Gaines Street and CollegeTown in Tallahassee, Florida

Gaines Street is a corridor on the south side of downtown Tallahassee that the City of Tallahassee calls its quintessential infill success story, and College Town is the district Blueprint names alongside it.

The city's sustainability spotlight on land development says that in its former role as a dated warehouse and industrial corridor, Gaines Street was underutilized, and that numerous apartment complexes and businesses have been built in recent years, with several more developments under construction. The Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency describes the burgeoning Gaines Street and College Town districts as lying between Florida A&M University and Florida State University, and its FAMU Way corridor as a link between the two campuses.

Beside Gaines Street lies the All Saints district. The city's Gaines Street Art Alley page places the Art Alley in the Gaines Street and All Saints district, running parallel to and east of Railroad Avenue and connecting Gaines Street to Saint Francis Street. The Tallahassee CRA's Frenchtown/Southside page places the Gaines Street Revitalization Area inside the Frenchtown/Southside Community Redevelopment Area that the City Commission created in 1998.

Leon County asked the Florida Legislature for state money in 2001 and 2002 to rebuild Gaines Street as a gateway to the State Capitol complex, from Lake Bradford Road to Apalachee Parkway.

The 2001 community budget request describes a boulevard-scale project that would provide the preliminary infrastructure for a sustainable, mixed land use district of residential, retail and commercial uses in the Capital Center Planning Area, with bicycle, pedestrian, transit and auto travel on the existing Tallahassee corridor, and it ties the project's economic development to the Gaines St Vitalization Plan. The 2002 request calls Gaines Street the back porch to the State of Florida Capitol Complex, adds a divided roadway for vehicle and pedestrian safety, brownfields mitigation, innovative stormwater management and small business incubation, and names right-of-way acquisition as the next hurdle.

The two Leon County filings do not agree on the state money already received for fiscal year 2000-2001, $2 million in the first and $8.4 million in the second, and the second adds that approximately $7 million of the needed funds had been acquired. Both name construction as the use of the money, and both cite the Tallahassee-Leon County long range transportation plan as the documented need for the Gaines Street project.

The Tallahassee Community Redevelopment Agency used tax increment funds for Railroad Avenue landscaping and a painting grant pilot on Gaines Street and Lake Bradford Road.

On its Frenchtown/Southside page, the CRA lists streetscape improvements, landscape work designed and installed along Railroad Avenue, located within the Gaines Street Revitalization Area. It also describes a commercial painting grant pilot program that provided up to $5,000 for exterior painting of commercial properties on Gaines Street and Lake Bradford Road, created to further foster commercial redevelopment in the Tallahassee district.

The CRA's current project funding programs apply across its districts. Its Facade Assistance and Community Enhancement grant covers 50 percent of eligible exterior costs on commercial buildings up to $10,000, its Commercial Property Improvement Program allows up to $200,000 per parcel, and its New Construction Assistance Program reviews multi-family, mixed use and commercial projects case by case, with final approval by the CRA Board after a public hearing. The Tallahassee CRA office phone is 850-891-8357.

The Art Alley is a former blighted easement in the Gaines Street and All Saints district that serves as a pedestrian walkway and outdoor public art exhibit.

The City of Tallahassee says the alley runs on the west side of St. Michael's Pub and behind Crepevine, linking Gaines Street to Saint Francis Street, and that a Florida State University art professor, students and community volunteers cleaned it of debris and turned a once blighted easement into a public art forum and venue for cultural events. The city lists its current problems as flooding from stormwater runoff, erosion, loitering, safety issues and accessibility.

The plan for the Tallahassee alley is a stabilized pathway made from Trex, lighting, gabion walls and more plantings, while keeping it a place to show outdoor art. The city describes the project as community supported and invites donations toward it.

Gaines Street business leadership has reached City Hall. City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow's official biography says he helped lead the revitalization of Gaines Street and the All Saints District as president of the Gaines Street Community Association, co-founded the business Gaines Street Pies, was elected to the City Commission in 2018, and sits on the CRA and the Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency.

Blueprint's FAMU Way corridor, Segment 3 of the Capital Cascades Trail, runs about 1.5 miles from South Monroe Street to Lake Bradford Road and was completed in 2024.

Blueprint says the corridor provides increased connectivity to the Gaines Street and College Town districts. The City of Tallahassee FAMU Way page adds that extending FAMU Way to Gamble Street gave motorists traveling between Gamble Street and downtown an alternative to Gaines Street as an east-west connector, and that Blueprint's Capital Cascades Trail section built with that phase was the final piece needed to fully connect to the St. Marks Trail, so residents can walk and bike from Cascades Park to the coast without getting in a lane with car traffic.

The city says FAMU Way was completed in three phases from Wahnish Way to Lake Bradford Road, with three roundabouts, wide sidewalks and a multi-use trail connecting to the St. Marks Trail, and that a ribbon cutting on April 30 opened the Lake Bradford Road connection, the same road where Gaines Street ends on the west.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against two Florida Legislature budget request records, three City of Tallahassee pages (sustainability spotlight, Art Alley, FAMU Way), two CRA pages, Commissioner Matlow's city biography and the Blueprint Capital Cascades Trail page.