The long-awaited result of Clearwater's efforts to pump up redevelopment of Clearwater Beach's tourist district appears to have arrived.
The terrorist attacks, war, a troubled national economy and lawsuits contributed to such a long delay that city officials had wondered whether anything on their wish list ever would happen. But now there are three development groups ready and willing to build high-end resort hotels on the island.
Last week Tampa developer Brian Taub announced that he is buying a parcel on S Gulfview Boulevard overlooking the main section of Clearwater Beach and plans to build a resort hotel that will be operated by Hyatt.
St. Petersburg developer Mike Cheezem announced in April that he plans to build a hotel and condominium project on 700 feet of beachfront property on Mandalay Avenue. The four-diamond hotel, condominium tower, spa, shops and restaurants would occupy a 5.5-acre property that includes the Clearwater Beach Hotel, which would be torn down.
Both projects still require a round of city approvals, but city officials generally have expressed support and few concerns.
Not so for the third project. Tony Markopoulos, who owns and operates the Days Inn at S Gulfview and Coronado Drive across the street from the beach, will go before the Clearwater Community Development Board today to seek approval for his latest resort/condominium proposal.
Markopoulos said he wants to tear down his Days Inn and the old motels on several adjacent properties he has purchased and build a $100-million, three-star hotel and condominium project with 350 hotel rooms, 75 condominiums, meeting facilities, an interior parking garage with car elevators, restaurants and retail shops.
For at least four years, Markopoulos has been trying to get the city to go along with his plans to build a new hotel on his property. Each time there has been some significant component of the plan that turned off city officials or the public. For example, Markopoulos previously wanted the city to reroute Gulfview Boulevard, change it to a one-way street or even close it to traffic at night to accommodate his guests' need for quiet. The city refused.
This time, the result is about the same. Markopoulos has a new plan on the table; the city staff doesn't believe it should be approved as designed. His request to the Community Development Board today includes a variety of concessions that would allow him to build the hotel. Markopoulos also would need a development agreement approved by the City Council before he could proceed.
Before going to the Community Development Board, Markopoulos had to present his project to a city staff committee called the Development Review Committee. That group of planners and other city professionals didn't support the project and has recommended that the Community Development Board, which makes the final decision, turn it down. Markopoulos believes he is being mistreated.
The disagreement centers on whether the mass of Markopoulos' building is too great and violates the standards of Beach By Design, a city-approved guide to the redevelopment of Clearwater Beach's tourist areas. While Beach By Design included a variety of "gifts," such as extra density to encourage developers to take an interest in building on Clearwater Beach, it also included a number of hoops developers must jump through to insure that new construction is well-designed. One of the requirements is that the mass of new buildings cannot be so great that it occupies too much of the vertical space of a property. The provision is intended to preserve a view of the sky between buildings and to avoid an unrelenting canyon effect along beach streets.
One glance at an artist's rendering of the project Markopoulos has in mind makes it clear that the building as designed is massive, occupying virtually the whole length of his 21/2 acres. While the west side of the 492-foot-long building has architectural components that make it seem less imposing - a pool deck on the fifth level, storefrontlike architecture at street level and a variety of towers and roof lines - the east side of the building does not have as many. It is easy to imagine the huge chunk of vertical space the building would occupy when viewed from Coronado.
Markopoulos argues that his project follows the mass guidelines in Beach by Design; the city staff says it doesn't. The staff also has valid concerns about whether patrons of the new hotel, arriving at about the same time for a big wedding or conference, would clog beach streets while waiting for valets to park their cars in the garage via the car elevators.
Markopoulos is frustrated and argues that the city is being tougher on him than on other developers. However, Markopoulos' project is unlike the other two proposed projects in its length and mass.
Beach By Design was written to encourage redevelopment, but also to guard against building projects that are offensive to the public in their impact and that wall off the view of sky and water so precious on Clearwater Beach. The city staff is trying to be sensitive to those issues. Members of the Community Development Board hopefully will approach Markopoulos' project with the same sort of sensitivity.
