Community Development Board - Regular Meeting

This time we'll call order the 12/01/2025 meeting of the city of Clearwater Downtown Development Board. This time we move

to item 2.1, the agenda, approval of

the minutes. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the 11/03/2025 DDD meeting?

So moved. Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Names. This time we'll move to item 3.1 on

the agenda. Can I bring the PowerPoint up, please? Good afternoon, chair and board members. Jesus Nino, CRE executive director for the record. First, thank you for the opportunity to present the downtown development board's marketing and public relations initiative.

Sorry. Staff told me to speak up, so I'm gonna do that. This item directly supports the board's ongoing focus on strengthening the identity, visibility, and economic vitality of downtown, especially during the next several months and years when we have major public and private investment, all the several construction projects that are about to hit the ground, some of them already started. So today's presentation will summarize the findings of the written summary that's in your agenda packets, and request for your approval to move forward was procuring a professional marketing public relations firm in an amount not to exceed $50,000. This afternoon's presentation will cover the following.

One, project background. Two, feasibility highlights. Three, management and funding structure. Four, objectives. Five, scope of services, deliverables, and budget.

So everything you see here is aligned with the written summary and draft scope that's included in your packet. So as reflected in the slide here before you, the board directed staff on September 15 to explore securing a professional firm to support downtown marketing and public relations and to review comparable approaches used by other Florida organizations, which include downtown development authorities, DDAs, down development boards, DDBs, business improvement districts or bids, BIDs, and other community development agencies, CRAs. So these organizations routinely use dedicated marketing and public relations firms to manage district branding, destination marketing, story development, and business support. So this initiative builds on that direction and responds to a critical timing window. So downtown will undergo major multiple construction projects and phases that may temporarily affect accessibility and public perception of the downtown.

At the same time, we continue seeing growth in businesses, foot traffic, and public investment. So to sustain that momentum, support merchants, shape perceptions, and communicate the progress happening downtown, we do need a more strategic, year round, professionally managed marketing program, not only in events event based promotions that we usually do. So slide four outlines the feasibility updates based on coordination with the city manager's office and the public communications or PC office. So the PC department provided the following guidance noting that the city manager supports moving forward with this item and has directed staff to go out there and look for pricing and quotes. PC also confirmed that existing advertising dollars within their budget may be used now for ad placement supporting downtown initiatives.

And also for the selected marketing firm, a monthly retainer model with cancellation flexibility would allow performance to be evaluates evaluated several months and discontinued with notice. So staff will actively or continue to actively gather quotes from qualified firms, locally preferred if possible, capable of supporting branding, marketing, and public relations services. So the goal for us is to have this service, this firm in place by December 31 year. So staff has already begun developing preliminary directional concepts such as imagine Clearwater two point o beyond the bluffs, Imagine Clearwater two point o beyond Coachmen, or simply just Imagine Clearwaters as a timeless, flexible brand direction. This was actually brought up by the city manager at our last strategy session.

Very good concepts. So these concepts give a starting place for the selected firm, but ultimately, the creative work will be professionally refined and validated by the board, which is you. So taken together, the feasibility review taken together not not sure if that was a beep for something, taken together, the feasibility review clearly shows that the initiative is practical, supported, and ready for immediate advancement. So as far as management and funding structure, slide five identifies the recommended management and funding structure. So the DB will serve as the primary sponsor for this initiative with the oversight by the body here, consistent with the mission and district boundaries.

Staff will handle the day to day project oversight, vendor coordination, and quality control. Work will focus on the DB district. And if allowed later, it was following the city procurement rules, CRA may participate in future phases, especially to support other storytelling efforts outside of DDB boundary. So this model does ensure strong accountability, consistent messaging, and clear performance management while placing strategic direction and funding authority within the DDBs. So slide six outlines the core objectives, which are outlined in your memorandums, Create a unified downtown identity that connects businesses, culture, and community.

Two, promote Downtown Clearwater's year round destination for residents, visitors, and investors. Three, increase visitation, spending, and investment in the district, which includes highlight and redevelopment opportunities and underperforming blocks in areas, and also to celebrate business milestones and local success stories. Then four, collaborate across departments to ensure consistent consistent messaging throughout the broader redevelopment area. So these objectives directly support multiple strategic priorities, including destination promotion, neighborhood identity, business climate, and stakeholder engagement. So as far as the scope of services, they're broken down more into your in your summary that you have in your agenda packages.

But, basically, the memo includes the following scope of service, which is one, marketing strategy and brand development. Two, digital marketing and content creation. Three, public relations and media relations. Four, event and partnership marketing. Then five, area and business promotion.

Then six, reporting and performance evaluation. So these service will provide downtown with the brand identity, storytelling tools, content library, professional media presence, and data driven evaluation framework needed for modern district level marketing. As far as the deliverables and the budget, so the deliverables include a comprehensive marketing PR strategy, annual marketing calendar, professional asset library, quarterly and annual performance dashboards, brand guidelines, and templates, determine the budget. So the initial term would be one year with up to two year optional one year renewal. A one year with up to two optional one year renewals upon DDP approval.

