Community Development Board - Regular Meeting

THANK YOU, GUYS. AND, HEY, I APPRECIATE WHAT ALL CRA IS DOING AND THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE PART OF THE NORTH GREENWOOD DISTRICT AND REALLY THE SUPPORT AND REALLY WHAT IT MEANS TO US AS A BUSINESS TRYING TO, YOU KNOW, MAKE THIS HAPPEN IN REALLY NORTH GREENWOOD. AND ALSO, THIS WEEKEND IS FATHER'S DAY. ALL FATHERS GET TO THROW FREE, RIGHT?

Yeah, well, thank you. You've been there for a while now, so you're sustaining business. I appreciate your continued success. For those out there wondering, it's real hatchets. It's completely safe. It's very well monitored, and you do a great job. It's a lot of fun for those. I've done it myself with my son, and it's a fun activity. Congratulations, and thank you for being here.

Thank you.

That moved to item 4.2 on the agenda for the 2025 annual financial statement.

Good afternoon, Monica Mitchell, assistant finance director. This item is for the presentation of the community redevelopment agencies audit for the fiscal year ending September 30th, 2025. The CRA began issuing separately audited financial statements in fiscal year 2020. Although CRA funds have always been included in the city's audit, which will be presented later this afternoon, the transactions receive more audit attention here, and this audit also includes procedures to test for compliance with certain provisions of Chapter 163 of the Florida Statutes, commonly known as the Community Redevelopment Act. Lauren Stroop, our audit partner with Cherry Beckert, is here to do the presentation. I don't know. There it is.

Hello. Good afternoon. My name is Lauren Stroop, and I am an audit partner with Cherry Becker. I'm going to begin by telling you I promise you I'm a better auditor than a presenter. So if I start going too fast, just let me know. But I'm happy to be here with you today. This is just a brief agenda of the items that we're going to cover, but I'll just go ahead and hop into it. This was your client service team. As I mentioned, my name is Lauren Strobe. I did want to point out Brian Liffick. He does what's referred to in my industry as a cold review, meaning after me and my team complete our audit of the financial statements, he reviews everything and makes sure that our I's are dotted and our T's are crossed. All right, probably the most important slide of all, the results of the audit. So we did complete your audit, and we issued the financial statements May 8th of this year. And we actually follow a variety of different standards when we complete your audit. The first is generally accepted auditing standards, and the second is government auditing standards. We'll get into that a little bit more in the next slide. But on that first report, uh, we have issued an unmodified opinion. Sounds a little funny. It used to be called an unqualified opinion, but essentially it's a clean opinion. And it's the highest level of assurance that we can provide you as your external auditor. It's the only type of opinion that you want. We also mentioned a no comment letter under chapter 10.5 of O goals of the auditor general of the state of Florida. That's what Monica alluded to a little bit ago that has some very specific CIA compliance requirements within it. And we are pleased to report that we issued in a modified opinion there as well. And finally, we issued in a modified opinion on compliance with the investment policy here in the state of Florida. All right, I know you've all been hanging on the edge of your seats since I told you we'd go with the government auditing standards report. But what that does is really requires us to take a deep dive into the internal controls that you have here over financial reporting. And when we did that, we need to evaluate if we have any findings, whether or not they're a material weakness or a significant deficiency. A material weakness is one such that there's a deficiency or a combination thereof where there could be a material misstatement in your financial statements that is not corrected in a timely basis. A significant deficiency, while not as severe, would still warrant attention from you, those charged with governance. This year we did report one material weakness. And that had to do with an asset that had been donated to the CRA in the previous year. So it was donated in 2024, but it was not reflected in the financial statement records at that time. In order to correct this, there was a restatement of your net position of this amount. And so that was the corrected misstatement that occurred during the year. We are pleased to report that there were no uncorrected misstatements, i.e. something that was found that management did not correct. The qualitative aspects of accounting practices, management is responsible for selecting those. If you look at Note 2 to the financial statements, that will describe all of the policies that you have. You did adopt two new ones this year. That's just a byproduct of the fact that the Government Auditing Standards Board said that you had to adopt So you did, but there was no change in the way things are accounted for, simply disclosures within the financial statements themselves if you're comparing them to last year. And we did not know any inappropriate accounting policies or practices. As part of our audit, we do look at related party transactions and relationships, and there were no significant ones within the CRA's financial statements. To that end, there were also no significant or unusual transactions that occurred within the CRA this year. That's not to say that management doesn't have a lot going on, but it is to say that things were in line with normal business practice for the entity. The financial statements are not all just hard numbers. There are a significant amount of estimates that go through that. We as auditors spend a lot of time looking at those estimates and making sure they're fair in relation to the financials as a whole. If you want to read through that in all your spare time, that kind of goes over the significant ones that we found. We do believe that the financial statements disclosures are neutral, consistent, and clear for the reader. We are independent of the CRA and of the city, both in fact and in appearance, and we did not perform any non-attest or non-audit functions for the CRA in the last year. Just some other required communications. There were no difficulties or disagreements with management. I did not have to speak with folks outside of the engagement team to complete this audit. And we did receive a management representation letter that signed the same day as the report. To our knowledge, management has not consulted with others regarding accounting treatment. I have no findings or other issues that I'm required by professional standards to disclose to you today. We do not audit specifically for fraud or illegal acts, but we do work in procedures in our audit to address that risk. If we had become aware of any of those items, we would have come directly to you with that information. We are not aware of any situation where the CRA would not be a going concern entity. Finally, I'm always talking about the past. Upcoming, there are two new standards that we're going to work with management to make sure that the CRA is ready to hit the ground running next year when we complete our audit. And with that, I will be quiet and answer any questions that you might have.

