Various offices and other businesses have occupied the former mall since at least the mid 1980s.
I've driven by and seen the signs of construction so it is interesting to learn about it's new use. I hope the state sticks around for a while in this location!
The "second" mall, formerly Tallahassee Mall now The Centre of Tallahassee, which is up the road from Northwood, has been refurbished but has retained retail space.
Renovation as The Centre of Tallahassee
Renovations on the mall began in September 2014, including a planned demolition of the former Dillard's space, prior to a change of plans that resulted in the continued presence of the big box store so that it could be refitted. At the time renovation began, only 12 stores were open.[14] At the same time, the mall was renamed Centre of Tallahassee.[15] The Centre (formerly mall) was refitted so that a number of its former hallways would resemble the roads and paths of a town square in a traditional Swiss or Austrian burg, including cobbled walkways suitable for both slow-moving automotives and pedestrian foot traffic. Beginning with a liquor bar built into the AMC movie theater, a number of new establishments have found a home in the newly refurbished Centre of Tallahassee, including Urban Food Market, an organic food grocery store, wine bar, and deli, plus a branch campus of the popular Tallahassee charter middle school School of Arts and Sciences (locally known as SAS) soon slated to be located in the Centre of Tallahassee's former Dillard's anchor wing, and an outdoor amphitheater intended for public local concerts. As of 2016, popular and notable music artists such as Steve Miller Band, Dashboard Confessional, Coolio, and Alice Cooper were booked and played successful live shows at the venue, drawing in a respectably sized audience from the Leon County and surrounding areas. In 2017, the Centre of Tallahassee followed up on this success by booking Willie Nelson and blink 182 to play at the venue. Also in 2016, Belk and AMC planned renovations as the mall transformed into the Centre of Tallahassee.
In addition to Ross Dress For Less, Barnes and Noble, Guitar Center, and Burlington Coat factory, other remaining staples of the former Tallahassee Mall in the new Centre of Tallahassee include: Tara's, a hobbyist strategy board game store; Stone Age, a New Age paraphernalia store; and GameScape, a Desktop Computer-based video game arcade and comic book store. All of these stores have remained consistently popular attractions with local clientele during the initial decline of the former Tallahassee Mall and its carefully directed transition into the Centre of Tallahassee. More recently, an upscale hotel-style apartment complex has been planned by the developers to complement and accompany the newly refurbished Centre of Tallahassee. [16] However, some businesses that have occupied space in both the Tallahassee Mall and Centre of Tallahassee iterations of the shopping center may soon be forced to leave to make way for new office space.[17]
While the renovation project has been criticized by some Tallahassee locals as a white elephant, the developers hope that the presence of a school as well as a number of new restaurants (including Lemongrass, a Southeast Asian cuisine restaurant, and craft beer bar and a planned brewery plus the first expansion of the Dreamland Bar-B-Que chain into Florida) and entertainment venues (including a seasonal ice skating rink) will allow the new Centre of Tallahassee to thrive as a commercial success. Alex Baker, one of the main developers of the renovation project, died in 2017[18], although the project of reviving the former mall as the Centre of Tallahassee continues.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_of_Tallahassee#Renovation_as_The_Centre_of_TallahasseeThe "Centre" had been negotiating for some of the state offices that will return to Northwood but apparently that has fallen through.
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