Clearwater picks development team to overhaul downtown waterfront site
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jun 17, 2022

A development team comprised of New York-based Gotham and Palm Harbor's DeNunzio Group has been selected to redevelop two city-owned properties on the downtown Clearwater waterfront.

Clearwater City Council on Thursday voted to move forward with negotiations with Gotham and The DeNunzio Group, whose proposal is known as The Bluffs. The two sites are the 1.43-acre former Harborview Center site at Cleveland Street and North Osceola Avenue and the 2.6-acre former city hall site at Pierce Street and South Osceola Avenue.

The Bluffs includes 25,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space along with 600 residential units in two 27-story towers on the 2.6-acre former city hall site. A 150-key, 13-story hotel with 15,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 4,000 square foot rooftop bar and a 1,000-person conference center is proposed for the 1.4-acre Harborview site.

The group offered $15.4 million for the former city hall site and $9.3 million for the Harborview site. Some of its team members include Stantec, Coastal Construction, Behar + Peteranecz Architecture and owner’s representative Joe Burdette. Stantec is currently working on Imagine Clearwater for the city. Behar + Peteranecz has more than 15 active projects in Clearwater and St. Petersburg.

The Bluffs proposal — one of three the city received for the two properties — had received a unanimous recommendation from a seven-member city staff committee at a work session Monday.

Voters must approve the development plans via a referendum in November. Now, the city must finalize the details of the projects with the development team to get the referendum on the ballot.

“We are beyond honored and excited to have the overwhelming support from the community, mayor and Clearwater City Council,” Matthew Picket, vice president of acquisitions and development at Gotham, said in a statement. “Our talented team and local partners look forward to continuing to showcase the ways this project will innovate, celebrate Clearwater’s natural resources and bring opportunity to our great city. The people of Clearwater deserve smart, intelligent development in a city where they work, live and play for generations to come. We look forward to presenting this project to the community and ensuring an inclusive and transparent vision for passage in November.”

The three development teams vying for the site were each given 15 minutes to present their vision and also field questions from the council at the Monday workshop.

At Thursday night's meeting, members of the public packed council chambers to speak in support of Elevate Clearwater, a group with a separate development team for each project.

Elevate Clearwater is comprised of Smart City Group, led by The Ring Workspaces co-founder Daniels Ikajevs, Solaris, Experiential Ventures, ECI Group and Tampa’s KD Keller. Ken Stoltenberg, the principal owner of KD Keller Development, was a pioneering developer in downtown Tampa's Channel district. He worked with ECI to develop the Channel Club, an apartment tower that is also home to a Publix Super Markets Inc. store. He also built Grand Central at Kennedy, a condo tower with street-level retail that was the first major development in the Channel district.

Former Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn made an appearance at the public hearing in support of Elevate Clearwater, saying Tampa has always looked at St. Pete and Clearwater as equal partners. He called this a moment Clearwater “wouldn’t want to miss” and said it would “change the game as you know it in this city.”

“[Stoltenberg] does what he says he’s going to do,” Buckhorn said. “You know Daniels; he’s one of the largest property owners in Clearwater. But I would suggest to you that you think about a couple of things as you move through this process. One, I think the construction timetable is important. The question is, do you want a three-year project or do you want a five or six-year construction site by virtue of two towers having to be constructed?”

The council had very few follow-up questions Thursday night for the developers but did heavily question City Attorney David Margolis about the process going forward — specifically regarding the referendum. Mayor Frank Hibbard took a moment during his comments to address questions that arose following his announcement Monday that he had gone on a business trip to New York City at the end of April and toured the Gotham West development while there.

He told those who questioned that choice that they could “stick it” and said back in his day that was called “extra credit.”

“I changed my meeting so I could actually go up and see the product firsthand,” Hibbard said. “I talked to my city attorney about it before and our city manager. If you want to keep something secret don’t tell everybody on TV; it just ruins the secret. Some village is missing their idiot, and that person knows who he is, and I’ll leave it at that.”

Each council member shared their thoughts on the process and explained why they were giving their support to The Bluffs. Originally, Councilwoman Lina Teixeira said she intended to vote for Elevate Clearwater, but once the others made it clear they were throwing their support behind The Bluffs, she chose to vote in favor of them as well in a sign of solidarity.

Once that decision was made, the council had conversations about whether to sell one property and lease the other or to sell them both, as that decision would impact the structure of the referendum. Ultimately council decided — in an effort to keep the referendum simple for voters — to negotiate the sale of both properties with deed restrictions.

Council members also had a lengthy discussion about the importance of fighting to have workforce housing on the project. Ultimately, it was decided that staff would move forward with the conversation to include workforce housing, but that it would not be a dealbreaker and gave staff the authority to make that call in their negotiations.