Construction kicked off this week for a new grocery store in the Griffin Heights neighborhood, despite no operator being identified yet to run it.
The $1.3 million building on Alabama Street is owned by the city of Tallahassee, which plans to issue a Request For Proposal (RFP) in the next four to six weeks – making this the second time the city has attempted to entice a grocery store to set up shop in the space.
“There’s always a chance that someone will not come forward,” said John Baker, who manages the city’s Neighborhood Affairs Division, when asked what happens if no one responds. “The city has put out RFPs in the past and didn’t get any.”
If that happens again, Baker said the city will issue another RFP until an operator is selected. The city, he said, has several incentives it can offer to a potential operator but added details have not been finalized.
However, examples of potential incentives include technical assistance and about $80,000 the city has set aside for interior preparations like shelving and refrigeration.
In an interview with the Tallahassee Democrat, City Commissioner Curtis Richardson said the construction of the new grocery store is a leap of faith, in many ways.
“This is something the community said they wanted through the Neighborhood First Plan,” he said. “We’re trying to honor their wishes, but it has not been easy.”
In addition, he said the city has tried to acquire the neighboring lot for parking with no success. Richardson said, from his understanding, all of the heirs associated with the lot have passed away and “the children are scattered all over the country.”
Already, he said, conversations have taken place with Roy Moore, who operates the Piggly Wiggly grocery store on South Monroe Street. However, the city hasn’t been able to secure any commitments.
Moore told the Democrat the store’s size is too small for a Piggly Wiggly, which would need a minimum of 10,000 square feet, even on a small scale.
By comparison, at Publix, most stores range from 45,000 to 50,000 square feet. The Griffin Heights store is slated to be 2,500 square feet.
“We would definitely love to be in that area with a grocery store but the size of the building they’re building, it will not accommodate our specs,” Moore said. “That’s what we need as a grocery store … If it was larger and had more square footage, we could have a fullfledged supermarket or grocery store.”
Griffin Heights resident: ‘We knew our families deserved better’
Still, the store’s ground-breaking ceremony was seen as a “fresh start” for many residents. Residents sifted through bulk boxes of donated groceries and placed them in reusable tote bags stamped with “Griffin Heights.”
Jean Varnes, who’s lived in the neighborhood for more than 50 years, said about a third of her neighbors don’t have access to cars.
“You have a lot of pedestrians who don’t have transportation to the big box stores,” said Varnes, a longtime member of the Griffin Heights Neighborhood Association. “So, this will be ideal for those people who are walking back and forth.”
Vice president of the Griffin Heights Neighborhood Association Lachanthia Hall said the event, which drew all five city commissioners, represented “breaking ground for a better future for Griffin Heights.”
“Your commitment shows that when a city believes in its neighbors, change happens,” Hall said. “Our community has carried the weight of being called a food desert, but we never let that define us. We knew our families deserved better, fresh food, healthy choices and a store that serves our needs right here at home.”
The Rev. Rudy Ferguson Sr., senior pastor at New Birth Tabernacle of Praise on Harlem Street, grew up on Griffin Heights in the early 1980s. He said the ground-breaking couldn’t come sooner. He said it signifies a “fresh start.”
“It signifies hope. It signifies that we’re on the move,” Ferguson said. “This signifies we’re moving in the right direction, and it also says the city of Tallahassee and the commissioners have paid attention to what’s happening here in 32304.”
His reference to the 32304 ZIP code has been a reoccurring issue considering it’s been deemed the poorest ZIP code in the state, according to the Florida Chamber of Commerce.
Mayoral politics loom large at Griffin Heights groundbreaking.
Amid the celebratory tone of the ground-breaking ceremony, politics loomed large. Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey went off script to address the commission’s lack of unanimous support of the city’s budget.
Dailey, who recognized residents who pressed for grocery store early in his mayoral role, said those conversation planted seeds for what’s coming and was rooted in the Griffin Heights Neighborhood First Plan, which began in 2019 and was formalized two years later by city commissioners.
Then, Dailey took a swipe at City Commissioners Jeremy Matlow and Jack Porter, the progressive pair whose votes often align in opposition to the power three majority (Dailey and Commissioners Richardson and Dianne Williams-Cox).
Matlow and Porter have previously voted against the city’s overall budget and did so just as recently as Tuesday’s meeting, citing the controversial fire-service fee drama with Leon County as their reason to vote the city’s budget down.
“When we pass budgets, we support Neighborhood First programs,” Dailey said. “When we vote against budgets, we vote against investing in our neighborhoods. It’s important that we stand tall. What you’re seeing is the direct result of long-term community planning and engagement between the Griffin Heights residents and the city of Tallahassee.”
After the ceremony, Matlow said the ground-breaking ceremony wasn’t the appropriate time or place for the mayor’s dig on budget support.
“Make no mistake, the entirety of our City Commission has supported this project from the very first day,” said Matlow, who recently launched his 2026 mayoral campaign when Dailey said he wouldn’t seek reelection. “The mayor wants to bring divisive politics into this conversation, talking about other budget disputes in the budget at large. That’s a totally different conversation.”
Matlow, in contrast to the mayor’s point, said he first brought up the need for local government involvement to bring healthy food options to the neighborhood since the private sector had not stepped in.
He said brought up his approach during a Village Square discussion in March 2019. Matlow said it was a “moral calling” to address community needs, including food deserts. And, at the time, he said there was pushback for government to play a role in what others say is a private sector matter.
“A few months later, Griffin Heights came with the idea to revitalize this block and put a grocery store here,” Matlow said.
Shortly after the groundbreaking, he began campaigning on the issue on social media.
“When we first proposed the idea of local government playing a role in starting grocery stores in food deserts where the private sector failed, we were laughed at,” he wrote. “Today, we broke ground on a municipal building that will provide fresh groceries to the residents of Griffin Heights — and we did it with unanimous support.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story had the incorrect address of Piggly Wiggly.
Contact Economic Development Reporter TaMaryn Waters at tlwaters@tallahassee.com and follow @TaMarynWaters on X.