Community Development Board - Regular Meeting

This time we'll call the order of the April 2026 meeting of the City of Clearwater Community Redevelopment Agency. This time, we'll move to item 2.1 on the agenda.

Approve the minutes of the 03/02/2026 CRA meeting.

Is there a motion to approve the minutes?

Motion to approve the minutes.

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? No. It's time we'll move to item three on the agenda. It seems to be heard regarding items regarding the CRA items that are not on today's agenda. And now move to item four four point one.

Present new vision behavioral health inc as of April 2026 recipient of the business spotlight program.

Good afternoon. My name is Tasha Hatley, CRE specialist. And I'm pleased to recognize New Vision Behavioral Health as our April 2026 business spotlight winner. Operating from the Willa Carson Health and Wellness Center at 1108 North MLK, the practice delivers counseling services that support mental and emotional well-being in North Greenwood. Founded by Zenaida Ellis and McGraw, New Vision Behavioral Health has was created with a clear purpose, to expand access and communities where it's needed the most.

Through counseling and life coaching, the practice helps individuals navigate life's challenges, build resilience, and develop tools needed to move forward with confidence. The organization also received an ARPA grant to support its location and expand access to behavioral health services in North Greenwood. To help share their story, the CRA and public communications created a video highlighting the impact on the community. The video has been shared across all of our CRA platforms, and you can find an article on myclearwatercra.com. New vision behavioral health supports the cities and CRA's shared goals of strengthening communities, expanding access to essential services, and promoting overall well-being within our redevelopment areas.

At this time, we invite you to view the video.

My name is Anita Ellison McGraw. The name of my practice is New Vision Behavioral Health Incorporated, and we have been here in Greenwood since '20, I would say, 2023. New Vision Behavioral Health is a outpatient group practice, private practice. We see individuals, families, and we provide group counseling services. We serve those who are dealing with mental health as well as addiction and just kinda need their support.

So someone who's come into therapy, specifically my practice for the first time, I want them to know that we here are passionate about serving people. I know that a lot of people feel like, oh, I don't want somebody in my business or to judge me. But our job is not to get in your business per se. Our job is to to know enough about you to see where we need to support. I remember having a client who was so deeply into her grief and her depression that we weren't sure if, you know, if tomorrow was promised for her.

Three years later, she's still with me, still thriving, still working through becoming self directed at working through her own layers of mental health that, you know, she's grateful for the support that she was able to receive all because she was willing to step out and get the help that she needed. Our hours of operation are Monday through Saturday, essentially, from 9AM to 6PM. We have multiple locations in the Saint Pete, Tampa, and Clearwater area. We also serve those who may not have access to getting into the office by providing telehealth services.

Congratulations. So

I just want to personally thank

Tasha for seeing the value of highlighting our organization and the work that we not only do in communities, but in the lives of individuals, children, and families. We have been able to support the Willow Carson and the great work that they do with providing free health care services for the last three years with our ability to secure grant funding to provide free mental health services. So these mental health services are free for any Tampa for Pinellas County resident by way of Bayfront not Bayfront, but I can't remember, BayCare, they care, yes, don't kill me. BayCare is great. And so we are so grateful for the opportunity to serve children and families, and we want more people to know that we are there.

The Willow Carson is there. The Willow Carson has been great with serving those who are uninsured or underinsured or just don't have access to health care. So thank you again for the

opportunity. Okay. I've moved to item 4.2 on the agenda.

Accept a proposal for the redevelopment of 706 North Missouri Avenue from Saint Benedict Holdings LLC and authorized CRA staff to negotiate an agreement for development, purchase and sale of property with said entity.

Good afternoon. Jesus Nino, CRA executive director. Today, I'm here to provide you with an overview of a proposal for the redevelopment of 706 North Missouri Avenue. I'm gonna show you some maps here as far as the property. So 706 North Missouri Avenue is more commonly known as the Armory Site.

This is the way the building looks here. And these are from other views of the building. This is the map for the public here so they can kinda see where the armory is located at. You can see North Missouri Avenue to the right, Seminole Street to the North, then Eldridge Street to the South. As far as the location of the armory site, again, this is for the public just watching.

You can see the boundary for the North Greenwood Community Redevelopment Area in yellow, and you see the property here highlighted in green or blue. So it's right by the boundary of the CRA. Just to give a little bit of background, on 08/27/2025, the state of Florida transferred the property to the city of Clearwater. Then on 01/26/2026, the city transferred the site to the city's community redevelopment agency to support redevelopment within the North Greenwood Community Redevelopment Area. So currently, the property is being used by the city's parks and recreation department for storage and limited office space.

This has been a tax exempt property for decades now, basically. So it's been generating no ad valorem revenues. So following the transfer to the Community Development Agency in accordance with Florida statute, The Community Development Agency issued a public notice on 02/22/2026, inviting proposals for the adaptive reuse of the site. So that notice did establish minimum requirements for submitted proposals, including a minimum purchase price of $2,000,000 along with a project description, financial details, and a development schedule. So this solicitation period closed on 03/24/2026, and the Community Redevelopment Agency did receive one proposal from Saint Benedict's Holding Limited Liability Company, which is an affiliate of Yo Mama's Foods, which is already headquartered in North Greenwood Community Development Area right across the street from the site.

So the proposal was reviewed by staff and determined to be responsive to the advertisement or the notice and meets all the minimum requirements, including the required purchase price. So at a high level, the proposal includes a $2,000,000 acquisition offer and focuses on adaptive reuse of the existing armory site and building. So rather than demolish the building and the structure, all the structures on the property, which is not our preferred choice, the applicant proposed to re repurpose the site into logistics, warehouse, and light manufacturing hub, integrating with their existing business across the street, is Yo Mama's Foods, Saint Benedict's Holding Library Company. So this project will create a consolidated campus supporting distribution, ecommerce fulfillments, and continued business growth. This is in alignment with the North Breenwood community redevelopment area plan, particularly meet particularly as a vision for this area.

And from an eye level economic development impact standpoint, the project is expected to generate additional jobs while also converting a long time tax exempt property, putting it back on the tax rolls to start to generate revenue. So the revenue that'll be generated, that's called the increment. That increment ad valorem taxes from the city of Clearwater and Pinellas County will be deposited into the North Greenwood Community Development Area Trust Fund, and those funds will be used to reinvest back into the community. From a redevelopment perspective, the proposal aligns again with the North Greenwood Community Development Area Plan. By activating an underutilized site, supporting job creation, and advancing private reinvestment.

More specifically, just to put this on the record for the public and those that are watching, This is from the plan, the North Greenwood Community Development Area Plan. Goal number one, public safety, which is page 93 of the plan, activates an underutilized site and contributes to reducing conditions associated with blight. Goal number three, poverty reduction. That's page 93 again, which supports job creation, workforce development, and increased access to employment opportunities. Then go number five, quality of life, page 94, enhances community vitality through reinvestment and improve economic activity.

Then for redevelopment policies, page ninety four and ninety five, it advances the reuse of publicly owned property to support economic development and private investment. And I have another map here to show you. So this is a map that comes out of the redevelopment plan on page a 108 page one zero eight. It's called Area C, the CSX Industrial Area And Armory Area. So if you can see on the slide there, it shows that the Armory site is contiguous to the existing Redevelopment area industrial zoning district shown here in purple.

Then the armory site shown in blue is contiguous to that zoning category. In addition, you also see a boundary around all of that that's called the emphasis area for industrial purposes. You see it here in brown, the little dotted line there. So that section also states that if the armory were ever to go out of use for the city's purposes, that it was recommended that it go back out as far as for industrial purposes and for job creation. So in addition, it also aligns with the city's broader strategic plan priorities by strengthening public private partnerships and supporting business growth within the community.

This proposal is tied to an existing operating business, Yo Mama's Foods, Saint Benedict's Holdings Limited Liability Company, which has its presence in the North Greenwood community development area across the street from the Armory site. They have identified that they need additional space for increased capacity in the area. And for the record, I would also like to highlight, and I do wanna stress highlight, that the North Greenwood Citizens Advisory Committee or CAC, they held a special meeting on Wednesday, 04/15/2026 at 7PM at the North Greenwood Recreation Center. The purpose of that meeting was for staff and the applicant to to present the proposal to the community that was in attendance. There were approximately 89 individuals that attended the meeting.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the citizens advisory committee made a motion recommending that the trustees reopen the solicitation period to allow for additional proposals to be submitted and considered. That motion passed by a vote of five to zero. So many of those Citizens Advisory Committee members and other community members are here in the audience. I saw them when I looked over. So at this time, your agenda material also outlines potential actions for your consideration.

And, again, they're just for your consideration. One is accept the proposal submitted by Saint Benedict's Holdings Limited Liability Company as responded to the public notice and compliant with the minimum requirements. Two, authorize staff to negotiate a development, purchase, and sell agreement along with any other associated legal instruments. Internally, the trust as a trustees, you can choose any other direction you you may decide today. So with that, that concludes my staff presentation.

So mister Habib, the applicant, and mister Battle, we're all here to answer any questions. And if you wish, mister Habib has a presentation ready to provide you in a slow order up here on the screen. That'll be up to you. And I'm not sure if mister Battle wanted to add anything else.

Those are the

trustees, but I'd like to hear the presentation from the applicant. There's no objection, so I'd like to invite the applicant.

Good afternoon, mayor, council members, city manager, assistant city manager,

Mr. Kohler. Nice to have you on the dais.

Miss Kahl, thank you so much. Katie Kahl with the law firm of Hill Ward Henderson representing Mr. David Habib and the various entities that make up the Yo Mama's food company, including St. Benedict's Holding, which is the respondent to this RFN. So we're here today for a very specific reason to ask that you authorize staff to negotiate consistent with the bid that you issued.

And that is intended it was intended to fulfill the community redevelopment area's goals as Mr. Nino already covered. I would want to say very respectfully, we both attended Wednesday night, the community meeting. We appreciate everything we hear and we hope that some of the things that you hear this morning or this afternoon, excuse me, can answer some of the issues that were raised on Wednesday night. We know that there are others that will continue to be, evidenced and hopefully through the negotiations with your city staff and with the contract to come back to you all for approval, many of those things can be addressed.

We also know there are things that this presentation and this request will never address and those are concerns that I think we all hope to work on as a community. The city's request was specifically to seek a buyer for the armory that met the goals of the CRA. And the CRA plan, as Mr. Nino said, identifies North Greenwood Community Redevelopment Plan as Area C zoning emphasis as this is an industrial area. In addition to the that Mr.