Okay. Any questions? Is there anyone here from the public today that desires to speak to this agenda? I'm seeing none. Is there a motion?

Move to approve agenda item 4.2. Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Unanimous. Thank you. Move to agenda item 4.3.

Review Evaluation Committee Results of the Redevelopment Proposals for Seven Community Redevelopment Agency-Owned Parcels Located Between South Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and South Washington Avenue North of Gould Street and if deemed appropriate by the Community Redevelopment Agency Board of Trustees Authorized to Have to Negotiate Development, Purchase, and Sale Agreement.

Good afternoon. Jesus Nino, CRA Executive Director for the record. Today I'm here to provide you with an overview of the evaluation results of the redevelopment proposals submitted in response to request for development proposals number 15-26. This is for seven community redevelopment agency-owned properties that are generally located, and for the public here, I put the map up. These are generally located between South Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and South Washington Avenue just north of Gold Street within the Downtown Community Redevelopment Area. These properties are also located within the Prospect District. Again, this is for the public watching. These are also located within the Prospect District as identified in the Downtown Community Redevelopment Area Plan. Collectively, these parcels total approximately 3.13 acres, and they were marketed as a unified redevelopment opportunity intended to support redevelopment objectives of the downtown. This is history, more for the public and individuals up here. On January 14th, 2026, CRA did issue a request for development proposal seeking projects that were consistent with the downtown community development area plan and objectives. So solicitation was advertised for 30 days in the Tampa Bay times and the city's website. So the preference criteria identified and the request for development proposals included one providing optimal community and economic benefit, uh, to the immediate area and the city of Clearwater to providing a competitive purchase offer above their appraised value of $2.5, $2 million and three proposing a project. that included commercial uses such as retail, office, hospitality, and other complementary uses. The solicitation also stated that proposals consisting of 100% workforce or affordable housing could be considered even if all the preference criteria was not fully met. So in response to the solicitation, the CRA did receive five credible proposals. These were from five qualified development entities. So on January 21st, 2026, a multi-departmental evaluation committee convened. This was in a publicly advertised meeting with minutes taken of the meeting. They were charged to evaluate the submitted proposals based on that criteria of the evaluation criteria including, again, community and economic benefit, purchase price, project diversity, regulatory compliance, their financial completeness, feasibility as a developer experience, and capacity. And just by reviewing all the proposals, all the developers do have capacity to pull off development projects all over the state of Florida. So again, the CRA did receive five proposals in response to the solicitation. And based on the scores assigned by the evaluation committee, the proposals were ranked from the highest to lowest as follows. First was Archway Partners LLC. Second was New Star Development, LLC. Three was Clearwater MLK Civic District Holdings, LLC. Fourth was Velar Development Company. Then number five was DW Development Group. Some of these developers are here today if you have any questions of them. So I'm mostly going to highlight the features of the highest ranked proposal. So the following is overview of the top ranked proposal submitted by Archway Gardens, LLC. They're also in partnership with the Clearwater Housing Authority. So the Housing Authority will participate as a co-developer and ownership partner. So that proposal was titled as Washington Commons. It consists of mixed use, mixed income residential developments containing approximately 178 residential units. This is within a five-story development proposed to be constructed in two phases. So the proposal also includes approximately 3,000 square feet of neighborhood serving commercial space, which is intended to activate the streetscape and support the surrounding area. So that development composes of a mix of one and two bedrooms units serving households below 80% area median income, or AMI, and includes amenities such as a fitness center, community and multi-purpose room, rooftop solar infrastructure, electric vehicle charging stations, and other sustainability features. So that proposal also incorporates pedestrian-oriented urban infield design principles that are intended to support compatibility within the surrounding area. So as far as the financing of the capital stack for that particular project, this is a combination of public and private funding sources, including low-income housing tax credits and other state and local funding programs. So Archway, they intend to pursue both the 9% and the 4% credit financing programs administered through the Florida Housing Finance Corporation and the Pinellas County Housing Authority. So the proposals also include a request for approximately, this is for you, to consider approximately $1.22 million from the city's housing funds, and I'm sure they'll be coming to the CRA as well. But they also offer the full praise value of $2.52 million for the acquisition of the seven parcels. I also want to state for the record here is that Archway intends, because this is going to be their number one priority project in the area to submit for the 9% low-income housing tax credits, their project basically has to be permit ready. And because of that, and because of what they're going to be spending for engineering and architecture consultants, they are requesting to basically have this for a, to hold it for five cycles, because it's not easy to get to 9%. So they're requesting for five cycle funding cycles that can be easily five years and due to the affordable workforce housing components can contend contained within that proposal the item was also forwarded to the city's neighborhood and affordable housing advisory board for review on may the 12th 2026 that board had no objections to the request So that proposal is generally in alignment with the city's community redevelopment area plan, goals and objectives, and also with the city's strategic plan, which is shown there on your memos. So at this time, staff is requesting the CRA board and trustees, your reviews and evaluation committees, results, and if deemed appropriate, authorize staff to either move forward with whatever proposal you deem appropriate. In addition, again, the developers are here to answer any questions. I'm happy to answer any questions and I can even go over the other proposals if you wish.

