The Knot’s expansion received a green light from the Gainesville City Commission in late October, allowing the climbing gym and city staff to move forward with a contract to buy the old RTS station adjacent to Depot Park.  

The Knot owners Mike Palmer and Mitch Eadens plan to renovate the station and then transition the climbing gym to the new space as the cornerstone for a cluster of shops and activities.  

Palmer said he’s already received congratulations, but the hard part remains ahead, he said.  

“We just did a long hike in; we just now are at the point where we’re starting the real climb,” Palmer said. “Now, I’ve grabbed onto the first holds, I’ve made a couple moves, and I’m off the ground a little bit.” 

Like climbing a boulder wall, he said the next couple years will require persistence and problem solving—stepping back to look at the small steps that, strung together, will accomplish a daunting task.  

With more than 1,000 members, The Knot has outgrown its location on S. Main Street, within sight of Depot Park. The building was previously a climbing gym before closing down.  

Palmer and Eadens renovated that space to open The Knot in 2019. Within a year, Palmer said the gym had reached capacity.  

The proposed climbing area at the old RTS station would allow for more climbers at a time. The space is also large enough for a dedicated kid’s section and an Olympic regulation, 15-meter-high wall.  

“We’ll have a space that’s a little bit more designed so kids can run around and be kids in there and families can come in and, kind of, climb together,” Palmer said. “Where here, we have concerns that kids will be running underneath full-size climbers.” 

He said the larger space will also allow for casual climbers. Currently, only the monthly members can use the facility, and Palmer said that means the gym caters to the hardcore climbers instead of friends searching for a fun weekend activity.  

In October, The Knot hosted the Zombie Western Halloween Comp, drawing more than 150 climbers from Orlando, Jacksonville, Atlanta and even further away. Space limitations have limited these and other events The Knot would like to host. Palmer said there’s little room for spectators at the current location. 

Besides the climbing aspect, the new site will have room for a restaurant, skate park and bike/board shop. Palmer said he’s already had discussions with established local restaurants for a fast casual dining location.  

“We wanted to look for a space that was good enough for us for climbing, big enough for us to expand, big enough for us to establish ourselves as at least a regional presence in the climbing industry,” Palmer said. “We want to start getting a draw. We really do want to be the gym in Florida for climbing.” 

One aspirational amenity The Knot owners are looking into is a surf wave pool. The pool creates an artificial wave for surfers to shred. Palmer said the details remain in process, but he thinks it will be another attraction to bring people to the area and give locals a new activity.  

Especially in Florida, Palmer said many UF students or transplants to Gainesville grew up surfing. With the surf pool, they could catch a wave without an hour and a half drive.  

He said the wave pool might come after the other segments of the new climbing space are in place.  

Another element that remains in the air is housing. Palmer said they’ve considered building some market-rate condos or townhouses for sale. He said some people he’s heard from are concerned about the city selling the land. 

“They don’t want to see me do something crazy like get [the site] and turn around and sell to student housing or something like that,” Palmer said. “I have zero intention and zero interest in that.” 

He said moving forward on housing will be contingent on the cost of developing and buying the land and the zoning allowed by the city. Palmer said a higher cost of purchase might mean moving forward with housing soon to offset the development cost. 

The next steps for the project will be a phase 1 and 2 environmental study, two appraisals of the value and zoning changes. Palmer said The Knot will also hire an architect to begin building plans.  

Andrew Persons, Gainesville’s chief operations officer, said the city will lead the rezoning effort as the landowner. That decision will go through the City Plan Board and City Commission.  

“We’re really excited to get started,” Persons said. “We see it as a real boon for what’s happening at Depot Park.”     

With zoning settled and negotiations complete, Persons said the City Commission can OK the contract with The Knot. Palmer and Eadens can then begin the construction plans through the city’s normal development plan.  

It will take two to three years for The Knot to relocate, and Palmer said he plans to phase out the current location without interruptions in service. 

Palmer said he learned a lot from renovating the current building, and the RTS station would have fewer constraints. Now, Palmer said they know what questions to ask, who to approach first and a lot about HVAC systems.  

He said the team made some costly mistakes that they’ll be able to avoid this time—like a miscommunication with a supplier that forced The Knot to install a sprinkler system.  

Still, Palmer said he’s excited to tackle another development.  

“I can see why some of these guys get into it and get really excited by it because it’s really fun building big things,” Palmer said. “It’s definitely scary—it’s a lot of money, it’s a lot of time, a lot of work.” 

The Knot’s proposal has followed an atypical process so far.  

The proposal came in September 2022 during a seven-month window opened by the City Commission for unsolicited proposals.  

City staff said the unsolicited proposal program netted two applications. Of those, staff only brought forward The Knot as a viable option. In April 2023, the City Commission voted to open another submittal period for anyone who has an idea on developing the RTS site. The city got one other application for a Florida Music Hall of Fame.  

City staff listed The Knot application as first with the Florida Music Hall of Fame second, and the City Commission agreed. On Oct. 19, the commission authorized staff to start the contract work. 

The purchase price for the land could be between $2 million and $4 million. The total construction could range between $16 million and $23 million—not including a housing component. 

Some residents have called the potential sale a giveaway of valuable land. 

Debbie Martinez, a Gainesville resident and frequent commentor at meetings, used the term for the sale. She referenced the fact that the old RTS site was paid for using Federal Transit Administration (FTA) funds. Under the contract to use the funds, the city must reimburse the FTA if the land and buildings are sold.  

The FTA financed 80% of the original transfer station, vacated in 2015, so the same percentage of the sale belongs to the FTA.  

However, Persons said FTA has several options to handle funds returning from past grants. While it requires the FTA’s agreement, he said a normal part of the administration’s policy allows Gainesville to request the sale funds be used on other local transit projects.  

Persons said the city plans to use the proceeds from selling the land to fund an RTS transfer station in northwest Gainesville.  

Palmer said the sale will also return the land to the tax roll, adding to city revenue. He said he’s glad the city opened for unsolicited proposals. He thinks the city should keep the program open all the time. 

“Gainesville has so many idealists and has tons of ideas,” Palmer said. “I think a lot of people who have these good ideas just don’t know how to make them happen.” 

While the city regularly releases Requests for Proposals, Invitations to Negotiate and Requests for Qualifications, no formal option exists to review ideas from residents involving city land or resources.  

Palmer said when he runs into someone with an idea, the unsolicited process is something he could point to for a next step—telling them to write up the proposal, put down some money to ensure the city doesn’t waste time and see if the project is viable.  

Then they could start down the same boulder path, looking ahead, planning and taking a daunting process one handhold at a time.