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Letter to the editor

This time, Clearwater may get what it needs

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published October 2, 2007

Finally, a developer with more experience and stronger financial chops is interested in tackling development of housing around Clearwater's downtown water feature, Prospect Lake.

Miles Development Partners of Atlanta, a property management and development company that has built projects in St. Petersburg and throughout the country, wants to take over where Sarasota resident Bruce Balk stopped after building only 15 of about 100 planned condominiums.

By early this year, city officials were not sorry when Balk withdrew after completing only his first phase. They were unhappy about the appearance of Balk's 15 units, jammed behind a concrete wall fronting on Cleveland Street just east of Myrtle Avenue. And they were frustrated that more than seven years after the city first envisioned a new lake surrounded by residences to boost the downtown, they still had only 15 units to show for it.

However, there have been two benefits to those problems and delays: City officials realized where they made their mistakes with Balk, and they decided they wanted a different kind of project for that site.

This time, the city has done its due diligence in seeking out a developer with a long track record and the ability to come up with funding. The city put out a national request for proposals, reviewed the backgrounds of the companies that responded and found Miles Development to be the strongest competitor for the job. The city also learned from its experience with Balk that whoever builds the Prospect Lake project needs to be able to deliver good architectural design.

In addition, while the Balk project was intended as just a residential community, Miles Development will be expected to create retail storefronts along Cleveland Street to help extend the downtown retail core eastward. Miles' preliminary proposal includes 16,000 square feet of retail space on Cleveland. An artist's drawing shows storefronts that have unique designs and three floors of apartments above the shops. Behind the retail frontage would be a parking garage wrapped completely by more residential units.

Another major change to the project is that it is no longer a condominium development, but a rental apartment project. With the local condo market saturated, and substantial need for apartments for those who cannot afford home ownership, the change to apartments is a positive one. Even better, up to 30 percent of the units would be classified as workforce housing for those meeting certain income restrictions. There is a desperate need in Pinellas County for affordable housing, and with mostly high-end condominiums being built downtown, the Prospect Lake project could provide balance.

At a recent meeting, the Clearwater City Council, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency, approved opening a 90-day negotiation period with Miles Development. A price for the city-owned land will need to be negotiated and details of a development agreement ironed out before any deal is inked by the city.

Miles Development has done this plenty of times in the past. And the city has learned good lessons from its bad experience. An attractive, market-driven project that improves a rather dreary section of Cleveland Street could very well be the result.

[Last modified October 1, 2007, 21:06:22]