Nino said, there are two other references to this property in the plan. The RFN asked for a minimum purchase price, that was intended to cover the relocation costs of the Parks and Recreation staff that currently occupies the facility. A project description, I'm sure intending to meet the goals of the adaptive reuse and intending to maintain that appearance of the armory. A financial plan to ensure that the respondents and the eventual purchaser has the sources and budget to fulfill those plans and a development schedule so this doesn't linger or waiver in any kind. So what you asked for in the response for negotiations is exactly what Mr.

Habib's response and the St. Benedict Holdings response provided. It required a local business headquartered in Clearwater, a warehouse distribution and light manufacturing because that was something despite the institutional zoning could be supported and was reflected in the plan, job creation and CRA area hiring commitment and the capital investment facilitating further tax increment growth. Growth. Most importantly, the community and substantial economic benefit to the CRA.

Why this proposal fits in the plan and how it delivers exactly what you thought and what you asked for. The private investment and job creation in the corridor increases the employment above the density which was called out in the plan. There is proposal to increase employment by 20 to 30 members. Currently, Mr. Habib employs 24 employees on-site.

This would more than double his employment numbers with a 65,000 median salary. As we discussed as we heard on Wednesday night, it was important to the community and I think important to Mr. Habib that those jobs vary from the stock and warehousing jobs to the executive jobs. And of course, all employment opportunities are available. It takes a tax exempt property that was previously owned by the state until recently and converts it into a tax paying owner.

This would generate between 45,000 and $55,000 in tax increment financing to the CRA immediately. And that's an annual increase. Obviously, the way tax increment financing works is as property appreciates because of investment, those dollars increase, creating more opportunity for reinvestment into the community. There's Mr. Habib's commitment to first access hiring, working through St.

Petersburg College through the pipeline. He already has a hiring partnership with homeless emergency project or HEP, and he also is committed to providing summer internships within the community. The CRA plan calls for the adaptive reuse and preservation of historic assets, which this does. Within the response was a draft flexible development application that's been submitted pending this outline, which shows what the plan for the armory is, including the restoration of the original building. Aesthetic improvement of underutilized properties, the facade and site improvements that were proposed show a visibly better building on a visibly better block, accompanying the parcels across the street with which mister Habib's entities own where YoMama's currently operates.

He also the plan calls for minority owned business support in the district, and also included in his response was his certified minority owned business certification from the state of Florida. This has been headquartered here, for over six years. I'll hand it over to mister Habib to tell you a little bit about Yolanda's.

Thank you, Katie. Mister mayor, council, and city staff, thank you for your time today. I I want to share with you a little bit about our history for those who don't know, but really this is at the heart of our Clearwater origin story, and this is a project that we've been working on for over six years. Our company is nine years old. We were launched on Mother's Day in 2017 in my parents' dining room here in Clearwater, Florida.

What this picture shows you is our first headquarters, which was a storage unit off of US 19 and Clearwater off of Nursery Road. So, you know, we're a Clearwater born company. We're a Clearwater raised company, and we very much want to stay here in Clearwater. As Katie mentioned, we've also been in North Greenwood for the past six years. So since our founding on Mother's Day of 2017, we have grown to an established national brand.

We're now at top 10 United States pasta sauce brand, and that data comes from Nielsen. So we've come a long way in our humble beginnings here in Clearwater to ultimately become and ultimately have a national presence here in Clearwater, which we want to keep on growing on. These show you some specific figures around our Instacart growth. We were named number two on Instacart's fastest growing brands list. So we hope that this shows you that this is a established business and something that's we take very seriously about keeping it in Clearwater and obviously wanting to stay here as well.

So we're expanding. We're not leaving. We did acquire the site of 1143 Elder Street in addition to 1125 Elder Street, which is our main headquarters. 1125 Elder Street was acquired in, June 2019, and 1143 Elder Street was acquired in December 2025. So as Katie mentioned, this goes on to our plan of ultimately anchoring a campus here in North Greenwood. So really, again, we're built in Clearwater. We're one of the top 10 pasta sauce brands in The United States. We export to 20 countries in The U. S. Excuse me.

We ship to 25,000 stores in The United States and we export to 20 countries outside of The U. S. There's over six years in North Greenwood. We've invested over $150,000 in predevelopment costs into this project as well in over six years of time. So this really was a coordination between the state, between the county and between Thea City.

We proposed a $5,000,000 total investment and in addition to that 20 to 30 new jobs site over the next five years. So nine years again, one zip code. You know, we started in the family kitchen. This just shows you some of our pictures. I say this because Clearwater is a very important piece of our story, and it's a very important piece of my upbringing. I was raised here in Clearwater. I went to school here, and this community specifically is very important to us as a business. As Katie mentioned, our entire team is at headquarters. We don't have remote positions. We all come to work every day.

It's been a centralized location for our company to come from Tampa, Oldsmar, Palm Harbor, really everywhere. So having that headquarters anchored in North Greenwood, specifically in Clearwater is very important to us. We did establish our headquarters in North Greenwood in 2019. For those who are not familiar with the site of 1125, it was business record management. The business, the building needed a lot of work and we've committed to that.

So as we've improved our building, our neighbors have also made a lot of improvements in the area as well. We expanded our campus as I mentioned in December and this is very much, know, a very big piece of our mission to continue to be anchored in Clearwater. So we're not arriving again. We've we've been here. We've been part of the Clearwater community since our origin.

We have partnerships with Feeding Tampa Bay. We we do a lot of different opportunities and donations for food scarcity specifically with them. We have a partnership with MacDill Air Force Base here in Tampa Bay. We also have partnerships with three sixty EAT, HEP, and as Katie mentioned, Saint Petersburg College, USF, UT. We do a lot of different local internships and a lot of hiring opportunities as well.

So what the what the armory ultimately adds to the community, this is our our commitment is, you know, by allowing this to proceed today, you know, our ability to expand within Clearwater, our ability to invest in Clearwater, ability to really be that economic driver, create more jobs in North Greenwood directly aligned with all of the CRA points. So our first commitment is workforce development in North Greenwood. You know, we've we've heard our community on the meeting last Wednesday. Specifically, we're proposing some summer internships targeted towards the North Greenwood youth. We have full time roles with first access hiring for local residents, training and placement through SPC and HEP.

And this is really an opportunity for us to grow and expand within North Greenwood. We'd actually be relocating a facility from Chicago to the North Greenwood area. There's a tremendous amount of inventory that's currently sitting there for our business that we'd be looking to centralize and ultimately locate within the North Greenwood area. Our company is really committed towards food scarcity. So expanded product donations both locally and throughout the Tampa Bay area.

We have an ongoing food partnership with three sixty Eats, who's also targeting the North Greenwood area as they are expanding. And the armory space really enables us to facilitate a larger community footprint, which is what, again, we heard on Wednesday. So that deeper neighborhood investment is very important. And I want to reiterate, we're a small business. You know, we're not the savior of North Greenwood.

We want to be very much actively involved in the community, and we do that with the best of our ability. We're a small team. So that deeper neighborhood investment is very important to us, and it always has been. Once again, we've been in North Greenwood for six years. So I think that this is a really important piece of our story and our story to ultimately stay in Clearwater. So what this project ultimately delivers to Clearwater, I'll pass it back to Katie.

Sure. I know that you all are sitting as the CRA, but I think this project and this request speaks more broadly to the city's intentions from an economic development standpoint. It we speak often of the tourist and hospitality wins we have, recent wins in downtown, but I think everyone collectively in the community gets excited when you hear about employment opportunities with high wage jobs from an economic development standpoint. The acquisition of the Armory by a small business like this provides specifically employment opportunities, increasing the tax base and a better block, Three huge things that every project you would hope in Clearwater from an economic development standpoint could reflect. I wanted to touch on the fact that years ago when established opportunity zones, the federal government did an analysis of certain census tracks throughout the country.

At the time, Governor Scott and then subsequently Governor DeSantis were extremely involved, intimately involved in ensuring that the state of Florida had some would say a disproportionate number of Opportunity Zones. But that said, Clearwater has several, including the North Greenwood area. Opportunity Zones were created to incentivize investment in underutilized areas and asking property owners or businesses to come in and either expand their footprint, operate economic development opportunities, or invest in real estate in these communities. This project is a can be a wonderful example of how this opportunity zone process works to incentivize other investment into the community. This is in a rendering of the restored armory.

You'll see in the RFRFN response that this was the sketch that was included. So this is just a color version of the sketch that was also online in today's agenda packet. So this is it is exciting to see something that's been in the community for so long. So many of us have been there inside and out during our times growing up in Clearwater, and this is an opportunity to really see it be brought back to life, albeit for different use, but something that certainly can be a pride of the community. We obviously, as Mr.

Habib and I already both stated, there were some very specific asks on Wednesday night from the community. And, I think that as he's very eloquently stated, this project is not intended to be, a community service. This is intended to be one piece of a very large puzzle to make the City Of Clearwater and the community redevelopment area great and have and be able to contribute on a regular basis. It provides permanent living wage employment for residents with an established small business, ongoing payroll that hopefully will flow to those employees who reside in the community, a tax generating asset. Those dollars through tax increment financing will be reinvested at your direction directly into the community, private capital being infused into this area.

This

was a coordinated effort. No secret here. You know, years ago, Mr. Habib said he wanted to make this his home. He started his business in Clearwater. He needed to expand. He wanted to expand. He reached out to the city and asked if the armory was an option. The city said no because city didn't own it. And so at which point, as any entrepreneur would do, he went to the state and said, is the armory an option?

Would you ever consider partying with it? Through the coordinated effort with representative Burfield and senator Hooper, the state worked on an appropriate, opportunity to either sublease the property or lease it directly from the state, because of certain restrictions that the state had. The end result was that the state would transfer this property to the city of Clearwater for economic development uses. And so that was what generated the RFN that was issued in February and why we're here today. Through this time, both in establishing his own business and an opportunity to expand, Mr.

Habib has worked with Pinellas County Economic Development and has received small business dollars from it as well to support increased wages and increased hiring in Pinellas County. City of Clearwater Economic Development obviously worked with him hand in hand back even when Ms. Sanderson was here looking at how he can hire employees, how he can better grow his business in the City Of Clearwater to keep a successful household name brand as a City of Clearwater business. This is a plan in motion as evidenced by the response. There's bank financing secured.

There's already an operational campus that this would supplement. This would facilitate the relocation of a portion of the business from Chicago to the city of Clearwater. And Mr. Habib is willing to obviously pay fair market value in fair market value the $2,000,000 purchase offer. Offer.