Importantly, the contract may be structured similar to a month to month flexibility, as I mentioned earlier, allowing the board to evaluate performance early and discontinue if needed, mirroring the retainer guidance that was in your memo earlier. The funding request would be a not to exceed $50,000, which is consistent with our budget. This approach provides a balance of stability and flexibility, ensuring accountability while enabling continuous momentum. With that, this initiative represents a significant opportunity for the DDB to take control of the downtown narrative, support local businesses, navigate construction cycles, and elevate our identity as a destination. With your approval, staff will continue to proceed with soliciting quotes and pricing from vendors and coordinating with public communications and procurement to make this happen by the end of the year.

With that, I'm open for questions and open to listen to feedback. Feedback.

Councilmember Albritton.

I can tell you that before you were here and most of us were here, pre COVID going all the way back, we talked about this on the DDB, and, you know, it just wasn't the right time to brand downtown because we weren't really we didn't really have an idea of what that brand would be. So we put it off, and I think it's the right time. We've got so many things developing, coming out of the ground. You know, it was pre imagined Clearwater before the park was even finished. Now we have all that.

We've got a hotel being built downtown and all this development. I think it's a great time to spend this and, you know, and to have the deliverables as as you outlined. Well, I think will help all the business owners down there to see how they can contribute and build downtown. So it's a good thing.

Vice Mayor.

I just have some questions about your budget of 50,000. Was that based on metrics from all the comparables that you did that supports that $50,000 is the sweet spot to have some measurable, accessible goals? Yes. And if so, is there a correlation between increasing the budget and improving the success?

So we compared other municipalities. There's some that literally almost went into the millions just because of their sheer scale of their cities. But the majority of them, our size, were around that 50,000 to a $100,000 range. I guess we could look at other areas in our budget if we can stretch our budget.

We're Mark Horowitz out.

Couple of questions. So how do you define who you're gonna hire as far as Berkeley company goes?

What was the question?

How do you define who you're going to hire? Like, how do you make a decision on who you go with?

So we're going to be relying heavily on our public communications department. Also, we'll take this strategy if we need to, but internally, it's gonna be a team effort to kind of evaluate these vendors locally. And there's other vendors that are already doing this for DDAs again, CRAs. So those have already have an established record of doing this type of work. So we can compare what they do with the local individuals to see if the local ones can do it.

Yeah, understood. Okay. I guess my main question is, would you when you're going to when you're going to be hiring the marketing company, are you going to look into if they ever did that in the past? Yes. And if they had any results? And if so, how would you measure whether or not they were successful?

Very good question. And honestly, I may not have that information for you right now, but we can get it. That's why it's a team effort.

We

have other team members there at the table that do this type of work.

Understood. Okay. In the presentation, the what's mentioned as a comparables is Winter Haven, Opa Locka, Newport Richey. I've been to pretty much each and single one of those cities and spent some time there. I do believe they're very different from Clearwater in terms of pretty much everything. Like to give you an example, Winter Haven for instance, their tourism is driven by Legoland mainly. That's very different from what we have. Newport Richey is very local. They don't really do any tourism. Well, if they do, it's very minor.

Opeloka is an industrial city that is not a tourist city at all. So I was kind of wondering why were those cities selected as a comparison.

So what wasn't included as the other comparables, for instance, West Palm Beach, Miami, those beach communities down there as well, even Fort Lauderdale, those individuals, DDAs, those, we put these in the package because they had RFPs and sample language, but there was other comparables, other DDAs and other business improvement districts that are similar to us in some ways as far as beach communities, downtowns that are struggling or just this type of activity that we do.

Right. Okay. Understood. And then who will be running the vendor on a regular basis? Would that be CRA?

So CRA staff, we're going to form a team. I put it in the memorandum, but there is a team that's going to be formed. We'll meet, I'm not sure, biweekly or monthly. That's going include public communications. Someone from economic development, a CRA staff member, and whoever else wants to participate, that's going to be a team that's going to be formed that will meet to evaluate this particular vendor.

Understood. Okay. My other question is why do you want to allocate the funds now versus first selecting a marketing company that can come before us, explain exactly what they're going to do, kind of show us where the money will go to as far as how much would go to the agency fees, how much would go into the actual marketing, and what happens if that company underperforms?

So right now, we just want to set the money aside to make sure we got it there. So our attorney knows very well, the rest of you know, the DDB is a separate entity from the city. We really don't have to follow those procurement rules. We just follow them to be consistent. But in this case, we kinda know what we want as far as the scope of work, so we can go out there and hire a company. Obviously, we're not just gonna hire look at one quote. We're gonna get comparables, sit down as a team and evaluate those quotes, and then choose whoever we think is appropriate, work with our legal department, form some kind of agreement that we can cancel it anytime that we don't feel they're performing to our expectations. And, obviously, we'll report back to the DB on a monthly basis on progress.

