This time we'll call for order the November seventeenth twenty twenty-five meeting of the City of Clearwater Committee Redevelopment Agency.

This time we'll move to item two point one on the agenda.

Approval of the minutes.

Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the September 15th, twenty twenty-five meeting?

So moved.

Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed, unanimous.

Is Tom moved item three on the agenda citizens to be heard regarding items not on today's CRA agenda?

I'm Kelly Meyer, resident of Clearwater.

And I thank you for the opportunity to speak.

And I understand this is a CRA meeting, but my comments may actually pertain to the redevelopment area here in downtown, and just wanted to bring up a few questions on behalf of thousands of citizens here in Clearwater.

One, something to consider, please, as you go about your discussion today during the work session.

Also, I know there's a proposed schedule for council meetings coming up for twenty twenty-six, and I did not see any town hall dates on there.

Anyone else to be heard on an item that's not on today's community redevelopment agency agenda.

There's you only get one.

Are you speaking on behalf of someone else?

Like my minutes and somebody else's minutes.

No, um that does that rule doesn't apply with the how many minutes do I have?

Three minutes.

Three minutes.

Okay.

And again, it's this is about the CRA, so downtown Clearwater, whatever you want to talk about within the CRA, but today's come that this section is for issues not on the agenda that but pertain to the CRA.

Yes, I am aware of that.

Hi everybody, I'm Erica Escamilla, and I'm with uh Unimex and Lulac, and uh recently the market that I started up in El Mercado, and if I'm not mistaken, El Mercado is part of the CRA, correct?

So I'm here for three main reasons.

Um the first one really quick is I've made a request to have tables and chairs uh provided uh by the CRA that could be branded with the CRA logo or the city logo just so that it can take off a little bit of the burden and cost of having a market there every month and hauling in tables and chairs.

Um, so that's the proposal I made.

I believe they're waiting on parks and recs for that.

Um, but that's one thing I want to address.

The second thing is if since the CR or Mercado is within the CRA, I would like it to be considered to have a micro grant for activities in the Mercado.

Um it's it's a little it's been a little bit of expensive of a to have a market there with all the expenses associated with having a market, the park rental fee, the application fee, and the advertisement.

So if and I'm not asking for a huge amount, you know, it could be anywhere around a thousand dollars, maybe or even five hundred dollars, but a thousand dollars at least would really help help the vendors try to help them, you know, with their signage and everything because a lot of them are really lower income families that are struggling that are trying that are they selling at the market day for necessity, out of necessity, not out of you know anything else.

And I'm not asking for a large amount, but just an amount that can help each vendor, you know, give them tools to succeed as a vendor at our market.

Um, and then the third part is I'm seeing like there's a lot of you know uh resources available to businesses that are not getting to the businesses that are um Hispanic.

So I would like to request to be considered that there be a grant for organizations like UNIMEX that could help people that um business owners that don't speak English that you know are struggling in that you know area um to be able to help them apply for these types of grants um that are out there for businesses.

So that's why I'm here for any questions for me.

That's this is your opportunity to give a presentation, so I just want to thank you for sharing those ideas, and hopefully you've spoken with the staff about those two, and that they can help us understand what might be possible.

Yes, and I just want to share that our market.

Um we had one yet yes on Saturday, and um it's made up of you know a couple of vendors that, for example, one is a mother, a single mother, you know, with little little ones, you know, there out of necessity.

Another uh woman is there uh that lost her job, another one lost her husband months ago to cancer, another one is one that has a restaurant right there above the Mercado space that is struggling to keep it open.

So um, these are the stories that you know whatever funding we're able to get would you know they benefit from.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else to be heard today on a uh item that's not on today's CRA agenda?

Okay, that will move to item 4.1 approved in an amount not to exceed 122,438 dollars and 25 cents for the downtown commercial grant to 45 sports art and lounge LLC located at 1409 Cleveland Street, Clearwater, Florida, 33756, and authorized your perpetual officials sex QC.

Uh good afternoon, Vicky Shire, CR Division Manager.

The item before you is request for approval of a downtown commercial grant for 45 Sports Barn Lounge LLC, located at 1409 Cleveland Street.

The business has been operating since 2023 and is seeking funding to expand and enhance its existing area.

The total project cost is 222,615 dollars, and the applicant is requesting 122,438 and 25 cents in grant funding.

The applicant is providing its 45% match of 100,176 and 75 cents as staff has verified.

The proposed improvements include extending the bar area, repairing floors, completing kitchen renovations, upgrading light and ductwork, interior painting, replacing storefront glass windows, and renovating the restrooms.

These improvements will increase functionality, add capacity, enhance the overall appearance of the business along Cleveland Street.

This project aligns with the goals of the downtown commercial grant program and supports the city strategic plan.

The applicant received a renovation grant in 2023 and the amount of $19,450.