I will discuss that. The city did obtain two different bids for this or appraisals for this property that was more than the $2,000,000 But the $2,000,000 threshold plus the financial investment into the restoration of the building plus the hiring of the employees creates an opportunity for the city to be made hold in this situation. I will note that the state did transfer the property to the city for no compensation for no consideration. This is a national brand and community pride, and it is it's wonderful to see a business with such pride be located in a community that also has that same level of pride. And the importance of this decision is not lost on Mr.

Khabib or, his team. It's evidenced by the full room that was there on Wednesday night and here today. This decision today is about the city of Clearwater. It's about the North Greenwood community redevelopment area. It's about economic development.

It's about supporting small business, it's about the adaptive reuse of the Armory plan, and most of all, it's about a first step in implementing a very thoughtful and very specific community redevelopment plan that the community and the city work together to establish. This opportunity meets the goals of that plan, and we would respectfully request the opportunity to negotiate a contract with the staff and bring that back to you for further discussion. Thank you. We're happy to answer any questions. All

right. With that, let's take public comment first. So at this time, is there anyone here from public, I believe there are, who would like to speak to this agenda item? If you would, when you come to the podium, if you would, identify yourself and then also fill out a comment card. Comment cards are located here to the right of the dais and also in the back.

And if there are multiple of yeah. You can come on first, and then if you the others, if you'd line up over here to the right side.

Good afternoon. Councilman mayor and city employees. I'm a Clearwater Beach resident. I was born and raised here as Ma'am,

could you state your name please?

Oh, Angelina Calkins. Sorry about that. I do commercial real estate. I've done that for over twenty years. I'm in full support of David Habib and Yo Mama's newest headquarters. I've known David Habib, the founder, CEO, and owner for four years plus now. I'm honored to call him my friend. He is a local humble philanthropist that is absolutely extremely generous, especially not in public. He anonymously gives to schools multiple homeless initiatives, feeds at risk residents, the homeless empowerment project. Not only does he show up for all of these events, he shows up with his product, whatever you ask times two.

He serves the people. He cooks the food. He stands shoulder to shoulder with you. He is definitely somebody that we want to keep in Clearwater. And I'm so proud to know him as a friend, and I hope everybody in this room chooses to try to be a friend to him.

He's definitely our local success story, and we definitely want to keep him here. Let's see what else. Oh, if you call David Habib and you tell him your great aunt's sister's friend just got out of the hospital, he will drop off anonymously homemade food to them to them and take care of them. So for regarding this, my vote is yes and full agreement for Yamamah and David Habib as well as our community. He has given back and he's never given up on his dream for six years.

So in order for us as a community to receive more tax dollars, more job opportunities, and most importantly, the socially responsible organization and founder of Yo Mama's, I suggest that we keep him here. As well as Susan Perine. She asked me to tell you that she's also in agreement as well. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Good morning. Is my time gonna restart?

Or do I just take

her time? She

probably posted. Alright.

Yes. It's a good question.

Good afternoon, I should say. I'm sorry. Good afternoon. My name is Kimberly Brown. I am a Clearwater resident. And in the North Greenwood area, I think we can all agree that is a special type of community. And so I'm here not against David Habib or even your mamas. I'm actually here today because I'm super sad and disappointed that the city refuses to work with the community. The coke was formed so we could revitalize the North Greenwood community, know what's going on with our community, and this was not communicated at all. I understand they've been working on this for six years.

We had no idea till, like, three weeks ago, and I think that's very disappointing. It's hurtful. We want our community to be revitalized. Those of us who have lived literally in this community for thirty, forty years, me, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty years, We do want this, but we do not want to be blindsided by the selling of our businesses and our community property. It is very hurtful that community property is being sold without our knowledge.

Again, it's nothing personal against him or even your mama's expanding. It's the fact we had no clue about it. This is how gentrification happens. Buildings and property get sold from under our nose, and we don't even know about it. We don't even have the ability to get it for our own community, and that is hurtful because, like I said, the pope was developed for that reason. So we in the community who actually live there will have the ability to get this property and to use it and utilize it and build jobs for our community, our kids. So again, I am just super disappointed for being blindsided by this. I just hope for the future. We know. I know you all see it as just a building.

It is not just a building. Not one piece of property in the North Greenwood area is just a building or just property. It means something to us, and we do not wanna see it just sold off without us knowing. That's all we're asking. Keep us in the loop. That is all we're asking.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

My name is pastor Carlton Charles with the Upper Funds County Ministry of Alliance and the Clearwater Leadership Coalition. How you doing, mayor? Good morning, dear, council to all of you. Yeah. We are very disappointed. We got a quick meeting like this. Every time we come down here, we are disappointed about something that has happened without not knowing about it. Nothing against mister Abid. Nothing against his business. I don't even know what your mama's ear.

So I'm not here against him, but I'm here representing the pastors and this community. He said he'd been there for six years. I've been there seventy years. So and the army has been a place for us ever since we were kids and to hear about I heard about I first heard about the mayor. I was at a dedication across the street at the head start for my niece. They was mainly in her honor. And leaving there, I heard that this it was being sold. And I remember when the hurricane come one time, we had to evacuate the kids over at the army. Mhmm. Now it won't be there for that purpose.

But to it's sort of like this affordable housing thing where all these buildings are being built and nobody in North Greenwood can afford them. It's it's like now all and the presentation was great. Everything sound great. The members sound great, mister Jesus. But, you know, it's hard for us to believe that it's ever gonna come to the North Greenwood residents. You know, we've been slapped two or three times, and and it's tied like, we're tied to being slapped. Let us know about these things. I got a call from mister Mimino a couple weeks ago, a month ago, and I appreciate the call. But things like this, the pastors need to know about. The pastors are really upset that this has happened and nobody knew about it.

And all we're asking, let us be at the table. Let us be involved when these things happen. That's all we wanna know. This our community. We grew up there. We lived there. And it'd be good if some of the jobs come up. Who's gonna promise us that the job is gonna be available to the residents in North Greenville?

Thank you, pastor. Next speaker, ma'am.

Good afternoon, mayor and city council. My name is Barbara Sorey Love, and this is not your first time seeing me. I am the founder of Clearwater African American Foundation Inc. And our purpose and mission is to preserve and memorialize Clearwater's African American places, spaces, buildings, landmarks. And we heard about the proposal at a city council meeting. Well, no, take that back. We heard about the proposal on the agenda. I think it was part of the 6.1 item on the agenda. So I followed up with pastor Charles. He didn't know anything about it.

We followed up with the coalition. They didn't know anything about it. As the pastor said, nothing but nothing taken away from mister Abid. I don't know the gentleman. And according to what he presented in the community and the community outcry, no one else knows him in the community.

North Greenwood does not need another warehouse. North Greenwood was a hub of sophistication back in the day. You see what's there now. You see what has happened to the north to Clearwater Heights, formerly known as the Mc Dixon Subdivision. All of that has a fingerprint of the city council not caring for African American communities here in Clearwater.

You see what happened to the cemetery. You see what's happening to North Greenwood, North Garden Avenue, South Greenwood South Garden Avenue. Pardon me. I'm a little choked up right now, but you understand what I'm saying. South Garden Avenue, North Garden Avenue, Clearwater Heights, North Greenwood, Condon Gardens, all of those properties or communities are gone because of the decisions made here at city council.

Mister Habib had six years to work on his plan. We were only given thirty days. You advertise through the, I guess, Tampa Bay Times. We have a great communications department here with the coalition. I have a online marketing paper that you could advertise with to let the community know. No one knew about this until the day of this we met at the council meeting. Okay. What can we do with the armory? It can be a family center with AI interactive media. We could have bowling there.

We could have movies. We could have a micro pop up as some of the people presenting here today. We could have a similar thing like Saturday shops. It could be a food court. Could have something like Market Marie. We have something once a year, family night. We could have a family night once a month. They do a great job of presenting family night. And it could be surrounded by the National Guard armory. So my position is do not accept his proposal, open it up for more proposals so we can get a fair chance to present a proposal to the clearinghouse.

Thank Thank you. Next speaker, please. Thank

you. And thank you for Brian for letting me move. I was gonna get in line and

then I realized the line

was way back there. So my name is Gloria Campbell and I am the executive director of the Clearwater Urban Leadership Coalition. First of all, I wanna thank those of you who did reach out to me as based on the information that I communicated. Couple things. One, I want you to hear the mission and vision of the coalition.

First, we believe our community can embrace who they are, can define their future, and can change the world. The mission is to promote sustained economic growth in our community, develop business opportunities, preserve cultural history, and promote academic excellence. Nobody here is against economic development. Nobody's here is against mister Habib and his project. But what I do is I stand before you today to oppose this, not because of David, not because of what he's done, not because of his business, but because of the lack of transparency.

It's clear based on the conversations I've had with everyone that everyone here is gonna vote for this. You have sat at the table, you've eaten a spaghetti, and you've drunk the Kool Aid. Now in our in our community, that means that you disregard what we want with what we're saying. You don't wanna hear it. You've already made your decision. That's okay. But when we look at transparency, I want to talk about two different historic properties. North Ward. In 2019, the city paid $1,600,000 to purchase that property from the school board. It's been sitting there.

In 2005, the city decided to lease from the state, the armory. The the north board on last month, I believe it was January and February, there was a call and tour for developers to come out, take a look, and come up with a recommendation. What did we get on the armory? We got a thirty day backdoor hidden agenda item on the for the on the agenda. We can look back and we can look at the transparency, lack of transparency. Yes, you're right. It's been going on for six years. We asked about the armoring in 2021. We were told it was a state asset and that parts and rec had nowhere else to go. We've asked every administration about it.

We've been told the same thing. All I'm saying is that you have to admit there was no transparency. In June, there were letters written by county commissioners and economic development, not talking about transferring the property. It was talking about transferring the property to Yo Mama. Specifically, when the LOI came out, it was written for Yo Mama. Nothing against your mama, nothing against what they want to do, but the lack of transparency is evident. And all I ask is to admit that and that you make it right. That's the end of my comments.

Thank you, Ms. Gallup. Next speaker, please.

Hello, counsel. My name is Brian Beckman. I'm here to ask you make this a fair process for the neighborhood of North Greenwood and open up the bid process for more opportunities from the community. As you are hearing today and was expressed clearly last week at the CRA advisory meeting, the process so far disenfranchised the North Greenwood neighborhood. Uncovered The so far clearly shows not only a complete failure of engagement with the neighborhood and the CRA advisory.

It shows long behind the scenes actions that deliberately went around the neighborhood and created a situation where only one proposal could succeed. To make matters worse, our local current elected leaders are at the center of it, state representative Burfield, Pinellas County leadership and city leadership. Now to be clear, I understand mister Habib's desire to expand his business and the desire of local officials to help businesses. I support business development in our community as well. But our local elected leaders should know to involve the community, especially when it is public property within this new aspiring CRA.

