the only shopping center in the Thomasville Road-Interstate 10 area. Now, nearby, the Carriage Gate shopping center is established; mart Plaza North has been open for about a year, the Plaza 10 center is staging its grand opening; and the Killearn Center is set to open this fall. "I feel this is the greatest-growing area in Leon County," exclaims Gibbs, who says he welcomes the sudden spurt in competition though some merchants already doing ness in the area don't share that sentiment.

"(Shopping) centers need to move with the residential growth," Gibbs says. Robert D. Fewox, president of the firm that developed the new Plaza 10 center on Raymond Diehl Road, would agree. He has seen predictions for residential growth and likes what he saw for northeast Tallahassee. "By 1990, this is going to be the center of 40 to 60 percent of the county population, right in this vicinity," says Fewox, who believes the area could develop into a suburban community within itself in the next few years.

(The area will be annexed into the city of Tallahassee effective Sept. 30.) Fewox also likes the income projections for people in northeast Tallahassee, which includes residents of Killearn and other middle- to upper-income housing developments. "The per capita income for this area is incredibly higher than anywhere else in the county," he says. The average family income in the northeast area for 1978-79 was That compares with 1979 figures of $21,186 for the city as a whole and $21,017 for Leon County. Higher income figures help- explain the area's attractiveness for business growth.

An explanation for the commercial appeal of shopping centers there is the marketing strategy involved. Malls, such as Governor's Square, seek customers from throughout the county and beyond. But most shopping centers draw business from a smaller area, usually about a three-mile radius. So when the population in an area grows, shopping centers can grow with it. "Ten years ago there just wasn't anything (commercial) out this way," says Lee Narr, research director for the Tallahassee Area Chamber of Commerce, who lives in the area.

"It's amazing." The striking residential growth began with the coming of Killearn in the mid-1960s, says Narr. The completion of Interstate 10 brought more traffic. "The northeast quadrant is the win yjr y- Carriage Gate: shops and a grocery growth area, period," says a spokes--woman for the Killearn Center off Capital Circle at Thomasville which will include a Publix supermarket, Shoppers Drug Mart, Ace Hardware and about 20 other stores. Yet, while developers are sold on northeast Tallahassee's commercial, future, some of the merchants already there aren't totally pleased with the present. Many cite two current recession and the large number of stores doing business in Tallahassee; Some welcome the commercial growth in the northeast area, feeling it will draw shoppers there, but others don't agree.

"I personally think there are too many stores out in this area," says Dallas Williams, who owns the Music Bar at Timberlane. "There must be 100 to 135 retail stores." People usually shop for one of two things, Williams says convenience or price. Williams offers convenience instead of volume discount, as do many of the small merchants in the area. But, he says, there aren't enough buyers from the immediate area who would be looking for convenience to support him well. "How many times can they come to support 135 retail businesses?" he asks.

I think we'd have to have 50,000 people in this (three-mile) The population base hasn't reached that point yet, but it's growing. Tallahassee-Leon County Planning Department figures put the population estimate at 35,200 people for the three-mile radius, including the Killearn area. As the population base grows, Wil-iams believes, things will improve for merchants who need more business. But, he says, "I think this area of town is about three years away from being established as a business (district)." Williams says he likes the Timberlane merchants. While he talked about business problems of the general northeast area, he also called it "a good area to be in" and had nothing bad to say about Shops on the Square itself.

Another merchant, who would speak only if he wasn't named, wasn't so charitable. He didn't want to be identified, he said, because he didn't want to jeopardize his relationship (Please see NORTH, page 2E) jr" kfcJ Urrifc mm I mil illiIlii.ii.Miri?,-i'w"'? Ywmia tilfaMasaBaaftaaMSfaMMiitssMatfyaitiaJ'aa'Miija v. 111 -J Democrat photos by Ed Hardeo Plaza 10: an emphasis on service Shaw From strings tennis racket: He likes northeast location The city's south side is growing, too largest Winn Dixie anywhere, according to John W. O'Connor of Hall Properties in Jacksonville, which is developing Towne South. "The south side of town has been neglected for a long period of time," said O'Connor, who thinks the -million center will reverse that trend.

He said the Winn Dixie, in terms of square footage, would be about a third larger than the Southside Center store that it will He said the new would have 60,000 square feet of space, compared with 12,000 square feet in the Southside Center The new shopping center aims to attract customers from within a two-to three-mile radius, said O'Connor, whose firm also developed the College Square center, which opened last year at West Tennessee Street and Ocala Road. In addition to the Winn Dixie and Towne South is scheduled to include a Revco drugstore, a Radio Shack, a shoe store, two clothing stores and three restaurants, a beauty shop, a coin laundry, an insurance office and a television rental agency. Construction on the center was finished last week and stores will be opening through next month, beginning with the drugstore and shoe By ED HARDEE Democrat staff writer A lot of stores are opening in north Tallahassee, but that doesn't mean the city's south side is being ignored. What's being termed one of the largest neighborhood shopping centers in Leon County is scheduled to open soon at 2525 S. Monroe St.

