Clearwater project still taking shape at beach

A hotel and condos are considered, but the city beach plan may put a crimp in development of the site.

By CHRISTINA HEADRICK

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 21, 2001

CLEARWATER -- A Connecticut company has shelled out $10.2-million to acquire the Yacht Basin Apartments and is considering replacing the pink complex on Clearwater Beach with upscale condos and a resort hotel.

"We have a whole bunch of things that we're potentially looking at," said Connecticut developer David Mack, who closed the deal to buy the apartments at the end of February. "We have talked about a hotel, coupled with a condominium project.

"It's the largest tract available anywhere on the beach," Mack said. "It's just an outstanding piece of property."

However, the city's recently approved Clearwater Beach plan, Beach by Design, could limit redevelopment of the 1949 apartment complex at 501 Mandalay Ave., city Planning Director Ralph Stone told commissioners this week.

The beach plan states that the Yacht Basin area should have low-rise, waterfront residential development, with heights limited to no more than four stories over parking. Residents nearby have vehemently opposed previous attempts to allow high-rises in the area.

However, Mack could build structures up to 150 feet tall -- if he buys and redevelops adjacent parcels along East Shore Drive, according to the city's beach plan. Just how much land would have to be consolidated isn't defined.

"We know there's a great deal of sensitivity to a 150-foot structure in that area," said interim City Manager Bill Horne. "The idea has always been controversial. But we don't know much about their plans yet. All we know is he purchased or closed on the property."

Mack said he doesn't have a proposed height for any project and doesn't worry about the city's beach plan limiting his proposal.

"I think that's rather gray, personally," he said.

Mack has hunted for beach investments since last year. In the fall, he proposed buying all the property along East Shore Drive north of the beach's big roundabout. He dreamed of creating $258-million worth of condos, shops, restaurants and hotels there.

But the deal was rejected by the City Commission because he wanted too much money from the city for building parking garages, and his proposed condominium towers were too tall.

"What we basically did is throw what we had away," Mack said, "and we're starting over again."

Mack and a partner financing company, Greenfield Partners of Connecticut, put together a corporation called Greenmack Clearwater LLC, which purchased the 6-acre apartment complex, according to their real estate agency, Joanne Hiller and Associates of Island Estates.

Residents of 200 units at the Yacht Basin Apartments -- most of them 55 years old and up -- can live there until at least April 1, 2002, Mack said. Previously, they had been informed they would have to move after Feb. 28, 2002.

But plans to redevelop the area have slipped behind a previous schedule, Mack said.

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