Elected officials knew that neighborhood leaders have been interested in the same property. They know the history here and how residents have been stepped over time and time again. Yet knowing all that, the only conversations they felt were important to have with city officials, state officials, and mister Habib. Neighborhood leaders had requested tours of the property and meeting multiple times over the last year, zero responses in return. All while plotting a course for one preordained outcome.

This is not only bad governance, but a huge slap in the face to the community. This looks like favoritism. People are expecting a fair and equal opportunity, and they're not getting it. It's incumbent upon you, the Clearwater Council, to take a step back, talk to the neighborhood leaders, and give them a seat at the table for making decisions on this property. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Beckman. Next speaker. Yeah.

Hello and good afternoon. My name is Mary Favorite. I'm a proud staff member of Yo Mama's Foods and formerly a elementary school teacher here in Pinellas County. When I first started working at Yo Mama's, started in the warehouse and was trained all the way up to where I am now, which is in the office. When I first began, I went to Mr.

Habib and said, hey, there's this thing called the Great American Teach In, which if you have children, probably know what that is. And I would like the opportunity for us to go teach them about all of the different departments here at Yo Mama's. And we were able to go to my old classroom together and teach the kids about marketing and finance. And it's just another clear example of how willing and it's it's not even willingness it's just he he loves doing it going out to the community and giving back. So of course that that meant a lot to me but this this is about all of us at Yo Mama's.

It will make getting the armory will make a lot of things much easier for our company. So being in charge of all accounts receivable at Yo Mama's, having a third party logistics in Chicago is a bit tricky for us. And there's a lot of deductions that happen when you're not able to track the load all the way to the store. And by having it all on the campus here in Clearwater, we would be able to track exactly who signed off and who loaded it and who took a picture of it all the way to the store itself. So that's all I have to say, but I hope that you are considering in a positive way for us at Yo Palmas.

Thank you, Ms. Favorite. Next speaker.

Good

afternoon mayor rector and council members my name is Hannah Menard and this is my husband, Rob Menard. We are both residents and business owners here in Clearwater. I'm a proud member of the North Greenwood Citizens Advisory Committee. However, I stand here today speaking as a resident and business owner and not on the behalf of the CAC. We have all been following the proposed sale of the North Greenwood Armory.

As members of this community and as local business owners in North Greenwood, we would like to state that we stand with both the community and with mister David Habib of Yo Mama's Food. Both viewpoints are important and worthy of consideration. Mister Habib is a Clearwater native who has worked hard to pursue this opportunity. He followed the appropriate process, invested time and resources into navigating a complex situation, and remained committed throughout what has clearly been a lengthy journey. His dedication to our city and his business is meaningful.

At the same time, North Greenwood is a historic community with more than 7,000 residents, many of whom feel surprised by how this process unfolded. It seems there may have been some gaps in communication along the way. That perception has understandably led to concern and frustration, and it has also placed a local business owner at the forefront of public scrutiny. We should not pit business success against community voice. Instead, let this be a learning moment.

The city needs to establish a more transparent, inclusive notification, and proposal process for future public property dispositions so that this situation can be avoided in the future. As local business owners and members of this community, we want to see positive development that moves in tandem with the community. We truly appreciate the work that goes into these decisions. Mister Habib's efforts and investment deserve a fair outcome. At the same time, our residents deserve equal opportunity, clear communication and trust in the process. By addressing both, Clearwater can support local businesses while strengthening community confidence. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Good afternoon, mayor, council members, city staff. My name is Amanda Payne. I'm the president and CEO of Amplify Clearwater. I am here representing our business community, and our entrepreneurs that are part of our organization. Council member Tushada, you said earlier that we are looking for a business with a proven track record.

You're looking for people to invest in this community and to come to the table and be partners with those that have a proven track record. There is no one else in this room that has a better and a more proven track record than David Habib. I'm here, and I'm honored to stand in support of him and in support of the growth of his community, creating jobs in a community that needs the tax base, that will create more opportunity for this community, I think, is imperative and a great next step. He was born, as you know, we've we've heard his story, born in Clearwater, raised in Clearwater, homegrown, and is the exact kind of entrepreneur that we look to retain in our community. This is the type of entrepreneur that we help every day at our organization, many of those that are in this room right now, and we're excited for his growth and the opportunity and excited to stand beside him and his, continued success.

Thank you for

your time.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Good afternoon. My name is Ladrilla Jenkins. I've spoke several times before you all. The presentation for mister Habib, it was excellent. And everybody else that spoke about mister Habib, I have nothing against mister Habib and his business.

I also heard about the demographics of the armory where it sits. I'm two blocks from the armory. I'm a homeowner. And I'm going to tell you, I pay taxes too. When I first bought that house, it is like it's quadrupled.

So I pay tax dollars too. Across from the Omry is the Head Start Center. Behind the Head Start Center, there's homeowners. That area is over there where the Clearwater Country Club is. Mister Habib wants to move his business into the National Guard Armory as a warehouse where his business exists now. That was Florida Power back in the day. I I also grew up in that area. I have a love and passion for it. I hear everybody stand up here and they say, our community. No.

It's a difference. It's the business community. It's the residential community. And having a warehouse right there where I have to go when I want to go out to North Betty Lane, it's right over there where the Phillies play baseball games and things like that. Why do I need a warehouse in my area? I'm all for him moving forward. And as far as some of the descriptions of the North Reed area, it hurts me. It's like we're a destituted area, a blight. We're not a blighted area.

We are

proud community. I just shared with someone there was doctors and lawyers that came out of that community. Right there on, Palmetto Street. Let's go even further back on Eamon Street. Doctor. Talefair. He moved the practice on, Palmetto. Then he went to Southside St. Petersburg. Lawyers, there's professional athletes that have came out of our community. Young man now, Nelson Taylor. He's been out there at the Phillies. Some of the children that have been going out there. The community is supporting him out there. So my area and my community is not destitute.

Put it back in the hands of the community so we can decide what we wanna see. As far as that armor, I see it as being just like the health center in Dunedin.

Thank you, miss Jenkins. Yeah. Next speaker.

Good afternoon. My name is Barbara Miller. I was born and raised in the North Greenwood community, and I am still a resident there. I am formerly, I am retired from the city of Clearwater, worked thirty five years. I was employed in the army. I worked in the army for several years. And from 01:00 until 10:00 on Monday through Friday, it was full of kids. And like everybody, you know, the other ladies before me say that it is personal. Right now, I feel like I'm being pushed out of my own community. I got my phone ringing.

People wanna buy my house. Billings are going down that I was born and raised to see come up. They're just tearing down, but they are not asking us what we want in the community or giving us a chance to make a proposal. We we don't have a chance and and you know what, I have grandkids and I'm sorry to say that my grandkids will not know what North Greenwood was. Only what I can tell them, they won't get a chance to experience that.

I have great grandkids that will not get a chance to experience what home is. That area is home. And I really, really feel like I'm getting pushed out with these factories, with these large houses that are coming up that are not for us to live in in that community. So I am asking that you do not, at least today, accept this proposal and give the businesses that are there, the community leaders and our organizations a chance to do our proposal. So please do not accept this proposal today. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Mellon. Next speaker.

Mayor and council members, my name is Ryan Birch. I live in Clearwater. I work in Clearwater. I appreciate the time today. I met David a few years back. David's all over Clearwater. I go to the pickleball courts. He's on the pickleball courts. I see him driving on my way to Costco over the bridge from the beach. He's out the New Hall Kogan Trail. So he's always at Clearwater. He's wearing the weighted vest. He's participating in the activities in the community. I met him five years ago while I was with my family enjoying a sunset on Clearwater Beach, one of our, you know, arguably best assets that we have. Today, David didn't ask me to come.

He didn't know that I was going to come. My dad sent me an article about this meeting last night. I read it and I said I have to come here to support him. I think taking a long vacant building and breathing new life into it while creating jobs for local residents is ultimately the highest and best use for the armory. I looked through Google Maps as far back as I could go year after year. I was back in 2007. The gates were locked. There's vehicles in storage there. I think if this goes through, instead of housing equipment, it would house people. It it would create jobs.

What David and Yomama's team have done to put Clearwater on the map is pretty remarkable given he's barely 30 years old. From the residential kitchen like we saw earlier to the heart headquarters to now a full campus, everything he does is pretty careful and is pretty planned out and he spends a lot of time on it. He's not just another small retailer trying to keep the lights on. He does have a big vision and Clearwater is an integral part of the vision and I think he hopes to keep investing in the community there. I wanted to share a quick story because for those that don't know David, he shared some interesting stories that I think would be worth mentioning. So if you don't know recently, a few months ago, was on Good Morning America, right, as a viewership in the millions. He was prepared. He had everything ready to go. He thought he might get hundreds of orders. They got thousands of orders.

Most entrepreneurs, you know, might give up or they might quit or they wouldn't know what to do. They might panic. Instead, he went to work. He hired a bunch more people. He scaled up his production. He literally worked until midnight, you know, all hours to get the job done. And when they invited him to The View, which has a much larger viewership a few months later, he was ready. They didn't have the same kind of issues again. So he's always working to improve and to get better. And this is what they plan to deliver when something unexpected happens. They learn from it. They gain from it. They move forward. He's grown up in Clearwater as you heard earlier. He could operate this anywhere. He could live anywhere. He lives in Clearwater. He was born here. He was raised here, and he wants to stay here. At in the area where they go by, a lot of their folks have been hired from the community there.

When he travels far and wide, when he's meeting with Costco and Publix and Sam's Club and Walmart, he always tells me he's happy to come back home to Clearwater. And I, you know, tend to see him on the beach there. And so it's it's good for me to represent a friend today. I think, like I said, the armory purchase will allow you almost to continue to invest in the North Greenwood area to create more jobs and to continue to serve the community. And I think people like very good comments today when they say they want to have their family there and have meals there. I think he would be happy to do it. I think those that don't know David, I think once they meet him, they'll be very happy that he is the person he is because he loves working

with the community and doing those things.

So thank you everybody. Mr. Pershing. Next speaker.

Hello, Mr. Mayor and council. Thanks for having us today. My name is Morgan Bradham. And prior to joining the team here at Yo Mama's Foods, I worked for my mom at a restaurant, 421 Cleveland here, Carolyn's Kitchen. We were there for ten years before she retired. This is our home. You know, we're all locals. We're all from the area. We're all just hardworking people from Clearwater.

We have no intention of of ever leaving Clearwater, of ever taking this business anywhere else. And like was previously mentioned, we're top 10 in our category now. A couple of years ago, we were like seventeen, fifteen. It was really, really hard. Past couple of years, we've had a lot of growth, which has just been a blessing.

