Created: Monday, 14 May 2007, 8:39 PM EDT
CLEARWATER - Three projects now underway could become the spine of a new downtown Clearwater.
Ground was officially broken Monday morning for the Clearwater Center, the last of the three high-rise projects to get started.
Developers plan to fill an outdated office building with condominiums and surround the 15-story tower with three stories of shops and town homes.
"We're on the fringe of downtown, so one of the major advantages is we're less congested, it's quiet," offered Developer Guy Bonneville. His project sits on a hill looking west toward downtown Clearwater and the Intracoastal Waterway.
Station Square is another condo tower under construction in the middle of downtown, and the 26-story Water's Edge project is sprouting on the western side of downtown. All are on Cleveland Street, which used to be the main route to the beaches. Now the corridor is lined with mostly vacant storefronts, as the city completes a $9 million streetscaping project.
Mayor Frank Hibbard is happy to have three major developments spread out over nearly a mile. "When you have these activity centers everything in between those gaps starts to fill in. The private sector figures out what all those residential units desire," he explained. All three developments include shops and restaurants and all three should be open by the end of 2009. That's also the year a new downtown marina will open.
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