It's called Towne South and will feature 20 stores, including a Winn Dixie grocery and a department store. The Winn Dixie and stores currently at the Southside Shopping Center, directly across the street, are scheduled to close. The new grocery store will be the store, which are set to open Monday. The Winn Dixie is scheduled to open Oct. 9, O'Connor said, and the Oct.

23. Meanwhile, the Southside Shopping Center is shopping for new businesses to replace Winn Dixie and "We're very optimistic," said Jerry F. Waldrup of the Dallas, Texas, management company that oversees the center. No replacements have been signed up yet, however. Winn Dixie and decided to leave because they needed more room, Waldrup said, but no other tenants of the shopping center have said they plan to leave.

Too hot, too dry, too much for farmers v. for spring planting soaring, forcing many farmers to pay interest rates one-and-a-half times what they paid last year. Most farmers had to agree to repay their loans at about 14 percent. Others were stuck with 18 percent a figure that renders a profit virtually impossible without a bumper harvest. Consequently, agriculture officials in most Southern states predict that small, marginal farmers already struggling to break even will "go busted" in record numbers this fall.

In Texas, a trend toward bigger farms has been enhanced by the drought. About 2,000 small farmers a year quit the business in Texas, but this year state Agriculture Department spokesman Loretta Ewart expects 3,000 to turn in their plows. (Please see DRY, page 2E) the slack, the decimated crops of Dixie eventually could result in higher beef, egg, corn and chicken prices at the supermarket. The drought also could mean more polyester and less but more expensive cotton clothing. The heat wave has suffocated hens in Georgia, cracked the heads of irrigated rice plants in Louisiana, caused bulls to stop mating in Texas, created cotton bolls not much bigger than bumblebees in Mississippi, and left beans the size of BBs in Arkansas, where the temperature hit a record 111 degrees in Little Rock.

And, ironically, many of the farms that got rain got too much. The heavy rains of tropical storm Danielle came too late and pounded the cotton into the Texas mud. The drought has come at a particularly troubling time in the South. The government-orchestrated credit crunch sent loans All across the South, from the steamy cotton fields of Texas, to the burned-out corn and peanut patches of Georgia, the talk is the same: no rain, poor crops, desperate farmers. Many parts of the South have had little or no rain since early June.

The dry weather, coupled with record temperatures soaring over 100 for weeks at a time, has forced farmers to abandon hundreds of thousands of acres of soybeans, cotton, corn, sorghum and potatoes. In Texas alone, farmers have given up on a million acres of cotton, figuring it would cost more to pick their parched, skimpy crop than they could get from selling it. For now, it's the farmers who are howling. Come January, it may be the consumers. Unless farmers in the Midwest take up Knight-Ridder news service GARLAND, Texas Ed Groves leaned down from the seat of his cotton-picker to shake hands, then stopped abruptly.

Silently, he held up both hands. They, were caked with chalky white dust, the trademark of the worst drought to hit this blacklands farm belt in more than 20 years. Despite his big straw hat and thick beard, Groves' face was burned a cherry red. He waved at 80 acres of scorched, ankle-high cotton poking up from the cracked earth and mustered a grin. "If it don't start raining soon," he said, "they can change the name of this state to Sahara." Said John Marshall, 66, one of Groves' neighbors: "I've been farming cotton for 47 years, and I've never seen it this hot and dry for this long." A ef Most of Florida beat the heat, but some Big Bend fields fried r- 1 it Jli I By JACK HARPER Democrat area editor BASCOM Florida generally escaped the worst of the drought that broiled the nation this summer, but that's little consolation to Mike Jordan.

Jordan, who farms in Jackson County with his father, Pat, stood dejectedly in his 80-acre dried-up peanut patch last week as a drizzling rain fell. It was not the rain that bothered him. It was the timing. "This rain is two months late," said Jordan. Some of the small farmers in Jackson County are going to lose their places this year and have to sell out" An adjacent 75-acre field on the farm had rows of burnt-out hip-high corn stalks in it, and another nearby field of stunted soybean plants had beans on them the size of buckshot.

They are "dry land farmers," meaning they have not invested in expensive overhead irrigation equipment to water their fields when it doesn't rain. Because of the drought, they lost their money crops and their permanent pasture grasses. The Jackson County Emergency Board has estimated a 43-percent loss in peanut, soybean and corn crops. Cost to the farmers: $16.9 million. The board plans to ask the Jackson County Commission and Gov.

Bob Graham to declare the county a disaster area to enable its farmers to get low-interest loans for next year's crops. (Please see FLORIDA, page 2E) 'V Democrat photos by Mike Fbher Jackson Agent Leonard Cobb Peanuts are taken to Goldkrlst plant in Malone.