We because of that that growth and from just just from someone growing up here and being here my whole life, to me, it's like people above us now are the giants like Campbell's, multibillion dollar, you know, companies. The fact that we could even have a chance against them and that headquarters is here in Clearwater, to me, is just like the coolest thing ever. Right? Clearwater has something that could potentially be the next Campbell's, right, or reach that level, reach that status. In doing business in our category, like you mentioned before, Costco buyers, right, we have top high level executives from all over The U.

S. Flying in, coming to see the headquarters, coming to take tours, right, kind of getting the attention of these big retailers to come and check out their water and get in touch with the local area. Seven from that, we do certainly give back to the community. Feeding Tampa Bay was mentioned in the past. We have given over 50,000 meals to those in need, and we continue to amp that up as much as humanly possible. And just like with the building that we're in now, we've completely restored it, made it nice again. That's the intention with the the armory. We're not going to change anything. We're not going to ruin anything. If anything, it's going to be the best it's ever been.

And I can't speak on, you know, everyone's history with the neighborhood in the area. But I will say that I do strongly believe that going with us as the owner of the new building or of the building would be its best possible outcome and keeping the history and keeping it restored as it should be and giving back to the community through the the tax situation. Thank you for hearing me out.

Thank you. Next speaker. Good

afternoon, counsel. I think this is the first time I'm seeing you in 2026, and I'm not here about Clearwater Point, which is my neighborhood. I'm here because I wanna share, having worked with other neighborhoods, how much I support it, as you do. I know the North Greenwood neighborhood. However, a mistake has been made. First of all, I would like to commend mister Hadi. No pun intended. If I was your mama, I would be very proud of him because he's done beautiful work, and I appreciate all the young people that speak for him because he's done well. He did his homework. He prepared the proposal.

He got supporters and including at every level, state, county, city. However, I think that we failed him. Nowhere did we, and I consider myself also one of the community leaders, nowhere do we say to him, have you sat down with the North Greenwood community and ask them what they have in mind for the armory? No one said to him, stop, son. Let me share with you how important it is to get the understanding of what is needed in the community.

So today, you've heard things like beyond that that the proposal went out, and it went out only a month. No one in North Greenwood knew about it. You did get a very nice proposal from from mister Hadid. However, you've heard words like the there was no inclusion of anyone. There was a a constant misunderstanding of what the city of the county Redwood wanted and very other adjectives to say, we did not listen to the people.

So I'm asking you, and with with due respect, to change the tide and follow-up on what the community has said, go back and ask for more proposals. Because we the proposal went out and we only got one one project submitted. I have in front of me a copy of this is what I really prepared before I heard all these good speakers. I have in front of me a list of what I call big buck developers versus cast poor neighborhoods. This is a list since I became involved in Clearwater.

Starting with June 1932, where the Marriott Courtyard went forward to build a Marriott Courtyard, and they it was never placed on the consent agenda, approved. The neighborhood was never asked. There's there's a a whole slew of them, and you'll get a copy of them. Then, of course, we had Major League, and it's going on right now. In 2018, a dis in 2019, a a decision for against the Edgewood neighborhood to build to to build the Serena. Now that same community is fighting that developer because they do not want the the

Thank you,

sir. Stephenson Creek damage and the manatees. So Your time is up. List. Go start for

more Thank you. Speaker.

Good afternoon, council mayor. Think all this a lot has been said today much so I don't have to be redundant. I wanna say I'm hearing all of the wonderful things that people have stated about mister Habib, and I'm sure all of those things are great. I'm sure he's done great things in the community. Just wish he hadn't excluded ours.

Sounds like he walks on water, and he's done great things. I believe Katie said it was a collective effort, and with that collective effort, they gave him the opportunity to walk on water. He didn't come and have conversation with us, not because he didn't know us or he couldn't. He just chose not to because he didn't really have to because he had enough people that were there supporting him from start to finish. Again, nothing against David Habib, I think he's a nice guy.

I'm sure he is. Just wish I had a had more time talking with him and about how do we really make our vision for North Greenwood CRA to come to fruition, which would be inclusive of all of the the commute people that live in the community. I am very hurt when I think about almost seven years now we have been working to create the CRA, and that came from a grassroots effort from the community, and we worked hard at with to make that come to fruition. We created the North Greenwood Citizens Advisory Committee, so things concerning the CRA for North Greenwood would first come through the committee. And if everything was so if it was so in alignment with what the CRA plan had, my question is why did it not come before us?

Why did it not come before the Citizens Advisory Committee before thirty days after we realized what was happening? Right? That's what we're just we're we're heard about that. And I would just say that as you ponder or you make your decisions today, which I believe I already know how this is going to go, that you put some things in in place in that agreement that allows if he does not do the things that he says he's going to do that will benefit the community when we talk about employment and jobs. I know in a conversation prior to last Wednesday, we were told he had one employee from the community.

Then on Wednesday, we heard he had four, maybe six, four or six. I can't remember exactly. Think it was four. So I'm not sure, and that came from a staff member that said he had one, and then all of sudden he had four. So I don't know what that was, if there was embellishment. I don't know. But the point is, if we're going to do that, let's just keep our word and let's put things in that agreement as you allow the staff to negotiate with him to make sure that includes those things and he holds to that.

Thank you. Thank you.

Next speaker.

Hello, Mr. Mayor. Hello, council members. Thank you for your time. My name is Vanessa can come. I am a single mother I'm self employed and I'm a Clear Water resident. In fact I live on North Missouri Avenue where I have for as of June ten years. Before then I lived at the corner of Jackson Road in Betty Lane. So I am deeply invested in my community. I came to the meeting today I took time off of work because I feel so passionately about the improvement of our community, about the improvement of Greenwood.

The time between my living on Jackson Road and moving back to North Missouri, I lived in Johannesburg, South Africa where I saw. Disenfranchisement. Racism and inequality like we cannot fathom in this country. And so listening to all of the concerns of the members of the Greenwood community and deeply empathizing with what they say and how they feel and how long they've been here. But also understanding that.

A rising tide truly lifts all ships. By having such a strongly invested clear water based small business not only improving the. Beauty the. Economic stimulus, the tax revenue, then then also the attention to North Greenwood, what that will do for us as a community far outweighs any immediate protest or emotion that I could come up with. I'm so impressed by all of those who come up and spoken on Mr.

Habib's behalf and then also those who have spoken to the history of the business how much it has grown and how passionately he has Put back into clear water and the homeless empowerment project. Food outreach the improvement that will come to the community will be incredible and I very much and in support of. A yes vote.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Next speaker.

Hello. My name is Kevin RT. Can we reset my clock? My name is Kevin RT Lachlan. Some of you may know me because I sit in the mayor's seat, for the Clearwater Marine Advisory Board, my second year as chairman, but my tenth year on the board. Thank you for extending my term. You're usually only supposed to do two terms. I'm also a candidate for seat five on your council as of a week ago. I didn't expect to do it. I felt it was something I needed to do.

And at the encouragement of the Beckmans and other people who I've supported for years, I've been attending these meetings. I went to the meeting for the landings presentation, and I don't wanna use any of the words that I would describe it. Think I passed a note to somebody that says you can tell by the chance of success of a project by the quality of the presentation. The fans, you couldn't hear what they were saying. The screen, you couldn't hear. Some of them were very well spoken. Some of them said, They didn't cover the traffic. They didn't cover the crosswalk. They didn't address the they didn't get public the same thing here.

I I wanna take up your time. We're talking about this agenda item for the

North American. Well, this does relate it because I've been going to these meetings. And when I looked over the proposal from mister Habib, everybody speaks very highly of and I'm very impressed with. I looked at it as a businessman. I've run businesses since I moved to Clearwater thirty three years ago. I started as a vending company out of that same storage unit that he started his out of on on US 19. I looked at the proposal. It looked great. Let's expand there. We know that's an area that needs expansion.

But then I went to the meeting, and I saw the passion passion that the people spoke with. I saw near tears of what that building means to them. But what I also really saw was no demonstration of what he's given back. Sure, part of his taxes are automatically go into the CRA. I believe the number estimated on there was $54,000 a year, but he couldn't name one person from that community that he employed.

I believe it was 10% of his employees are are are people of color. Maybe there were four, some slightly larger than that. You heard them speak that they they they hear that he's a nice guy, but they hear it. They don't seem to know him. They don't seem to know he hasn't been a part of Northwood.

He's been a business taking advantage of the CRA advantages, and I think he needs to do a little self examination. I do agree with mister Battle who conceded that maybe we need a little more time on this, but I also think that maybe he needs to sit down with this community, not just give a presentation, talk to these people. I bet you they could bring him to tears too. That's all I

have to say. Thank you. Speaker?

Good afternoon, everyone. So for those of you that may not know me, my name is Kennard Robinson. I am, a business owner at Clearwater. I'm a lifelong Clearwater resident. I also serve as chair as North Greenwood Citizens Advisory Committee.

So this is my first time standing in front of you, and this is a very impactful moment for us, but really for me. And let me explain why. Around two or three years ago, I started to do some research into various things, and one of the things I found was Clearwater City Council meeting minutes from 1985. And in that meeting, my great great grandmother, Ethel Bryant, and her sister, Cherry Harris, were in that meeting extremely frustrated and disappointed with the city. And they were sure to express their disappointment and frustrations.

And as many of you may know, through the efforts of a a number of commit community members, our park in our community was later named after my aunt Cherry because of her hard work and her efforts in the community. So the reason why this is so impactful for me is because here it is four generations later, and now I'm standing in front of you expressing the very same disappointment and frustration. And I think that's very important to highlight because the decision today is gonna make a it's gonna make an impact one way or another. So it comes down to what type of impact do you wanna have made. So four generations from now, when my great great grandkids are looking at this, are they gonna be able to see a measurable change, or are they gonna see the exact same thing?

All we're asking right now is, a, to be included in the conversation, and, b, to have time to really put forth maybe a proposal of our own. And, truthfully, if this is really you what you feel is the best offer for our community when it comes to David Habib and Yo Mama's Foods, what's another thirty days? What's another sixty days? It's something that can still happen if you truly feel that this is the best decision, but we don't know that because we were never given opportunity to put forth a proposal of our own. So I say, let's table this.

Let's have more conversation. Maybe let's give some opportunity for other individuals or other companies to maybe put forth a proposal. And honestly, even better, I think it's a phenomenal opportunity for David Habib to really ingrain himself in the community to maybe enhance his proposal inclusive of all the thoughts, feelings, emotions, and everything that we all wanna see from a community perspective. Thank you very much for your time, and I appreciate looking forward to your decision.