If I may, I want to offer something on that, if I may. I think your question is, why not go through a full on process and soliciting vendors and formal response to a RFP style of approach, right. So, we've heard the trustees, we've heard the council members ask us about when are we going to deliver on some type of marketing approach for downtown. We believe it's ripe, I think, as Councilmember Albritton said. So we think this allows us to do kind of be really adept and agile in terms of attacking something right now that we think is an opportunity to really put a good brand out there immediately. We can always add, I think as the Vice Mayor said, how can we add or

increase it? So we want to use this as that first step. We can always wait and try to be

perfect or we can start now and try to do something and then perfect as we go along. We think this approach

allows us to do the latter

and we're at a point now where we don't want to lose the momentum. There's been a lot of positive press, a lot of positive comments from internally and externally about what's going on right now. So we think this allows us to keep that momentum going and be in a very deliberate way to talk about end of year, have a vendor on staff. As Jesus said, this is a month to month evaluation, And it may be something that we say we want to grow it bigger and we can still keep that going while keeping the vendor engaged. So that's kind of the

way that we looked at it going forward right now.

Thank you. I guess my question with that was when you when we hire the company, so we have a $50,000 budget that, let's say, we approved today. That money will be paid to them upfront. Would that be 50% that would be refundable?

We the goal is to have somebody on retainer, if you will, to assist us with developing the concepts. There would be additional dollars that we would use for ad buys, media development, content development. So we plan to spend more money, but this allows us to engage the professional to help staff build the narrative, to help staff brand, come up with brand development, bring those concepts back, so once we want to keep running, it allows us to move much quickly. If you like something, we'll go off and buy it.

If you like

a campaign, we'll go off

and do it. So, we don't have to wait.

You don't have to wait for perfection, we can continue to do stuff as we're building the plane. We fly it at the same time.

Yeah. I'm all up

for moving this forward. My only concern with pretty much everything is that there are no specifics in the presentation, which I understand why in terms of how the money will be spent, where the money going to go to, you know, like actual

We haven't selected a vendor. You're exactly So right about if it's pleasing to you and the rest of the members of the board here, once we have said vendor, we can bring them and introduce them and they can talk about what they're going to do. That's easy to do. Think we want the permission to do that so we can get

the ball. Absolutely.

Okay, is just a request. Exactly like you said, we can bring back those quotes to you.

Perfect. Was a benefit.

Council Member Manino. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, this is exciting. We've talked about this for quite a while. The time is now. You're exactly correct. Our window of opportunity in the direction our downtown is growing, this is the perfect fit and I think doing it by the December and being flexible and fluid is vitally important.

There are a lot of things that are moving and changing downtown. We need to have that ability to not only tell that story, but to do it in a collected manner, in a manner that brings our city together, our fragmented downtown business owners, our independent business owners and share that same vision and tell the story. We have somewhat of an issue downtown that's been perception and so often as a city we've gone by the motto, if you build it they will come, and we did that with our $84,000,000 Coachmen Park and they have started to come. There's no question. Our downtown in Coachmen Park is an amazing success, but we've known for a while that that was never gonna be the silver bullet, right?

That was a piece in the wall and this is the next step that a city has to take. I mean, I heart New York campaign made New York City incredibly recognizable and they spent about a million dollars on that. You can see I heart New York t shirts, not one person in this room would have no idea what I'm talking about. That is rebranding of a downtown district. We have a story to tell, we need to continue to tell it.

We're building parking garages and hotels and condominiums and reimagine a library and there are amazing things that we've been praying and hope filled for for years and now is the time to brand that, to tell that story, to come together and do it in one unified message. Think tackling this multiple interconnected challenges that we face is going to help with our perception, our economics, our identity and visitor behavior. And these are all things that when we try to do these individually in little pieces, the speed of which we can rewrite the story of our downtown will be much faster in a campaign like this than sitting back and trying to hope that organically it tells itself. And we've struggled with that. And this is a great opportunity.

I am 100% behind this. I thank staff for getting behind it and putting the due diligence and the legwork into it. I look forward to what we come up with and what direction that truly unifies our downtown and tells that story, so thank you for being receptive and for listening.

Long to last, I'm in favor of it. I think the time is right. I think we have a chance to capitalize on some positive momentum that we've gotten from the BayCare Sound and from Coachmen Park and activities there. Ruth Record Hall shared 68% of the visitors to the amphitheater so far have been from outside Pinellas County. So that's all I would share with you is I hope you get the council's input and the board's input on the exact strategy.

I like the last one, and I think the city manager suggested it, that we not say beyond the bluffs, beyond the park. We want folks to know it's all part of downtown, and that's the key focus point right now, cause we're attracting people from all over to the amphitheater in the park. We want them to see the entire downtown as part of the park, to benefit from that. Plus, the amphitheater in the park can be seen from Clearwater Beach, and we've got millions of visitors out there that we should try to track to downtown. And along those lines, I'd hope I'd hope that this company or this consultant that they collaborate with Visit Saint Peter Clearwater to try to they're they're particularly in the past year, Visit St.

Pete Clearwater's been really trying to attract folks to our area for dining and entertainment, so we want to really see if there's some synergies there to help us promote our downtown. But I would not separate I would not say beyond the bluffs, beyond the park, because I really think that seeing all those that's connected with the rest of our downtown is really important to building on the momentum we already have. So I'm in favor of it, but I just hope you get some input like I just gave you, perhaps other board members have additional input as we go forward. Councilman Manino.

Thank you, mayor. You don't mind, just one more thing. My friends on the dais, I would just say buy in and believe in the concept and the direction and don't get too bogged down in details of budgets and spending and taglines and that's part of the process. And I think what we do is have faith in staff that's put this concept before us that we've supported and let's let this concept grow. I hope staff is receptive to feedback from the dais as you always have been and always are as we move forward in making decisions in the process.