Are there any questions?

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Jesus. Quick question. I know that 9% tax credit is extremely competitive. Is this project contingent on that 9% award and will it go away if it's not successful?

If that's all they're pursuing, eventually, if they're not successful, they may choose to pivot and go somewhere else. But they're also proposing to go out to the 4% low-income housing tax credits in addition to the tax-exempt bonds that are associated with that. So that is easier to obtain, but it's also difficult because of the bonds. But I also have the developer here to answer any questions that I may not be able to answer.

Thank you. 178 mixed affordable houses in our community down there would be a big help. I did see that the second pick you had was only 64. That's a pretty vast difference, but I think both have identified they were going to go for that competitive 9%. I was just wondering if either one were committed, whether they got it or not. Thank you.

Thank you. we're giving direction here but it's good to give opportunity for the public to comment on this one we're not approving anything but

Public comments? Unless there's a motion.

We're simply giving direction.

So they would have to provide direction if they want to make a selection. If there's a motion, then public comment?

Yes. We are requesting a direction to move forward on.

So you need a motion.

Yes.

Okay. Does anyone here today from the public have a desire to speak to this agenda item? Hearing none, I would like to say that Archway did do the Clearwater Gardens project, and it came out very, very nice. As far as I know, it's been very successful. So that's a significance to me. So with that, is there a motion?

Motion to approve agenda item 4.2.

So what is the clarification on the motion? Are you directing staff to negotiate with a specific individual? And if so, name the individual.

So I guess it's motion to not motion or direction? Just direction?

You can move to authorize staff to begin negotiations with Archway. So said. Second.

Okay, so the motion is giving correction to staff to negotiate with Archway Partners a development purchase and sale agreement.

Yes, and we'll bring that back to you at a later date.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Unanimous. Thank you. Gen item 4.4.

Downtown revitalization.

This is your item to discuss anything you may want to discuss as far as the downtown.

Okay. Any discussion? Okay. If not, then we'll move to 5.1, directors.

Okay.