Thank you. Next speaker. No other speakers? Okay. Now with that, we'll move to council excuse me, trustee discussion. So with that, We'll start to vice

mayor- yes Sir I actually have a question for Mr Habib

okay.

Hey, David. How are you?

Thank you

for being here today. My question is, if this doesn't go through, what would happen to Yo Mama's Food and Clearwater? What does that future look like?

I mean, for us, this has been the the

past.

We've expand. I hope that you've And seen made that we've been a good community member over the last nine years that we've been here, and I would really support that this proceeds today. Another thirty days or sixty days is a lot for us. Each day is time. Each day is money. We've spent a tremendous amount of that already on this project. And in order for us to proceed, we would very much hope for a yes today.

So does that look like you would still be able to have operations in Clearwater? Or does that mean you'd be focusing elsewhere in the county and the city?

We would maintain our operations in Clearwater. We're committed to that. But the ability for us to relocate another facility in Clearwater would be hindered.

Thank you. I've got more, but I'll let the rest of the questions have it. Thank you, Dave.

Do you have questions?

I don't

have questions. I just wanted to

You have something? I want

to go this direction.

I'm good. Thank you. Thank you for being here today. I have some stuff I want to say at the end, but just for purposes, I was at

the meeting last week as well.

On a a personal level, did you learn anything from that meeting?

Absolutely. I think this is a very passionate community. You know, I was part of the North Greenwood steering committee before the CRA was formed. I was told I was told last week that I was only in one meeting. I was in 17 meetings, and I have receipts and and and records of that. I think I appreciate the passion of the community tremendously, and our effort and the ability that we want to move forward as a partner and as a neighbor with them. I welcome them. I welcome all of them. I I haven't seen any of them come to to to us either. And I say that in in a a true sense of, you know, I know everyone.

I know what their stance is here, and I know that they're very passionate about the community, and I very much respect that. I respect our neighbors, and I look forward to the opportunity to to build a bridge and to accomplish what all of us want in North Greenwood, is economic development, job creation, reduced poverty. I think everything that this community has put together through the CRA plan is is very much why we are in North Greenwood, and we wanna be a part of that story. So I welcome everyone from the the the neighborhood. I welcome the opportunity to get to know everyone, and I'd like to know what specific organizations they would like us to, you know, work with.

I would like to know what what specific people who we should be meeting, and I've already had a lot of those conversations with with three of them. So I look forward to continuing that as well.

Thank you. That was a kind of rolling into my next question was there was a lot of discussion in that meeting, not necessarily about your lack of community involvement because there's no question, you're passionate about your community, but the lack of community engagement in the North Greenwood community. Is there anything post that meeting that you are willing or plan to do different regarding community engagement in the North Greenwood community?

Absolutely. So workforce development was instilled into our plan, and that's something to the creation of summer internships and creating further opportunities for North Greenwood residents, the ability to partner with a lot of the schools, potentials that we would like to outline in an actual agreement. So going off of what Marilyn said, those are already in works. I have wonderful counsel with Katie, and we're very much committed to partnering and making sure that the community is heard and that that's also included in our proposal moving forward.

Specifically, agreement or the RFN outlines the minimum that would be required in the After the responses were due and there was the notice of intent to grant it, we had a call with the team and then Mr. Kohler and I also spoke about what some of those additional minimum requirements might be. Obviously in light of Wednesday's ninth meeting and some of this reaction I would expect the counsel to ask for additional items. Things like a deed restriction for the use, the renovation of the property to maintain it in its historic format. Whether some of the things that I think Mr.

Habib is willing to do and are appropriate, like the internships or those things might be appropriate in a separate agreement or we bounced around a development type agreement that's independent of the conveyance. But our expectation would be your authorization today to continue negotiations or to enter into negotiations would be exactly that. An opportunity for you all to give input staff, for the community to give input for staff, and for us to bring back a contract or a proposal that, you know, everybody can be proud of.

Thank you. Just another, if you don't mind. Thank you. David, a question, and I appreciate you answering these questions. Commitments are one thing, and they sound great, and they look great on a presentation.

What kind of assurances or safeguards can you give to the community that, for instance, my biggest fear is your head's been down, you're grinding, your business is crushing it, there's no questions about it, congratulations. You just outgrew your footprint in a handful of years. What happens in three years if you've once again crushed it outgrew your footprint? What type of assurances or guarantees are there for the community that this beautiful building you plan to restore and preserve today doesn't all of a sudden get knocked down in three years to the highest better. Can you speak to that?

Sure. So as Katie mentioned, there would be protective measures that would protect the community in both the city as well. We're a growing business. Know, we had one one had we came from my my parents' dining room to where we are today. There's additional space for us to expand at the Armory. Again, we're not looking to to demolish that. We want to preserve it, but there is additional property adjacent to the existing building that we have plans for to ultimately create additional space if that's needed when that time comes. But once again, you know, we're we're committed to to Clearwater. I want to stay here. Our team is committed, and we're we're very much committed to to the North Greenwood Corridor.

And as you've you've heard today, we we we could have gone everywhere. I mean, there's there's many other cities and other opportunities that we've explored, and I've made it very intentional that I wanna stay here. So that's my goal and, you know, very much want to see that happen.

I appreciate that. Last thing if you don't mind. In going forward, are you willing to have and I know there were some ideas thrown out in the meeting on Wednesday and some were probably not feasible. You're a small business. Can you just create additional jobs for community development or involvement? Probably not at the size of your business. But are there discussions you're willing to have with the community whether it's scholarship opportunities, certificate programs at Pinellas Technical Institution, maybe being an annual sponsor at one of their biggest community events down there to get more engaged in directly in that and in our Greenwood community. Are those discussions you're willing to have?

Absolutely. I I look forward to having them, and I welcome all of them.

Thank you, hon. Thank you, mayor.

Councilman Albright, do you have anything?

Yeah. I got a few things. Dave, I've known you for now two or three years. I know what kind of person you are. You're a man of your word. You know, my office was right across the street from where you are now. I just have to retire back in 2016, so I missed you coming in. But all the neighbors around there told me about you as you started growing, and I've been very proud of your growth and what you've accomplished. Here's what I do know about you. I know that when you say something, you stick to it.

And I know you wanna be you're like me. You're born in Clearwater. I mean, you're here in Clearwater. You've lived in Clearwater all your life. You wanna be a good community leader. But first of all, when I'm looking at this whole thing, there was really nothing done back door on this at all. I mean, you didn't even know that you could get the auditorium. That was something that just came up. I mean, for a couple of years, we were trying to get the state to do some kind of something with us. We didn't weren't even guaranteed that it was gonna happen.

Then it kinda happened real quick. I think I think you're doing everything a a business should do for a community because now an untaxed big piece of property in that area is gonna become on the tax rule. And listen, you guys have been here. I've worked with you for seven years on the CRA, and I'm very proud that we have a CRA there. This is the kind of light industrial is perfect for a CRA.

It's perfect. Because they don't require they don't require anything like parks, libraries, or anything. They don't require it. But they give you the money to for you to get that kind of stuff. And, I mean, you already have a beautiful library. You already have a beautiful rec center there. You things are are happening there. And I I'd love to see the downtown be like it was when I was young growing up there. I mean and I think it's gonna happen with the CRA. And you guys have worked real hard for that.

But this step here, this is gonna really help fund a lot of things that I mean, you could maybe even get the kind of things you're talking about with him helping you. In fact, he's got enough area. He might even if he says he's gonna work with you, I think he'll open his doors and work with you on that. I'm just making a statement. I'm not asking for a debate.

Trustee's discussion.

I think this is a good opportunity. And and again, I wanna congratulate you for what all you've done, and and I know that you're going to do for the community. Thank you. That's it.

Thank you. Okay.

That's Mark Duckshoe.

So as you can imagine, this has been in the forefront of my mind for weeks now. I'm trying to process everything that's been said to me and everything that I've read, and I'm trying to organize my thoughts. So for the purpose of transparency, I wrote it down so that I can make sure I cover everything and explain clearly in a transparent fashion how I how I'm thinking and the and my thought process. So let me begin by saying that one of the most meaningful aspects of me serving council in the last four and a half years was the opportunity to witness, support, and champion an initiative that was literally started and finished by the community. And I enjoyed being part of it.

I'm always saying I'm tired of the talkers. I want to see the walk, and you guys are walking. So truly a pleasure and an honor to see that. I also had the privilege of going to several meetings where I saw firsthand how engaged the community was. We did interactive exercises. So not only did we hear the voices, but we actually saw through actions what their vision was. And that means a lot. Participation means a lot. And so that speaks to the people who are involved, not only to the community, but the community leaders as well as the city. So but I wanna kinda go through my thought process, and it starts with this.

The council, and I was happy about this, we allocated the ARPA funds to help kick start the CRA because I knew it was very important to be healthy right at the start. It was an intentional one time investment to move momentum into action. It is important to recognize that this type of funding will not be available in the future, which means it is more critical that these initial dollars are used to establish a strong foundation. Since then, I have been very passionate about supporting its early stages, making sure that it's successful, including looking ahead to projects like the container initiative. And if you recall, the containers idea was originally for downtown.

And when we couldn't do it and you guys took it over, I was like, you go, girl. I was really happy that the community was so active in that in creating that environment. And I believe it's going to be really important for the future of that community and engagement. We also made the decision where we purchased a debilitated property, which I, as a businesswoman, know it didn't make sense in the numbers didn't. It was above appraisal.

It was about and it was debilitating. But you guys needed that. It was a strategic decision because we need you to kick start and be successful from the beginning. And as we know, the CRA is still in its infancy. It is critical that the TIF revenue generating projects are prioritized versus the wonderful projects that may sound good, but will bleed the CRA.

These projects will effectively feed the CRA, helping to ensure its long term sustainability and financial health as it grows. At its core, this effort has been about responding to your vision, and I've enjoyed the process and taking tangible steps to bring your vision. Now here's the difficult part, and rightfully so, what I'm gonna say is gonna be scrutinized. And I'm hoping that you will understand my thought process. This part of the conversation is tough, especially the decision I have to make.

The fact that I have read and heard from various sources, including two conversations with mister Robinson, who I wanna thank, one of the rare individuals that we can disagree and have a robust conversation and still feel safe. We're still gonna have lunch next week. Thank you for sharing your ideas because he actually did enlighten me into to some aspects that I was not aware of. And we were able to do that because we were honest with each other and open. So, mister Robinson, thank you.