But I would just urge my friends don't get bogged down in those details. Let's let this process unfold. There are professionals that do this around the world twenty fourseven, three sixty five days a year that know the industry far better and greater than any of us do because that's and they will help us create that direction. But all those things are vitally important, and just have faith in that process.

So attorney you, mister chair. Just a comment on process. So I think as drafted, if it is approved as presented, then staff would go back and procure by different methods the actual services that will fill this out. The overall budget is already part of DDB's budget. Funds are already there's already marketing funds available.

This would, as drafted narrow that focus. In other words, you would be directing staff to spend that portion of the marketing budget on this initiative and to go forward and procure. Now as Mr. Nino pointed out, the GDB as a separate legal entity is not bound by city procurement practices. We could change that, by the way, but that's not currently the status. Not given the legal opinion. DDB is a separate legal entity. I know the CRA is also a separate legal entity, but the CRA under state law has to follow city procurement practices. The DDB does not. So as presented, I believe you would be authorizing staff to go forward to procure it within budget.

The question I believe for the board, if you are supportive of the concept, is whether you are comfortable authorizing staff to go ahead and do that procurement, recognizing that at this dollar amount, it's probably not going to come back to you except perhaps for an after action so you can hear the results as it unfolds? Or is the Board looking to have individual approval for the procurement selection? So for example, if you designate staff to go forward and start procuring, do you want Mr. Nino to come back to you with company A, company B, company C, or are you comfortable delegating that to staff? I think that's really going to be the question for the board.

But as presented, I believe this will be a delegation. I'm perfectly fine with it legally, but it is a policy decision for the Board to make.

Okay. Those were your questions, right? Just

Yeah. No, I definitely do trust the city staff to authorize what you believe. I was just all I'm trying to make sure is that when you do hire them, there is a selective process and then we will be held accountable if things are going to go wrong. So I want to make sure that when you hire people, you do correct selection process, that's pretty much it.

So even though this isn't a procurement issue, we still have our procurement supervisors and managers at the table to help.

So you would recommend somebody and propose a contract. Is that right? What was the question? I'm sorry. So the process would be you would if you authorize, you would go find who you wanted to use, and you'd recommend that to us, and we would approve the contract for to engage whoever.

Yeah, so hopefully, just to provide a little bit of clarification, what this is asking is for them to go ahead and hire it and get started by December. That's what they're saying is that they'll do this, they'll complete the procurement process and have somebody on board working for December by the December. We can certainly bring it back to the council if you all want to vote on or have input on who they select, and then we would just back that timeline up. So they obviously would not be starting in December. So as written would be the count this board providing the authority to be able to just go ahead and hire and let them start working based on the presentation. But we can do it a different way. Like I said, if the council wants it to come back, that's fine. It just pushes it, you know, we would do that at the January meeting. Hopefully that helps.

Vice Mayor.

I'm very comfortable moving ahead and having the staff initiate and complete the procurement process. I probably would not have that opinion if it was a few years back. Because I remember, as Council Member Albertson said, when we were in the DDB many, many years ago, And as a merchant at that time, we always discussed how we can differentiate ourselves from other downtowns, and we had no identity, no there was nothing to work with. So to have hired a PR department PR company back then, I think, would have been a tall order, but this is the perfect timing, and I think that doing it quicker is the best. I think they have a lot to work with, especially the organic rise of that music identity or at least part of our identity being music.

So please move forward according to my opinion. I say move forward, and I would like the staff to procure the company.

So so I guess we have somebody in mind.

Not yet, but we're looking at

quotes. Okay. Is there a motion?

Yeah. I move to approve agenda item 3.1.

Second. All those in favor?

I agree. Are we voting or just giving direction?

It's up for approval.

I mean, it is a voting item since you're here as a DDB. I mean, if the if the board is not ready to make a decision, it could certainly be postponed. But if you are prepared to make a decision, then this would be it would be appropriate to make a motion right now.

Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Unanimous. Thank you. Chairman item 3.2.

Good afternoon. Ann Lopez, CRA assistant director. This item that I have before you is a high impact grant request for Tasty Tampa Bay. It is a food and vendor festival proposed for 02/21/2026 from 11AM to 6PM in Coachmen Park. It is a free event that will showcase some of the best local food trucks, restaurants, beverages, and artisan vendors from across the Tampa Bay region.

Excuse me. This event will include a culinary demonstration, food focused contest, and judging by local celebrities. There is an expected attendance between 3,005 attendees. The applicant is requesting $18,000, but staff is recommending an amount not to exceed $13,000. And I have representatives from the Saucy Queen family that they would be happy to answer any questions. You're so welcome.

Hello. Thank you so much for seeing us today. First, I do want to say we are nineteen days away from Jingle Bell. I'm super excited. We have over 155 vendors now, more signing up.

We have media already set, and it's just gonna be a ho, ho, ho, ho terrific time. So thank you guys so much for your support for that event. Our we are the founders of Tasty Tampa Bay, which is a Facebook group that has about 15,000 followers, already foodies in our community. So what we want to do, we wanna bring these foodies to Clearwater. We want to also offer to the restaurants in downtown a complimentary tent booth where they could do one of two things.

