Downtown developments take shape
Water’s Edge scheduled to open in July; work continues on residences
By ALEXANDRA CALDWELL
| Article published on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 |
|
![[Image]](/content_images/052808_cit-01.jpg) |
| Photo by ALEXANDRA CALDWELL |
| Construction continues on Water’s Edge condominiums. The 153-unit facility is scheduled to be ready for move-ins by July. |
|
CLEARWATER – Residential construction in downtown Clearwater is reaching the home stretch, with Water’s Edge condominiums move-ins planning to start in July.
Water’s Edge will be the largest project, with 26 floors, 153 luxury condominiums, a five-story parking garage and 10,000 square feet of retail space.
Other projects include Station Square, The Strand at Clearwater Centre, Marriott Residence Inn, and the Miles Development Project.
Officials are hopeful that all the projects will bring more people downtown, said Geri Campos Lopez, director of economic development and housing for the city of Clearwater.
“We’ve been working on all of them for a very long time,” Campos Lopez said. “One of the strategies for the revitalization of downtown is that we needed a residential component. One of the important things to attract retail is we not only need the employees working nine to five, but we need people living here in downtown.”
Station Square will be 15 stories with 126 residential condos, 10,000 square feet of ground floor retail, and it also will add more than 100 public parking spaces. This project is scheduled to wrap up this fall, Campos Lopez said.
The Strand at Clearwater Centre should be completed by the end of the year, she said, and it will include 71 condos, 17 townhouses and 20,000 square feet of retail and office space.
The Marriott Residence Inn is a seven-story, 115-room hotel, and it should be finished in October. Finally, construction should begin around January 2009 for the Miles Development Project that was recently approved, Campos Lopez said. This will be a rental apartment complex.
Water’s Edge, on the corner of Cleveland Street and Osceola Avenue, has been under construction since 2005 and will be the tallest building downtown. Situated on Clearwater Bluff, all the units have views of the Gulf of Mexico or the Intracoastal Waterway and range from the mid $300,000s to $1.7 million, said Dave Traynor, director of sales.
Buyers’ contracts have slowed, reflecting the housing slump, but they’re still coming in, said Grant Wood, real estate manager for Opus South Corp., the developing company of Water’s Edge. But with the striking views of the water and amenities such as a fitness center, billiards room, dining room and rooftop pool deck, Wood feels confident it can overcome the difficult market.
Cleveland Street used to be the main route to get to Clearwater Beach, but then the Memorial Causeway Bridge was built, Campos Lopez said. This caused many retail vacancies, she said, since most of the buildings downtown are offices, government buildings and scientology buildings. Downtown was no longer a destination. There are still some restaurants and retail facilities on the ground floor, she said, but about a third of them are vacant.
Wood expects that more retailers will move downtown once people start moving into the various condo developments.
“I think this will become more of a destination place in downtown versus people going right out to the beach,” Wood said. “I think it’s going to energize it. You have Coachman Park with all the events going on there, and now people will come down for an event, but then they’ll leave because there’s nothing to do, whereas if you have restaurants or you have entertainment, then they have something to do after the event.”
 |
Article published on Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Copyright © Tampa Bay Newspapers: All rights reserved. |