I understand and empathize with and respect all perspectives that have been shared, and there have been several different ones. I want to be transparent about that. What I'm afraid of, though, is that this conflict is going to set us back, and it shouldn't because we've been working well together for years. And so I'm hoping that this will be a learning opportunity to see where the errors happened. Errors that I'm hearing are lack of transparency, lack of communication, communication breakdown.

Let us work on that, but not use this as a reason to go backwards because we've got a lot of work to do together. But regarding this property, it is my opinion that context matters. Nearly six years ago, mister Khabib, facing significant business growth and need for additional space, initiated the process of acquiring the armory. It was hard. I don't think he was gonna be able to do it. A lot of hurdles, lot of challenges, but he was persistent. As a direct result of those efforts, we ultimately, the city, received an armory as a gifted asset. Nothing to the taxpayers. We didn't pay for anything. Then we followed these requirements.

We put the public notice on and was issued in January. And then by March, mister Gulpieb was the sole respondent. From there, the city made the decision to move forward with selling him what we were gifted. And this is not, I believe, just a transaction. It is a project that is guaranteed to be successful in my opinion.

It it is expected to generate 20 to 30 full time jobs with an average, and this is important, mean salary of $65,000. This is not flipping burger salary. With meaningful exterior improvements as well as upgrades to several other aspects of it. It will strengthen the local economy, encourage long term private reinvestment, and carries a high level of execution certainty. It is also important to note that this building was previously city occupied, therefore tax exempt.

Nothing nothing to to to give to the CRA. You did not benefit from it. Through this transaction, it will return to tax rolls directly benefiting the CRA and contributing to the long term financial sustainability. At its core, this opportunity exists because of mister Habib's initiative. We did not want it. We did not initiate it. We were not actively going for it. We were pretty comfortable over there. But this was his work. This was his challenge.

So quite simply, we would not be having this conversation if not for him. It would be a moot point. This is where my principles come into play. After years of work led by one individual to bring this opportunity forward, I could not, in good conscience, support receiving a gifted building, sell it sell it back to him as a result of his efforts, and then actively redirecting it to another party. I find that difficult.

I would never do it to you or anyone else, working so hard for an objective and then having it taken away. And I'm sorry I disappointed. My my decision has disappointed you. But don't this shouldn't stop us. I'm hoping this will be a learning opportunity.

Vice Mayor Cotton.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Let me start with Ms. Gloria, Ms. Marilyn, Mr. Kennard, other leaders that have spoken here today. I want you to know that I have heard you. And when I say that, let me explain what I believe that you're saying and that you've been left out of the process, that you weren't unaware, and you were surprised by this. So I want you all to know that I am going to take that back and see how we can make sure that that communication process is thoroughly sent out, especially to our CRA leaders, leaders of the community, because we can tell. We can I can tell, feel the passion?

It's your neighborhood, just like where I grew up in countryside, I feel those same passions, the roots, and what's happening around that area. I understand it. So, my commitment to you is to follow back up and see in the future where things go when they come in, that you all are fully briefed and prepared and understand what's happening, making sure that it gets back to our churches through pastor childs and all of those things. Because I know that, you know, church is definitely another area where the community goes and word spreads. So I want you to know I'm definitely going to take that back, and that's what I've heard.

If there's anything else, please respond back to me and let me know that. I hope that each of you understand I do reach back out, and we'll definitely do that. To Mr. Habib, I think that that story of growing up in Clearwater, being born and raised here, wanting to start something and doing it in your mom's kitchen, founding your business here, wanting it to stay rooted in Clearwater is not only just a cool story, but it's something that I think that all of us can try to draw inspiration from. The reason I asked what would happen if he didn't get the property is because I don't want to see a story like that leave, right?

And when you're forcing a company to start looking out into other regions, whether it's here in Pinellas, whether it's in the Tri County or Tri Regional area, you know, even though his intent is to stay here, depending on what other building he might find in said area, it might just be smart to where he has to make the decision to now sell his property here in Clearwater and go there and move all operations to Pasco Hillsborough Manatee. Right? And then then what do we have? We don't we don't have anything. So when it comes to the inspirational story that mister Khabib has for this area, for this community, and what I know of Mr.

Habib too, I do believe he's a man of his word. I know that it's hard to probably process that through what you're going through now and being blindsided was some of the words that I had heard. To maybe try and start trust from that, I'm not faulting anybody. But I do believe the fruits of his labors and the meaning behind his words are going to be there. This is the start of that negotiation process in my mind.

And, you know, I've talked to some other people since your meeting as well, and I want to reassure you that we're going to protect the community. We're going to protect taxpayers and those community members that if something were to go awry, that the city would definitely be able to take or have a first bid to that property to get back. And I think that he will have no problem agreeing to that. Just knowing the man, Mr. Habib, that I know, but you've heard others state and know.

So that's what's going to dictate my decision here. And I want the community here at large, so everybody that spoke that feels blindsided. I'm definitely taking that hard too, and we'll try and I will try and definitely make sure that that doesn't happen again with future things. I don't want to, you know, say what's already been stated, but I do think that we do have to know that this did start from a state level, and it just kind of started happening rapidly. So that's where my decision is going be coming from. I hope that I articulated that well enough and where we go from here. So thank you very much for your time for everybody, genuinely.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you to all you that got up and spoke, much appreciated. I've had a lot of in-depth conversations with several of you. Emotional, heartfelt, genuine, real, and I appreciate that opportunity. I attended the meeting as you know last Wednesday and as every single one of us that sat in there, you felt and you witnessed the passion and pride that exist in our North Greenwood community.

And I said earlier on the phone, wasn't reminded of it because I never forgot, but you felt it and you couldn't get away from it. And that's powerful. That's a powerful feeling in that community. We heard stories of the armory's history. We've heard stories of storm shelters, after school youth programs. We heard stories of youth dances, pick up basketball games. In fact, I have memories of playing basketballs on basketball on that court in the mid nineties. I go back and have memories there there as well. I was touched by the expressed emotions. There was a lot of emotions that were said.

I took notes on every single speaker, and it was hard to not be saddened. Some people cried in there, and rightfully so. Frustrated, disheartened, saddened, tired of broken promises, Those are all powerful emotional words that, any of us sit there and hear about any members of our community. It's hard to not be touched. It meant a lot.

Additionally what stood out were the many conversations that focused on what's not being discussed so much here as of now and that's the process. The process that brought that event together that night. The process that brought 89 individuals from our community out that said, why do I keep having to come to these meetings to feel like I'm fighting for something, right? Why can't we at some point have 89 of us gather in a meeting to celebrate. Right?

And I hope we get there soon and I pray we get there soon. Miss Barbara, sorry love you. I can quote you if you don't mind. And you said the process fell short of communicating. Miss Gloria Campbell, said the idea sounds great but it sucks the way it was presented. I agree with you 100%. I would be lying if I said I didn't. The process did fall short. The idea does sound and look great, but the process sucked. I learned a lot from the process or lack thereof or the fractured process that it may be.

I think our staff did. I think they've already had as a leadership team probably pretty deep discussions on reevaluating or evaluating our processes because everything that staff did was legal. It was by the book. It was a precedent that set all throughout our community, it wasn't treated any differently than some of the other projects that are in front of us now. But there are deep discussions that need to be had on are we doing this right?

Are we handling these processes right? And for me this process did not feel right and we need to reevaluate that. I think it's important at this time we find a way as a community to try to shift away from the layer of emotional arguments because there's a lot there and those are easy to have and try to shift more into those practical areas in an effort to make not only the best business decision this council can for today, but for future generations to come, for four generations to come, mister Kennard, when your fourth generation grandchildren look back at the city of Clearwater notes and see you proudly and humbly stood before us and addressed us with strength and leadership. I hope they look back and see a positive change. I truly do.

Studying CRAs and some paths that they've taken not just in the state or in our community, it clearly tells a story that the perfect project doesn't always come first. Momentum does. And we've heard that word momentum a couple times. Early revenue is how we can create that revenue in the CRA. So that when that right opportunity does come before us, we're ready to act.

We're able to act and move forward instead of watching it go somewhere else or go to a different neighborhood. I think establishing a strong stable anchor project early in our CRA's life stage which we are at. We have to find ways to drive revenues. Have to find early in that cycle a way to create those revenue streams so that we can make bigger successful possible down the road. History also shows that there's a natural instinct to wait.

CRA so often all over the country they wait and they hold out for that perfect community project, that perfect community partner, that perfect applicant. We don't have that today. We truly don't. We don't have a perfect process. Mr.

Habib would tell you he's not a perfect community partner, the perfect applicant. It's probably not the perfect time. But the truth is those type of projects don't just happen in a vacuum. Those projects happen in places that already show signs of stability, signs of investment, and signs of progress and forward movement. That's when those big moments become possible.

An anchor project is how we create that signal. It's how we communicate not just to our community, but to developers, investors, and the rest of the region that we are moving forward. And Anchor has reliability, brings consistent use, consistent activity and consistent revenues into the CRA and the North Greenwood community without waiting years for permitting process of new construction projects, shovels to be thrown in the ground, and bricks to be laid. I think you said last Wednesday that the day this property is handed over to you and the keys are handed, your group is immediately going to work in the building and working from day one. It's turnkey and ready to roll.

Without a steady base, we're left just hoping, hoping for that perfect project, hoping for the perfect time, hoping we can act fast enough, hoping that we have the resources available when we need them. We need to tell a story of change that's actually happening. Not broken promises, not one time recurring dollars from a sale. Revenue that can be reinvested like we've talked about so often directly backed into the community and whatever those may be that our community decides, whether it's letting kids swim for free instead of putting a credit card down for a North Greenwood child that wants to swim during the summer. Not sure how many of those seven year olds have credit cards when they show up to go swim.

Whether it's upgrades to infrastructure, sidewalks, safety, signage, historical preservation, monuments, whatever it is, projects like this are what enable us to get to that place to make those decisions. We're building momentum instead of waiting for it. I am sorry that you feel left out. I'm sorry that I'm disappointing you today in this decision like I told you on the phone and I know I am. I've prayed on it.

I've made a lot of phone calls. I've dug deep. I've poked and bothered and prodded staff at all hours to push them to be better. But I think this is a decision that I have to make and that counsel has to make going forward to ensure future generations in the Greenwood community don't just stare at a historic, beautiful, dilapidated building that holds so many memories. It's solely holding bleachers, garbage cans and as a storage facility, but that that beautiful memorable building has the ability to pay it forward, to raise taxes and revenues, to truly help the community and provide resources where it's needed.

Thank you.

Okay. Well, I will go last, and I'll do my best not to repeat what's already been said by my colleagues up here, but did want to say a few things. First thing I want to say is that this discussion today is not about one lot one piece of property it's about Not you know it's not even about one neighborhood it's not even about one community redevelopment area. It's about our entire city and the importance of this area, this neighborhood to our entire city. It's not a discussion about Mr.