They could either set up and sell food, or they could use it as a funnel to direct people to their restaurant. We'll also have swag bags that every single either store or restaurant in downtown can give me flyers or coupons that can be distributed to every attendee that comes that day. So we feel that this will make a strong impact for Clearwater Downtown as well as for the event.

Questions from the board? Vice President?

Well, kudos to you. You got rid of one of my questions. I was asking about the exploration of downtown businesses and what that So I'm very happy that you are including the brick and mortar merchants. I want to ask how are you contacting them? Have you done that yet and how many have already expressed interest to

We have not yet for Tasty Tampa Bay but we have for our other two events.

And so you just go door to door or do

you use our staff? How do you communicate

We with have gone with Vicki door to door. Excellent. And we could do that again for and with Jewel. Yes. We could do that again with Hasty Tampa Bay.

And are taking advantage of this opportunity?

Oh, absolutely. Yes. This is the third event we've brought forward. Every single one they've gone either with CRA staff or Parks and Rec staff to talk about their events, and this will be something that we do with them again.

Yes. Thank you. Perfect.

We're excited to do that. Thank you.

Other questions from the board? Now is there a motion?

Motion to approve agenda item 3.2.

Second. Closed in favor? Aye.

Opposed? Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.

That will move to item four on the on the agenda, all business items. We have none. Then item five, director's report.

As far as the director's report, I did wanna have Vicky Shire up here to help me out today, but, unfortunately, she had to go home for personal reasons. But there is a lot of exciting things that are happening to DDB boundaries as far as events that we're sponsoring. More and more people are starting to find out about these events. For instance, the South Center District, which is November 1, that had thousands of participants that attended. They enjoyed activities across the 600 block Station Square Park in the 5 100 block.

DDB's first Friday lunchtime market, November 7, we had over 300 attendees that visited the market. It was 18 vendors participating, and we continue to do those retrospectives to see how we can get better and better as far as marketing and communicating it to the community. Then the twenty twenty five Clearwater Sister Cities International Bazaar, which is November 7, we had approximately 300 attendees there that were energized, the 400, making for a joyful community building event. Then the gimmick gimmick art walk, was November 6. We had about 200 attendees that joined on the 400 Block.

Staff have encouraged applicants to explore ways to expand this event in the future. Then upcoming events, the DDB's first Friday lunchtime market is scheduled for December 5 at 10AM to 2PM, featuring Santa, a live band, and Fluff Animal Rescue on the 400 Block Of Cleveland Street. Jingle Bell family fun night, which is 12/20/2025 at 10AM to 5PM at Coachmen Park will host a festival a festival day with local vendors, food trucks, holiday characters, contests, more. Then SPC's first Friday night, which will be January, and February 2026 from six to 9PM will be located on the 400, 500 blocks of Cleveland Street featuring up to 30 local vendors, including SPC student entrepreneurs, live entertainment activities. Then as you all know, we have the world's the world's largest rubber duck, which will be January 2026.

That's a 61 foot mama duck, which will be anchored anchor a seventeen day event series at Coastman Park recently featured in the Tampa Bay Tampa Bay newspapers. And as far as the micro grant spotlights, the salsa and bachata at the district starting on January 31, this monthly series will run every Saturday from six to 9PM on the 500 Block, and attendees are encouraged to wear pirate costumes in honor of Gasparilla and enjoy the energetic night of salsa and bachata in Downtown Clearwater. That's the report. I have other stuff on the CRA report.

Questions? Vice mayor?

I just wanted to add that I know that we, council members, every time we have an opportunity, we are promoting these events, whether it's a turkey trot or the tree lighting event. So we're excited as well, and we're pitching in on promoting it.

Councilman Murnino.

Thank you, Mayor.

I don't know what the message has been, but there are so many things going on in our city and the number one thing people are talking to me right now is this darn duck. You have done something right with this. We're looking forward to the celebration, the birthday party, the run, the disco, the everything else associated with it, but a 61 foot duck at Coachmen Park seems to be hitting it out of the park, so good job.

Dittos, it's gotten crazy, crazy press coverage, the duck, so thanks to Amber Bryce for bringing that event to us. So it's interesting, at the end of the day, it's bringing a lot of good attention to Clearwater, and I think we're gonna have a big turnout, so thank you for that. Okay. Anything else for the director? If not, move to item six, board members to be heard.

Anybody want to share anything? If not, we will adjourn the 12/01/2025 meeting of the City Clearwater Downtown Development Board, and we will recess for just a few minutes before we switch out some nameplates before we convene the CRA. This time we'll call or the 12/01/2025 meeting of the City of Clearwater Community Redevelopment Agency. This time we'll move

to item 2.1, the agenda, approval of the minutes. Approve the minutes of the 11/17/2025 CRA meeting. So

moved. Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed, unanimous. This time we move to item three on the agenda. Is there are there any citizens here today who desire to be heard regarding items not on today's agenda? Hearing seeing no, we'll to item 4.1.

Approve funding in an amount not to exceed $80,000 for the Art Oasis Mural Festival in the North, bring with CRA and authorize the appropriate officials to execute safe.

