- 7 Brew and The Pickle Pad are two of the new businesses that are joining the North Monroe Street community.
- Neighbors say they are excited to see new developments in the area.
- Watch the video to find out how private and public funding efforts will help benefit our community.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
North Monroe becomes home to some new businesses.
I'm looking into some of these new private investments and speaking with neighbors about how private and public funding efforts are changing the energy here.
Marjorie Turnbull called our neighborhood home for over 40 years.
"It's that entry that shows the vibrancy and beauty of this community," said Turnbull.
Turnbull said she has seen North Monroe change over that time. She's excited to see private and public funding efforts focused on the area.
"It's got to be a joint effort, and I think that's what's happening now," said Turnbull. "We're starting to see some building back, we're starting to see some new businesses come in."
Two of these businesses include The Pickle Pad and 7 Brew.
"Simply giving people a hub and a reason to go out and sit there and have an activity," said Robert Morris, Vice President of Development with The Pickle Pad.
The Pickle Pad will open as a place for people to play indoor pickle ball, different games including darts and corn hole, and grab a bite to eat.
Morris said he hopes it will help connect people over something active.
"It's the socialization that's going to help with the well-being, being able to see people in the community," said Morris.
Just up the road, you can now find 7 Brew coffee.
" [We're] really excited about this location," said Kelly Batiste, Director of Operations for Seven Ventures Incorporated.
Batiste said they want to cultivate kindness to serve neighbors and the community.
"We all work together in this area to bring each other up," said Batiste.
I met with Leon County Commissioner Minor Rick Minor. I've covered many of his efforts to improve to North Monroe.
"A big part of what we've been trying to do is encourage the private investment but also having our own public investment of tax payer dollars to spruce up the whole area," said Minor.
Most recently, that's included his work securing Blueprint funds. That's for a federal grant application that the CRTPA is working on that would invest over $20 million into improving North Monroe.
"The more investment we have in this area, the more investment follows," said Minor.
For Turnbull, she is excited to see our community benefit from these changes.
"Getting a sense of energy that's here that maybe wasn't here a few years back," said Turnbull.
7 Brew is open. The Pickle Pad will be opening the next few weeks. Commissioner Minor said the CRTPA says a something related to a draft for the application should be available either at the end of this week, or early next week at the latest.
