Several business owners say lack of parking, pedestrian traffic, and city support leave them no choice but to close their doors or move.
By LORRI HELFAND
Published December 30, 2004
CLEARWATER - If you peer in the window of Brown's Coins, you'll see a table overflowing with Clearwater downtown redevelopment plans from the past 40 years.
The plans represent four decades of unfulfilled city promises for owner Sarah Brown Caudell and several of her fellow merchants who have decided to leave downtown.
Most cite limited parking, lack of promotion and an increased homeless population for the deterioration of their livelihood.
"It's too hard to have a business in downtown Clearwater," said Caudell, 59, owner of Brown's Coin's, housed in a building owned by her family almost 70 years.
The sign on her window sums up her frustration:
After 59 years on this property (28 of them in business.) I have seen "catalysts," "redevelopment," "revitalize," "jump-starts," pie in the sky tomorrows, plans and ideas for downtown. I can no longer wait for them to arrive. A big thank you to my loyal customers.
Brown's Coins is one of at least four small businesses that have recently left the 600 block of Cleveland Street downtown, or plan to. And that block is only part of what has become an exodus of retailers from the downtown area.
Caudell and fellow merchants said parking lots have been gobbled up by development over the years and one-hour parking is too restrictive.
Plus, they say, the city is handing out too many parking tickets after beefing up enforcement several months ago.
City officials said they can't speak for the past, but they believe the future will be different, if merchants can be patient for a little while longer.
A few months after the new Memorial Causeway bridge is completed, the city intends to start on landscaping and street improvements on Cleveland Street. But those may not begin until at least December 2005 or January 2006, according to Economic Development and Housing Department Director Geri Campos.
And the streetscaping may take from one year to 18 months, depending on whether half of the the street or both sides are closed to make the improvements.
"I understand their worry and their fear and their frustration. For things to get better, they kind of have to get worse with that initial construction process," Campos said.
But none of that has convinced Al Bitman of Park Jewelers to stay.
"I'm tired of waiting for tomorrow," said Bitman, who purchased the family business on Cleveland in 1978.
Florescent signs announcing a storewide closing sale cover the windows and hang from the ceiling and display cases.
He planned to have a holiday sale, but decided to change it to a closing sale, when he heard the street would be torn up for a streetscaping project, he said.
"They're not promoting business," Bitman said. "They're chasing it away."
Campos said there have been numerous efforts to market the area, including publishing a downtown shopping and dining guide, spotlighting businesses on the city's cable television channel and preparing a development opportunities brochure. But she said future serious marketing efforts need to wait until downtown improvements near completion.
A city design committee is exploring ways to direct pedestrian traffic to back entrances during streetscape construction. But Bitman and other merchants said entering their stores from the back would be impractical.
Bitman said he was all for increased parking enforcement in the district at first. But the one-hour parking in front of his store should be two hours, and there should be more surface lots, he said.
Most of the merchants said parking is an issue. City officials, on the other hand, say the problem hasn't been a lack of parking, but rather a lack of signage.
"There is enough parking downtown, and there are plenty of studies showing there is more than enough parking for what's downtown now, but people weren't sure where they are located," Campos said.
Campos said quicker turnover of parking spaces benefits customers and retailers.
Debbie Tanner, who moved her Beautiful Baskets store from the 600 block of Cleveland Street to the corner of Nursery of Belcher roads in November, also said her business was hurt by lack of parking and limited retailers in the area.
"In the three years I had been there, the walk-in visitors dwindled and dwindled and dwindled to where I was lucky to have one person," Tanner said.
Her business improved with the move, with sales 25 percent higher than the same time last year, she said.
Merchants also said a growing homeless population had deterred customers.
Al Edelstein, who runs Scruples Unlimited, a memorabilia and collectibles store, said he may likely join his neighbors in the exodus.
"We're next probably. There's nothing doing here. There's no walk-through travel," Edelstein said.
But officials said that will change with the completion of the new bridge. It will route vehicles into the Court/Chestnut Street corridor and reignite Cleveland as a pedestrian corridor, according to Assistant City Manager Garry Brumback.
Plus, Campos said a few upcoming projects will help revitalize downtown.
Station Square Condominiums, a mixed-use project, is slated to break ground in February or March. The project will have 15-stories, 126 condominiums and 10,000 square feet of retail space.
Elias Jafif of Mexico heads a group of Scientologists who purchased the AmSouth building and three surrounding acres in downtown and has discussed a plan for a movie theater and hundreds of condominiums over retail.
Opus South has a contract to buy Calvary Baptist Church for $15-million and is considering a mixed-use development there as well.
While some merchants said Scientology's presence has affected downtown's image, few said it was a key cause of their misfortune.
In the four blocks of Cleveland Street, between Osceola and Myrtle avenues, about 25 percent of the 106 licensed businesses are owned by Scientologists, according to a Scientology business group.
Most of the merchants who are closing their storefronts said they aren't getting out of business for good.
Bitman plans to continue his business as Park Jewelers at Westchase in Tampa, and Caudell plans to explore other options.
"I'm going to buy estates and collections and do the Internet and if that doesn't work out, I'm going to get a job."