Good afternoon. Ann Lopez, CRA assistant director, and I have with me Amber Bryce, arts and cultural affairs. This item that we have before you today is to approve funding in the amount not to to exceed $80,000, to bring forward our next round of the Art Oasis Festival into the North Greenwood CRA. We are here and happy to answer any questions that you may have. You.

Are there any questions for me?

No, yes. Just curiosity. You know, as an artist, unveiling is very important. So I just wanted to know, is the unveiling of each piece separately or one major event to unveil all of them together?

The idea would be one major community event. All of the artists, all the business owners and the public would be invited and we kind of do a slideshow of all the new. It's hard to do an unveiling with murals.

Perfect. Thank you.

Just for clarity for a serious funding, the community events so our funding of 80,000 would only be for the murals, so that's why we're working together on this.

So there anyone here from the public today that desires to speak to agenda item 4.1? Hearing seeing none, is there any further trustees discussion? If none, is there a motion?

I'll move to approve agenda item 4.1. Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? None. Thank you. Thank very much. Agenda item 4.2.

St. Petersburg College Management Consulting Services pilot program final presentation.

Afternoon. Jesus Nino, CRE executive director for the record. In this particular item, I'm gonna have miss Adra Aja, the city's economic development manager, come up here and present the item.

Everyone. Audra Aja, economic development manager. In July, I presented to the trustees about a partnership between the city of Clearwater and Saint Petersburg College to launch a pilot management consulting This program was created to support the growth of local businesses while allowing students the opportunity to have hands on consulting experience and connecting classroom learning with real world business challenges. This program launched in October and provided pro bono consulting services to the Clearwater Urban Leadership Coalition. Today, I am excited to, introduce doctor Andrew Rojas, and his team of consultants that worked on this project.

The team was made up of Saint Petersburg College students that were part of an eight week course that was led by doctor Rojas who is as a professor with more than twenty five years of consulting experience across a variety of industries. Today, they will be presenting the results of their business report. The work that they engaged in included research, analysis, and strategic recommendations designed to support the growth of the Clearwater Urban Leadership Coalition. And with that, I'd like to introduce doctor Roxas.

Good afternoon, major rector and trustees. My name is Doctor. Andy Rojas, Professor of Business Management at Especi College. We initiated this project to give our students a real world opportunity, an opportunity that is beyond the classroom, beyond the textbook. So for that, I'd like to thank the City of Clearwater, to thank the coalition, Jesus and ODRA for their support.

We took an approach as a third party independent consulting firm. And we used some of the best tools in the industry during the research. So I encourage the trustees and the mayor to review the full report where you will find more information. We feel confident that the findings that were revealed throughout the research and that the recommendations that we're making would help the plaza prosper. Lastly, I'd like to say thank you.

I want to express my gratitude to my team of business consultants and student consultants. They put ours, they put sweat on equity, they put their hearts into this project to help the city of Clearwater. And I want to tell you, Mayor of Erector of Trustees, you are looking at the best talent that Clearwater, St. Petersburg and Tampa Bay has to offer. That's your talent

I'd right

like to turn it over to Ryan.

Good afternoon, Mayor Rector and Board of Trustees. I'm here to talk to you about the methodology that our consulting team used to gather data. So we began by meeting with Coalition, and we learned their needs and priorities, and we collected data and gained knowledge. Based on that data, we made recommendations. And after meeting with the Urban Coalition, we learned two important things.

We learned two important things. The goal of this project is to grow the socioeconomics of North Greenwood and for this project to become a destination of Clearwater. We used five tools to evaluate risk factors and success factors. These are two IFE matrixes, which helped evaluate future tenants and operators. We used an EFE matrix, which helped analyze the broader retail plaza industry, the CPM matrix, which helped benchmark the plaza against direct competitors and the BCG matrix, which helped evaluate the optimal business mix. Thank you very much.

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Eamon Modassar. Based on our clients, the Urban Coalition's priorities, we customized this research. We did micro level as well as macro level analysis. For the micro level analysis, we met with seven current and former business owners to learn the good, the bad and the ugly of operating a container business.

For macro level analysis, we met with Strategic Property Partners, the group that is responsible for the development of Water Street in Downtown Tampa behind the Sparkman Wharf. In our research findings, we revealed two important factors, risk factors and critical success factors that I would like to share with you now. We learned from our macro level analysis research based on the two factors a lot of things that I would like to highlight a few from them. For risk factors, we learned that the crates in Westlake Sheffield initially opened with 50% of retail and 50% of restaurants. And just in three years later now, it is only left with 15% retail, while 85% of them is restaurants.

And for critical success factors, we learned from the Sparkman Wharf that from the very start, you need to have a clear vision of the plaza, the persona, and the vibe. In order to be successful in business, sometimes you have to sacrifice profits, which Sparkman did. They demolished over 100,000 square feet of retail space to create a destination, a social factor, and give families a place to socialize. I would now like to turn it over to Joseph. Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone. Along with our research, we did a micro level where we investigated and interviewed several business owners of currently operating crate businesses and plazas in the local area. Some risks we found were lack of commitment of time to newer entrepreneurs and people who are newer to the business, lack of business knowledge as well, which we provided in the larger report information and steps to help prevent that and educate newer entrepreneurs. And we've also developed a strategic dashboard for the operators and landlords of the complex of the organization and the urban coalition, something to help them keep some pillars of foundation when operating and manning this new business. Next up is John.

