CLEARWATER

For years, city officials have pinned their hopes for the revitalization of Clearwater Beach on a curving, two-lane promenade.

They promised the $30-million BeachWalk would transform the beach experience and predicted the lushly landscaped walkways would soon be lined with high-dollar shops and jammed with tourists.

Today BeachWalk is nearly complete, with construction expected to wrap up by July. Its dual brick paths run along S Gulfview Boulevard from Pier 60 to where the Adam's Mark Hotel once stood.

And already change has come.

There's the new $100-million Sandpearl Resort - the first of its kind on the beach. Other splashy projects - hotels, condos or mixtures of both - are on the way or on the drawing board.

City officials are enthusiastic, saying more beach tourists means more money in the local economy.

But not everyone welcomes the transformation.

Already in decline are the small mom and pop motels that once lined Clearwater Beach. BeachWalk might help newer, bigger hotels, but small motel owners do not expect it to throw them a lifeline.

To the contrary, they say, construction from BeachWalk tore up the beach's main thoroughfares, scared off tourists and took away parking.

"I'm just fighting for my future," says Ewa Kunowska, owner of the seven-room Tropical Sky Ranch on Coronado Drive.

Kunowska, 53, says after 16 months of construction she can no longer fill her tiny motel.

Last year, the owners of the Hi Seas motel sued the city because they said the construction cost them business.

Ken and Linda Christman, owners of the Golden Villa motel on Coronado Drive, also say they've lost customers from the construction and could lose more as visitors flock to hotels closer to the new boardwalk.

But construction and parking aren't the motel owners' biggest concerns. Property insurance and taxes are up. The beach market is getting more complicated, and small motels are expensive to keep up. Increasingly, it's tempting to sell out and walk away.

So with the changes coming to the Clearwater Beach, will mom and pop motels finally become obsolete?

Yes, say many city leaders and motel owners.

And for the innkeepers it will be a sad day. The Christmans say they measure their 13 years here by the number of kids who have learned to swim in the motel's pool, snorkeled in the gulf or thrown seashells into the garden.

For $70 a night, it's a bargain, they say. But in 10 years it will probably be gone. "We're at the point right now where it's almost too late to save us," says Ken Christman, 56.

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As change comes to the beach, Clearwater City Manager Bill Horne said he expects to see more competition for tourist dollars with an increase in mid-range motels, like a Red Roof Inn or a Marriott Courtyard, that charge around $130 a night.

Last year, Pinellas County commissioners signed off on a plan to let developers build 50 to 150 percent more hotel rooms per acre, depending on a site's size. Officials expect the ordinance to make beachfront hotel development more appealing by enhancing the financial incentive to build.

"People don't want to recognize that this is market-driven," Horne said. "For two, three years the condo market was crazy, then the bottom fell out. Now it's hotels that are getting built."

Another blow? Rising taxes. Owners say they don't have enough rooms to make money and continue upkeep.

"Taxes and insurance - those aren't coming down," Ken Christman says. "You can't eat that kind of cost, and you can't raise rates high enough to meet them because people won't pay."

Age, too, is an issue, saysGunnar Hedqwist who runs the 24-room Sun Rise motel, next to the Golden Villa. After selling the motel in 2005 to a condo developer, he was asked to stay on because the market died. Hedqwist, 58, says the loss of the motels is inevitable. Most are at least 50 years old and too costly to repair.

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The decline of the mom and pop motel has been in motion for decades, but it's increased more recently in the wake of devastating hurricanes and the condominium boom.

Overall, Pinellas County has lost more than 4,000 rooms in the past four years.

Clearwater alone lost more than 1,200 rooms. At one time, Brightwater Drive, a quarter-mile long finger on the eastern shore, was lined with 23 small motels. Most are gone.

Motel owners said they sold because they can't afford the taxes or the insurance anymore. They blame Florida's "highest and best use" tax assessment formula, which sets land value based upon what a piece of property could potentially become - not what it currently is. So a small hotel is taxed like a seven-story condo tower.

The Christmans paid $530,000 for the Golden Villa in 1996, and the property appraiser estimates it's worth $1-million now. Their property taxes have jumped from $5,000 to $18,000. Insurance increased from $2,000 to $9,000 annually. The couple estimates they pay about $6,500 per month in overhead.

To profit, industry experts say, hotels need 25 rooms at 70 percent occupancy.

The Christmans say they have the visitors but only 14 rooms.

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The greater impact of the loss of small beachfront motels is still being debated.

For tourists like Barbara and William Morris, the disappearance of the mom and pops is a real concern.

The married couple of 40 years comes from Orange County, Va., to visit a small Clearwater Beach motel each year.

"They're what made the country - what kept it going before the high rises took over everything," says William, 65, a retired school athletics director.

The couple says they enjoy the Golden Villa's courtyard, where tourists lounge on benches, talk with one another and read tattered paperbacks.

And the Morrises say they'll stay home before paying $175 to $275 a night.

But statistics suggest the loss of mom and pops hasn't had a great effect, at least economically, on the overall area.

In 2003, roughly 4.8-million people visited the county, according to Walter Klages, a local economist whose research company studies traveling and spending habits for Florida convention and visitors bureaus. The number of visitors rose to 5.2-million in 2006, the latest year for which statistics are available.

Expenditures are up, too. In 2003, visitors spent $2.7-billion and $3.2-billion in 2006.

Horne makes no apologies for the change. He says the beach has long missed out on the high-end tourist because it didn't have destination hotels like the recently opened Sandpearl Resort.

He said he expects the visitors to upgrade to a medium-sized hotel but admits vacations may be shorter. Still, they'll continue to come here, he says, because if other beaches across Florida are also losing their tiny motels, "you might as well stay where you are."

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Ken Christman only has to look across the street to see the changing landscape. From his motel, he can see three red cranes and the rising tower of the Aqualea Resort, which will boast $1-million homes and $300-a-night hotel rooms.

It will replace three mom and pop motels that drew working and middle class families for more than 50 years.

The Christmans bought their motel from an English couple who owned it for about 18 months but "just didn't make it."

They spent about $200,000 over the years rehabbing it, first replacing the sewage system, then the electrical system, the pool equipment and finally refurbishing the rooms.

"Whatever we make we have to put back in," Linda said.

Although they have no regrets, they wonder how much longer they can make it. One day, they'll eventually sell.

"It's not a Hilton or a Radisson," Ken said. "But it's the best it can be."

A changing landscape

Even though small hotels and beachfront hotel rooms have disappeared, tourism generally is up in Pinellas County. Innkeepers and others expect larger and expensive hotels to continue to replace smaller, kitschier ones.

By the numbers 

4,000 hotel rooms have been lost in Pinellas in the last four years.

4.8m people visited Pinellas County in 2003.

$2.7B was spent by tourists in Pinellas in 2003.

1,200 rooms were lost in Clearwater alone.

5.2m people visited Pinellas County in 2006.

$3.2B was spent by touristsin Pinellas in 2006.