Habib. It's not a discussion about North Greenwood. It's not a discussion about the city. It's a discussion about us. And the one thing that I think that I have taken away from the talking with members of the committee and folks over the last several days is I have learned a lot. One thing I have learned is we need to do better as a city in communicating with this neighborhood and with the folks who live within the CRA. And one of one of the committee members gave me the little bit of a pass. She said, well, you know, I know this has been going on six years and you haven't been around for all the history and all. Well, I appreciate that, but I won't take a pass. I'm the mayor now, and I'm a council member now.

One of the five folks who should be engaged in the community and should be engaged in this neighborhood. And we all, staff, and I know mister Battle apologized and for communication the other day at the meeting. And but I wanna apologize to you too because it's on me just like it's on all of us. We need to do better, and we'll do better. And pastor Charles is here.

He pointed out that that I've not met with the pastors recently, and I intend to do that, made a note to do that. But, I hope we will see this coming out that we have learned a lot. And I know mister Habib's already acknowledged and and miss Cole that, you know, they're they need to make some more intentional efforts to lean into the community too. But I hope I hope that we all know that this discussion today, it's about us. And the city has, of course, invested, you know, quite a bit of money to seed money to start the CRA.

We all want this to be successful. And, hopefully, that's where it's all headed. That we will continue to work together after today to make this not just this neighborhood, the CRA, but the entire city thrive. I did want to point out somebody came to the microphone and talked about, know, to you it's just a building. And I want to share, at least for me, that that's not true at all. It's not. I've been through that building several times and never had the opportunity to play basketball there like Councilmember Menino. But I see all the pictures on the wall. I know the history. I've also been through the armory in Tampa.

At armory in Tampa, Elvis performed there three times, I think, back in the day. And I know there were other notable famous performers that performed over there. I know it's been a focal point for the entire city over the years. And I also know it's across the street from Jack Russell Stadium, which was another focal point for the city for years with the Phillies. And then, you know, we have Buccaneer Field just on the other side of that.

Why? Well, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers used to have, you know, their their preseason practices over there. And, of course, we know the Ross Norton excuse me, North Greenwood Recreation Center is on the site of where the original Clearwater Athletic Field was at, where the Brooklyn Dodgers first started the spring training in Clearwater one hundred and ten years ago. That entire area has incredible history, and I know there are many other activities going over there through North Greenwood that that we we want as a city, we want to protect. And I hope that, you know, this we are simply approving accepting the proposal today.

I hope that we will engage mister Happeeb in conversations about agreements to make sure that this history is preserved, and some of these other things that the community has shared with me are very important to them to helping the entire neighborhood and CRA thrive. I hope that we will negotiate those in to the agreement to make sure that there are commitments as we go forward to making this property and the whole CRA successful. A couple other things I wanted to just mention briefly. One is Vice Mayor Cotton mentioned it earlier, and he asked questions to Mr. Rabib.

Folks, mister Habib's business has been incredibly successful. So successful that there are surrounding communities, cities, just in this county who would, in a heartbeat, love to have him and would incentivize him to come their way. I thank him for his efforts to stay in Clearwater and to stay in this CRA. He has an he has grown an internationally known business in the CRA, and just across the street from the property that he wants to occupy. He could go anywhere.

And I can tell you over Clearwater's history, many, many businesses have left. They have gotten to a point where they're too big, they can't find property available, they leave in a heartbeat. So his efforts to try to stay not only in the city of Clearwater, but in this neighborhood, I thank him for that. Because I do recognize that it would be really easy for a lot of other businesses, and they have, to move elsewhere. And I hope that him staying here and growing here, that the CRA will be able to use it to be very proud that this is the headquarters location for internationally owned business.

In that, it will encourage others to come here and establish their their economic opportunity. They'll bring jobs. They'll do these things that we all want. I think one of the funniest moments I've had in dealing with the CRA was one of the initial forums, I think it was before they even officially became the CRA, was the residents came in and talked about the needs for the neighborhood in CRA, and one of them was that it's a food desert. There's people don't have transportation to go get groceries, and there's not a grocery store within an easy distance for them to get to.

And then the gentleman said, well, I've got an idea. You know, I have a relationship with this supermarket company. Immediately, everybody said, no, no, no, no. We don't want that one. That's not the one they wanted.

Unanimously, But everybody recognized that we need economic inspiration into this area to get the supermarket in there to provide these essential services that we want. So that's what I'm hoping, that this will inspire more economic activity and that we have other places, the growth, the possible growth, to provide some of these things that the neighborhood has wanted for so many years that will only come by folks having confidence in businesses like this one, Yo Mama's, not only staying there, but growing there. They believe it's a great spot to be, and hopefully others will come and want to join them as well. So with that, I just want to thank everybody that I spoke with that shared with us, Ms. Sory Love.

I didn't get a chance to talk with you, but she gave me some time tomorrow. Hopefully, we'll talk too, I hear from the others up here too. And I am personally committed. I know the staff is committed to leaning in, listening to you more carefully and doing better in the way we communicate with you and those folks who live in the neighborhood and the CRA going forward. So with that, is there any further trustee discussion? If not, is there a motion?

Move to approve agenda item 4.2.

Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? None of us. Thank you all for attending and who came today to share your thoughts on that agenda. This time we'll move to agenda item 4.3.

Downtown revitalization.

This is your item to discuss anything you wish.

Any discussion from trustees? Okay. Thank you. At this time, we'll move to 5.1, Director's Report.

I'm going to keep this one short, but there is a few items on the PowerPoint that I do want to highlight. If

you could put her up.

We got to make sure it was actually was CRA direct director report. So some of the items that I do wanna

Ladies and gentlemen, for ladies and gentlemen, appreciate it, mister Habib. If if if everyone could take the conversations outside, we're continue the meeting. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Please continue.

Yes, sir. I just wanna make sure that the community understands we're still having the monthly communication outreach meetings here in the library every month. That's a good way for us to get to the stakeholders and get their feedback on any type of items that are happening, plus for us to give them information that we may have on construction or whatever else it may be. And here, I'm sure all of you are aware, if not, then there has been demolition permits pulled on basically a 600 block. You see the PowerPoint here before you, some of those addresses, and you also see some of the demo that's happening in addition to down the street on Cleveland Street where the old Hacienda restaurant was located.

There's construction there's demolition going on there as well. This is the outreach meetings. As for the library, still continue to move forward with our outreach to different entities and also give tours, And we're also gonna send two staff members up north to Philadelphia to go to the American Alliance of Museums conference they have every year, and they're gonna be doing interviews with entities and just getting information back and plus us giving them information on our beautiful community. Grants, we continue to move grants forward in downtown. So for North Greenwood, and this was was hoping there was gonna be some residents still here, but as they left, that's why I was trying to get through it pretty quickly.

So the North Ward Elementary School, we're still in the pre marketing phase for that particular building. So what we want to do is we want to take it in June to the North Breenwood CAC so they can hear a presentation from staff as far as what we're doing right now. In addition, set up a tour maybe with the CAC at North Ward. Of course, we would advertise to make sure that we're compliant with, you know, as far as how in the sunshine for all this wonderful stuff, but it has been shrink wrapped. I'm not sure if you want to add anything else on that.

Not quite shrink wrapped. It is shrink being shrink wrapped. Wrapping is going up as you see, if you drive by, you see it looks like a big shrink-wrap being applied to a piece of property. A couple of things I just wanted to highlight, appreciate Jesus, you pointing to me. So, we had talked about advertising formally in like the June, July timeframe.

I'm going to ask that you give us some grace to maybe extend that to like the July timeframe or August for a couple of reasons. A, and really prior to the conversation with the North Greenwood Citizens Advisory Committee, we had always envisioned having some type of open house event, and we think that would be great to kind of coincide with the advertisement of the county properties. So, we're going to try to do an event driven type of open house and really capture all of the folks who want to go through it. Knight at the North Ward is kind of the idea, kind of like urban renaissance, we're going to catch on, right. Exactly.

So we're going to work towards that, more to come on it, but really, while we receive interest, it hasn't been the type of interest that I would have expected. But at the same time, the commentary that we've gotten about some of the challenges, it's an older property, not really a proven market for that type of project, even though we'd like a style that we'd like to see. So, we need to do more and we've gotten great coverage. We just need to continue to market the property. Just want to say those couple of things so that you would understand what our steps are moving forward. Thanks Jesus.

Thank you. And I also want to thank the economic development staff, CRA staff and city manager's office for the North Forge. It is a partnership. Grants, we continue to move grants forward in the North Greenwood area. We're going to continue to do that more aggressively, especially the commercial grants.

So the Citizens Advisory Committees are active, they're becoming more and more active as you see there. So usually, they meet quarterly, but now they're starting to request special meetings on certain items, so we're respecting that. It was just us setting up four meetings per year with the option for them if they needed additional meetings. They could always come to us, and now they're starting to exercise that that prerogative. Their next meeting is set for June 3 at the North Greenwood Recreation Center.

Other reasons to push it out, that give them an opportunity to talk about it at their meeting as well as have that particular event. That was, again, not not in response to what happened today or the conversation today, but we were already thinking proactively about what that could look like.

They're only about a year old, so now they basically have their feet wet. They're understanding the process, they're understanding the rules as far as how CRAs operate, city policies, so you name it. So now they're they're they're getting they're getting their gears ramming up. As far as property disposition, we do have a large section of property that's been advertised that's here in the downtown in the MLK Martin Luther King Junior Avenue area and a seven parcels. We have a technical review committee ready to review those five proposals that have been submitted.

It's gonna be tomorrow or 04/21/2026. We'll be reviewing those proposals. Then if any of them have merit, either way, we're gonna bring all of them to you for your consideration. There's an evaluation committee that operate, you know, as far as minutes and all this other wonderful stuff as well. 900 Palmetto, this is a property that's located in the North Greenwood area.

We're planning to also take that to the North Greenwood CAC for them to kinda see that property as a small commercial property, Tampa Bay neighborhood housing services. They have plans right now preliminary plans for development of that site. And this has a smaller properties that are outside of the CRA area. For instance, Small Wood Circle 801 Howard Street that's located outside of CRA. And I'm not gonna go over the armory again. So but it's there. Other than that, we're continuing to move certain properties from the city into the ownership of the CRA, the ones that are located at least within the boundaries. That concludes the presentation.

Any questions from the rec? Alright. Thank you. Good. That one, we adjourn the community redevelopment agency meeting of 04/20/2026. And we will take a five minute recess before we start the pension trustees quickly through that, and we'll get into the work session.