Good afternoon. Based on our finding, our recommendation aligned directly with our client priorities. Through our analysis, we identified two key insights: One, becoming a destination. To reach a destination status, the project must be anchored by a strong, well integrated business cluster of business. After starting compatible with Channelside and the quakes of Wesley Chapel, we strongly recommend cluster of restaurants and entertainment venues.

This approach offered the highest drawing power, repeat visitation, and long term success. Two, creating a vibrant social gathering environment. The develop the development must cultivate an inviting atmosphere that appeals to families and visitors of all ages. A vibrant social gathering environment enhanced by architectural design that celebrate African American and entertainment essential. The ins this insight leads us to recommend updating the name from the groove the grove to the groove crates of clear water.

Doing so will strengthen cultural identity, enhance uniqueness, and elevate the overall destination. To ensure success to ensure successful execution, we highly recommend developing a robust operation manual to guide the operators and the tenants with older business. Community involvement, building strategic partnership with local churches, colleges, high school, and businesses. And last but not least, applying guerrilla marketing. The duck you guys were talking about, the gorilla marketing.

Low cost, high impact marketing. That's where we go. The orange bike, this orange theory fitness, generated powerful buzz with nothing more than a bold orange bike strategically placed against a tree. But now here's what we need from you guys. This is where the city of Clearwater can provide the greatest support and help to ensure the success of your own investment.

We specifically recommend launching a guerrilla marketing technique, a great lookalike campaign on Clearwater Beach, the BayCare Sound, and other venues. A style, miniature groove crate. It's not going to be as big as that. It's going be smaller, displaying and featuring African American inspired art and jazz motif paired with a QR code that directs visitors straight to the groove of clear water groove crates of clear water. Now we're open for questions.

We'll take some questions.

Yeah. Questions from trustees. Vice Mayor?

First, I want to start with a comment. I cannot imagine a better partnership than this. A community in need, a nonprofit, city leadership, community leadership, an institution of higher learning, and bright young minds. This is a perfect, perfect partnership, and I'm very excited about it. And then out of curiosity, we saw that the fifty-fifty spread between retail and restaurants were now 18 whatever, but the spread got bigger. Is that going to be replicated in the groove or no?

Well, great question. So based on the findings, this is not only from the Wesley Chapel, the Cray, but also from Sparkman now that used to be Channelside. Our findings reveal that to create a destination, you have to have a mix of restaurants, you know, a place where families can go and gather. So in our work, we have 10 strategic recommendations. And one of them is to become a destination, is to have a cluster of restaurants.

So the retail mix is something that, you know, we're starting to find analysis doesn't work well. Right now, they have had a lot of high turnover at the crates. There's only 10% to 15% retailers left. Everybody else has left or has gone out of business.

So you're probably considering not having any retail at all?

Absolutely, yes. That's one of the recommendations that we make.

There's how many total crates, eight or 10?

10 crates.

10?

10 crates.

Yes. So it was 10 restaurants with no retail sales. Sounds realistic.

All right.

Other questions from trustees?

We hope that you're there for the grand opening. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, we appreciate your work on this. It's really enlightening. We tell you, you put a lot of time into it. So thank you for your contribution to this, but we believe it's going to be an outstanding location, and it's going to thrive, but certainly you helping and guide us on some thoughts on how to get started is going to be very important. So thank you, doctor, and thank you to all of your students for

Thank you.

Participation in Doctor. You don't mind, we'd like to get a photograph with you up here in front.

Yes, thank you. We'd

like Thank invite you for

you.

You. Good job. Well done. Thank you.

I was gonna take David's. Strange of chairs.

Marilyn, do you all want to just share a little bit just on behalf of

I want to give

you all a chance to to show share your appreciation too. Idea. Thank you.

Good evening. Always, it's a pleasure, but especially today because as I shared with the students and Doctor. Rojas, we've been working on this project for almost four years. And even though we thought we had a lot of things right, we didn't know. They came and confirmed what we knew, that the project could be successful, that it will work, and then they also were able to share with us some of the pieces that we just found out, like the retail versus the food.

But the guerrilla marketing is quite exciting. And so that was the other piece that we really didn't have a handle on that they were able to bring to the table for us. Outstanding, outstanding group of young people, Some not so young, they're John, but anyway. But a lot of experience, a lot of Doctor. Rojas' knowledge, and the passion.

When we met with them, one of the things that they said was that they could see the vision and the passion that we had, and that was matched by them. And when they gave us the full report, we spent two hours going through all of this this morning. You know, it was it was emotional. It was exciting. And, you know, Councilman Albritton, who's been here from the beginning, the the very first day when we started talking about this, We wanna thank you for believing in us, for believing that this project can be successful, but more importantly, for investing in a community that has only been disinvested up until this time.

And we look forward to next year inviting all of you to the grand opening. Yeah, Bruce, you can have the first glass of wine and wind down. But we are so excited and we do want to really, really thank the team and Doctor. Rojas at St. Pete College for all that they did in helping us to make this a success.