Thank you. Thank you again. Jesus Nino CR executive director for the record. This is the June 2026 report for the downtown and the North Greenwood areas. Just to start with a little bit of updates for the downtown, since we do have the public here, I did want to note that on June 30th from 3 to 4 p.m. here at the library, we're going to have our guest speakers for the topic of the BayCare Sound anniversary. So the guest speakers will be Bobby Rossi and Sharon Reed-Kane with Ruth Eckert Hall. So it's exciting if you want to come and listen to the wonderful items that they do for the city of Clearwater downtown. So as far as the library, so this round, as far as what we're doing is becoming very, very interesting. just because the first go around, there wasn't really any construction in the downtown and a lot of the individuals that indicated they would potentially submit the first round didn't. And mostly it was because we kind of had a dream that there was going to be all this construction, but now that has been realized and you see, uh, tractors and you see shovels in the ground. So hopefully this go around, we have more interest. In addition, we have intensified our efforts to communicate what we're looking for, for downtown Clearwater. We've even sent some staff members up to, uh, conferences and other States just to potentially see if we can get more interested individuals to submit. So the numbers up here so far, we've contacted 495 organizations. We've had 84 plus engagements. We've had 11 plus in-person meetings, and it's actually four or five times more than that. If you just count individuals that we've been meeting with, we provided approximately six or seven tours. So I did want to highlight that we did send two staff members to the 2026 American Alliance Museum's annual meeting and museum expo. And I think the staff came back with a lot of hopefully interested individuals in Clearwater in general, not just the library. So we're having that staff put together internal meetings to discuss some of those ideas for the rest of Clearwater. But hopefully it did attract individuals that may go ahead and apply for the library. Not sure if Mr. Battle would like to add anything from that. So this one is also interesting because this was a partnership between the city, the CRA, Pinellas County, and a private developer for the Indigo Apartments. As you're all aware, that particular property, the land went into the Pinellas County Land Trust, the CRA, contributed, invested $2 million, and the city invested another million dollars. And we were just right there in the mix with them, especially the housing division and the CRA division, obviously. But as you see the numbers here, they have their big banner up on the side of the building that they're now leasing. So we're hoping that once they are completely done with this project that we all celebrate together. With Osceola Parking Garage, this is another partnership between the CRA, the city, and hopefully private entities, the tenants that we eventually get into the garage. This is CRA land, but it is a city asset. So as far as economic development staff, I'm very proud to say that they're deeply into interviewing potential prospects, and hopefully in the future they issue out an advertisement to attract tenants. and I may have them come up here and present their findings. This is EVO. You hear a lot of this on the news. You've had presentations, so I'm not gonna go too much into it, but they continue to put out their social medias and they continue to work with the city's planning and development department and also the city administration. And if you're interested in information from the public, it is the clevelandstreetalliance.com website. This one I kind of already discussed at the last meeting because it was fairly brand new. But again, for those here in the public, Nourish & Nosh is open on 601 Cleveland Street, Suite 140. So if you haven't stopped by, please do so. Very good food, by the way. So Glazed Donuts, this was the old Subway restaurant here in the downtown at 411 South Myrtle Avenue. They're now open for business. We're hoping to get some donuts for our department. But it is exciting that they're open. I know they had a few struggles, but we're trying to provide them the best customer service possible. All the divisions that are involved with them. For North Greenwood, we do have a North Greenwood North Ward Elementary School. So this is one that's a partnership between multiple departments. Also with Mr. Battle involved in the thick of it. So we're continuing to move forward with pre-marketing to act, you know, meeting with the community, meeting with individuals that are interested. Economic Development, Ms. Adraha and Mr. Christopher Edwards, they're right there providing tours at any opportunity. And we are planning a night at North Ward. This is a open house to engage residents and stakeholders and interested developers. In addition, we're interviewing developers right now and other individuals that are into the historic architectural field just to kind of have them almost be like consultants to give us ideas on how to better activate that space when the time comes and to put out a better advertisement or notice for the development community. Did you want to say anything about the night at North Fork? Because it's pretty exciting. So the North Forge CRA is a community advisory committee. Like I said last time, they have their sea legs now. So now they're, instead of trying to learn procedures on Robert's Rule of Order and different policies, now they're really getting deep into projects that are happening in North Greenwood, which is a wonderful thing. In addition, it's causing other members of the community to come forward to participate in those neighborhoods. It's not easy all the time, but it is, it is bears a lot of fruit for the entire city. Their next meeting is scheduled for July the 7th, 5 30 to 6 30 PM at the North Greenwood recreation center. I did want to highlight a bit of the wonderful items that are happening in North Greenwood. And Ms. Amber Bryce, she's been instrumental in bringing a lot of public art, a lot of public murals into the North Greenwood area. For instance, we have the Safe House of North Greenwood. This is located at 1201 North Bedding Lane. It's a beautiful mural there. So if you haven't gone and seen it in person, it looks a lot better when you're in front of it. It's just almost like a movie theater when you go inside. Same thing at Cherry Harris Park. which is 1141 Beckett Street. We have the Play, Learn, Grow new mural there. Then the North Greenwood Library, 905 North Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. That's a beautiful mural there as well. Then the 1045 North Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. That's the Isaiah M. Gulley Head Start Center. Beautiful art. Then we do have the North Greenwood Recreation Center Storage Building. This is going to be a new piece of art that's coming there soon, as you see there on the screen. We showed it off the last CAC meeting as well. And we're wrapping up our grant communications and marketing to the North Greenwood, so To celebrate some of our wins out there, whenever we do rehab a home or a commercial business, we're going to try to have signs in front of the buildings, obviously in compliance with the city's sign policies or any other rules the city has in place. But this is just a sample of some of the signs we'll put in individuals' yards whenever we do improvements to properties. This event is taking place today. So this is put together by the Clearwater Urban Leadership Coalition. Of course, the CRA did provide grant funding for the shipping container project in addition to the city and the CRA providing land for the project. So tonight they're actually going to have a taste of the village at the recreation center where they're going to showcase some of those individuals that are potentially going to go into the container village. So anyone in the audience, you're invited to attend today. It's open 7 PM, 9 PM. Again, North Greenwood Recreation Center. So property disposition, we're continuing to move forward. Obviously, you heard the presentation today for these particular properties here in front of you. These are the Washington Avenue MLK site, so I'm not going to go into that. Then this one is 103 Northeast Avenue. So this particular property is right now being advertised for disposition. And once that window closes, then we'll have a team, basically city administration, others take necessary next steps to dispose of that property over to the CRA. And today you also have a trunch of properties that are going to city council being transferred from city to CRA, so I'm not going to get into too much detail on that either. But we're continuing to dispose our properties as much as possible. Obviously there is a capacity issue with our legal department, but they're superstars and they get things moving fairly quickly at the moment. Hopefully not forever. They're superstars in my book. I saw the face. We're moving properties as fast as possible so we can get it out to the market and we get individuals to come and develop them and get them back on the tax rolls and also just provide impactful projects for the community. And that concludes my presentation.

