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The newly renovated Clearwater Mall might not have public bus service due to a disagreement between the local transit authority and the mall's developer, the Sembler Co.
The Sembler Co.'s bus stop rules are too stringent, said Roger Sweeney, the executive director for the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority.
"We've been trying for a good, long time to work with the developer," Sweeney said. "We've run into nothing but roadblocks to the point where it is not going to be worth our while to do it."
The Sembler Co. says it wants buses to pull through the mall but doesn't want their new mall to become a bus hub or to provide services - such as bathrooms - that PSTA should be providing for its drivers.
"If there's an eastbound and a westbound bus, that's fine," said Steve Althoff, vice president of operations for the Sembler Co. "We're not interested in having it become a big bus station. We told them from the first day that we were not in the position of being able to do that. It is a bus stop."
The proposed, and unsigned, contract between the two entities states that only one bus can be at the bus stop at one time and that on-duty drivers cannot use any part of the open-air mall besides the bus stop.
Althoff said that before Sembler took over the property for redevelopment, buses used the mall extensively. Sembler doesn't want "20 or 30 buses" lining up, Althoff said.
The newly renovated, $100-million Clearwater Mall will reopen in October. Buildings for Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse and Costco Wholesale Membership Warehouse are taking shape. Developers designed a bus stop near Borders Books and Pier 1 Imports, Althoff said.
Three bus routes had stopped at the former Clearwater Mall. They now stop on nearby Hampton Road, next to Hooters at 2800 Gulf-to-Bay Blvd.
PSTA says a top concern is the no "transfer hub" language written into the contract by the developers.
"There's a certain amount of transferring that happens at a bus stop," PSTA planning director Michael Siebel said. "The opportunity is there and we can't tell people that they can't transfer, that only the people going to the mall can go inside (the mall)."
Tampa's International Plaza got into a tiff with the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HARTline) over a similar issue. The mall didn't want a bus stop at all and the public criticized International Plaza - which has stores such as Nordstrom and Coach - for being elitist. After several months of negotiations, a bus stop was created.
"Employees were the ones who were complaining," said Ed Crawford, spokesman for HARTline. "A lot of them use the bus. It's just a fact, particularly if they have food courts.... It took a few months, but they finally said, okay, let's make this work."
Althoff said the new Clearwater Mall was designed with bus riders in mind.
"We really anticipate a lot of customers and a lot of employees that will be using the buses," Althoff said. "I guess PSTA would drop them off on highway 19 or route 60 and they would walk into the property. That would be PSTA's choice."
- Adrienne P. Samuels can be reached at 445-4157 or samuels@sptimes.com