So let's give them another round of I'm gonna do a shameless plug for any of you who are looking for these are all graduating students looking for jobs. So if you know someone who is in need of hiring great consultants, These are the young people. As doctor Rojas said, the bar has said hi. These are the young people you wanna take a look at.

Absolutely. I wanna ditto everything miss Gloria just said. But in addition to that, I want to thank Jesus, the CRA department, Audra. Thank you Thank you all for choosing us for this. We were we were honored and privileged to for them to invest their time and their expertise in this project, and we are more than grateful. Words can't really express, but thank you. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Yes, that's it. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. You know, we are so blessed in this community to have St. Petersburg College. It's a fantastic educational institution, and to have these bright and talented students engaged in our community in this way is just one of the many ways SBC really impacts Clearwater. It has for years, sixty years, 've we had a Clearwater campus, and thank you on behalf of our citizens for helping us with this project. With that, move to item 4.3 on the agenda.

Downtown revitalization.

As usual, this is your item to discuss. Anything you might wanna talk about in the downtown?

Any discussion? Council member Merino?

I think we probably have discussed in the previous meeting some a lot about downtown. And I'm not sure if everybody knows there is a 61 foot duck coming to downtown. I don't know if we've talked about that at all, but no, thank you for the opportunity. And I know we don't take you up on this opportunity too often. I think there will be very soon in the future as ground starts breaking and projects start moving forward that this item will be vitally important. So thank you

for that opportunity. Thank you.

I've moved to item 5.1, director's report. As far

as the downtown reports for the CRA and downtown and North Greenwood updates, this is the presentation we have before you. If you can bring it up, please. So for the downtown CRA updates, you know, we continue to have these monthly meetings with the community stakeholders in the downtown. They're becoming more and more successful each time we have them. We learn from the last one to make them to communicate a little bit better with the community.

The last one we had was on November 25. It was my birthday, by the way. So the downtown we give downtown construction updates to the community in downtown, updates on any kind of special events we may be having, and updates on what the CRA and the DDV are doing, and even city updates. Our next meeting is scheduled for January 27 at 3PM here at the library. So anyone from the community is watching this, you're invited to attend and come and learn what's going on in the downtown.

Also, just to give us your feedback on any items you may wish to discuss with us. So as far as the downtown construction is about to occur, we have approached some of the property owners, some of the business owners in the downtown. This idea came about at a strategy session as far as to support some of the construction workers in the downtown and also to support the business owners as well. So we approached those business owners, so far all of in time, and the district bistro have agreed to provide discounts for lunch and meals and drinks for some of those construction workers that are gonna be here in the downtown. So we're hoping that other restaurants start to participate in this program when construction just starts to amp up more and more.

So the construction projects that we discussed, you know, there's obviously City Hall, this is for the community, you already know what's going on there, is under construction. MSP is under renovations. Osceola Street, we're still discussing that internally as far as the designs and construction schedule for that. Then the Ballard Hotel that is starting construction fairly soon. I think it's already broken ground.

So we're continuing to report these findings to the community during these monthly meetings. The new businesses, as I promised last month, moving forward, and we're going to get better and better at this, we're going to start to report more on businesses that are opening up within the downtown CRA and also North Greenwood, and we're trying to keep up with business tax receipts as well, so we can give you those more robust reports. I might not read all of those BTRs, but at least we'll have them in your reports. So the District Bistro at 410412 Cleveland Street, and a ribbon cutting was held to celebrate the opening of this new downtown restaurant. So I've seen some of the pictures with some of you in those ribbon cuttings.

Our Mirabella Salon at 1350 Cleveland Street. The salon is relocating to the Downtown CRE District, and it's working with staff on a downtown commercial grant. So once that's open, we'll be there celebrating with them. As far as Flipside Burgers and Shakes at 534 Cleveland Street, that's still coming soon. I'm not sure of the exact date, but if any of you do know the exact date, please feel free to share it.

But right now, it's coming soon. As far as North Greenwood CRA updates, I'm not gonna go into a lot of detail on the mini container on the shipping container village update only because we just had a spectacular presentation by the SPC students. But there is media coverage of the project. You know, Bay News nine highlighted the North Greenwood project. In addition, local news stations have picked up on her as well.

Then, for instance, we had a local business owner, Eddie Adams, from Loaded, the potato place. They shared plans to expand into the new village if they're accepted. Then, obviously, the Grove or the Groove is now being called. They're expected to bring in around 10 or so new businesses and open hopefully in 2026. As far as the CACs, the next CAC meeting is scheduled for this week, December 3 at 05:30PM and 06:30PM at the North Greenwood Recreation Center. So the community is watching. You're invited to attend. Topics to be discussed will be to welcome new members. We do have two new members, Hannah Menard and Jason Corbere Corbet or Corbere. I'm not sure.

But negotiations and funding recommendations for 1105 Carlton Street, they will also be presented to the CAC at that meeting. Then updates from planning and development staff on the North Greenwood Overlay District. Lauren Maskey and her team will be there to present that item. And that's the director's report for this month. Okay. Any questions for

the director? If there are none, then we will move thank you. We'll move to item six on the agenda, and that is to adjourn the December 1