Any questions for the director?

Not a question, but a comment. I know that we've been working closely regarding that library, and I'm so excited, and I'm very thankful for the robust efforts, the increased engagement, and thinking outside the box, even going to that conference. So I really appreciate it, and it shows because of all the interest that's going out there. So thank you so much. I'm also looking forward to the event tonight, so I guess I'll see you guys there. And I think the last thing was, I guess that's it. So thank you for everything that you've been doing. Oh, the properties, yes. I'm really appreciative that it has become a priority to take care of our properties and take advantage of them and deal with them and process them. So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mary. Thank you, Jesus. But a what a well balanced report you just gave some very important ingredients to having a successful downtown and CRA when you look at some of the exciting things on residential buildings, not just the bluffs, but 17 story 208 units at the Indigo. That's exciting. New business expansions and ribbon cuttings. Obviously exciting. Artscapes being put all over downtown and murals adding to that. to that vibe into the excitement into the energy redevelopment all over the place as you mentioned in different community engagement opportunities for our community that's um that's awesome i i hope we truly continue to move forward with the the direction of balance and really focusing on continuing to expand that residential component you know we've known for years that the sound was going to be amazing, but it was never going to be the silver bullet to success. We had to continue to find ways to put feet in our streets, and you do that on that residential piece. So with all these exciting businesses and redevelopment and art and everything, very exciting to hear those residential pieces moving forward, but thank you for that report.

Okay, anyone else? Just to echo what Council Member Toomey Manino just said, just so many great things happening in the CRA, plus momentum and all kinds of different things. Certainly for North Greenwood, they continue to this container village, continue to make steps, and that's very exciting. Housing, getting people to live in these areas, more people live, work and play is important, so good report. Okay, with that, we will... Is there nothing else for the director? We moved item six on the agenda, and that's board members to be heard.

Can I just say one thing? I'm sorry. Jesus didn't say it, but I did want to leave out this opportunity. June the 30th, land use and zoning for North Greenwood, we will be having a public meeting, and you will receive from the manager's office a little bit later today a more detailed overview of that process as it moves forward. But I just wanted to put that on the record as well. Thank you.

We're going to be hitting the street on that one to get as many people as possible from the neighborhoods into that meeting.

Thank you. Okay. Item 6, any board members to be heard? If not, we will adjourn the City of Clearwater Community Redevelopment Agency meeting for June 15, 2026. Do we need a recess now or before the work session? Okay.