All their approvements will be maintained for a minimum of three years, and the applicant must obtain a certificate of occupancy for completion within 365 days from the executive grant agreement.

Staff recommends approval the downtown commercial grant and amount not to exceed 122,438 and 25 cents for the sports bar and lounge LLC.

I have the owner from 45 Sports Bar here today, Roberta Anglada and his son Angel to ask any questions.

Council Member Albright.

Yes, is this a reimbursement grant?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

All right, so we know that all the things that you just listed will get done, and uh they apply for it after it's completed.

Yes, so they have to provide proof of payment and invoices, and we have anything that's permitted has to have a permit and uh pass inspection approval too.

Perfect.

Thank you.

That's more menino.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, thank you for being here today.

A couple questions maybe for staff and then as well as you.

I I didn't see um the sign being updated out front.

I think you have a banner there right now.

If I'm not correct, is are we putting a sign out there as part of this upgrade?

Don't turn his mic up.

Oh, turn your microphone on.

I'm sorry, I'm just translating.

That's the right one.

Yeah, no, no, you're okay.

My microphone was off as well.

Okay, hey Susanino, executive director, as far as the side is in the exterior of the building, that's part of the property owner.

So we're kind of just modifying his particular unit.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Um can Vicky, maybe you can help me understand the BTR issues and code compliance issues, those have all been cleared.

I saw as of September.

And we work with code uh very closely to make sure any code violations that are fixed during this grant program as well, too.

So any if there are any code violations, which we have checked, and there's not, but if there's any code violations, we part of the grant would have to go towards that.

Perfect, thank you.

And then um, what when we get a contractor that submits us a checklist, kind of like we saw, and it shows all the work to be detailed and price.

How do we how do we as staff verify those costs or understand that epoxy floors might cost $32,000 kind of thing?

Can you help me understand that?

The applicant had to provide us with three quotes, and we do our due diligence to check and make sure that the prices are consistent and within reason of each other.

We also do the beta better business check, and we make sure that they're licensed contractors as well, too, so that they're legit business owners.

Gotcha.

And will TM Innovations 321 be doing the work?

Yes.

Okay, so they're from the other coast of Melbourne, they're gonna come over and do all the work for you.

Very nice.

Um I think that is about the only uh the only questions I have.

Thank you.

I know it's exciting to you're getting a lot of renovations there, bathrooms and bars and flooring and tearing down walls, and uh, I'm sure that's exciting for you.

And kind of followed your story a little bit.

You're struggling and fighting just like so many small business owners are.

We would appreciate you continuing to roll your sleeves up and and fight for our downtown area.

And I'm glad the city's found ways to help you.

Thank you, sir.

Yeah, okay.

Anyone else?

If not, is there a motion?

Move to approve agenda item 4.1.

Second.

All those in favor?

I opposed unanimous.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Look forward to seeing the uh results and uh being uh inspiration to make other businesses in the north end of or the east end of Clearwater uh Cleveland Street Grow.

So congratulations.

Look forward to seeing it.

Thank you, sir.

And I guess you are awful for me.

Yeah, okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, that will move to item 4.2.

Yeah, and I see no CRA executive director for the record.

Uh, this particular item is for the trustees to discuss items on their own.

If not, we can go to the next item.

Okay.

I think for us.

4.2 downtown revitalization.

Yes.

Yeah.

Um, I think it's a very important conversation to continue to have.

We're putting uh, as you can see, a lot of resources, a lot of time, a lot of staff time and resources trying to make downtown successful.

I hope we continue to spread the message of the hope and the optimism that this diet, and I know our staff continues uh to share regarding downtown.

There are there is some new news in movement downtown that I'm seeing new signs on windows, a new business that opened up, supposedly uh a new one coming soon, a mixed kind of restaurant thing.

Can you speak to any of those so we can these are things that we should be selling celebrating, right?

The activation of downtown.

Yeah, definitely in my director's report next.

You're gonna touch on that next a little bit, yes.

Okay.

Well I don't want to spoil all the good news, but then we can we can skip that one then.

So I had a chance to walk uh downtown last night, and uh yeah, we did see a lot of exciting signs that were up, and uh it seemed to be even on an off night where I call an off night where they don't have anything at the uh capital or at the at the sound, there was still a lot of people down there, and um you know that's something we've been waiting for for a long time, and I'm glad to see that happening now.

And I would like just like I think all the rest of us really think we need to get that message out because there's still a lot of people that say, Oh, there's nothing happening in downtown clear water.

There's a lot happening down there.

It's exciting because we got a bunch of new stuff that's gonna be opening shortly, so I think we need to play that up.

Well, the bank air sound has changed tremendously.

It's injuries people, you know.

Ruth Record Hall said 68 percent of those who have bought a ticket attendant show have come from outside Pinellas County.

So all the you know the paradigms of what downtown Clearwater is all about, is changing with number of people coming down to experience some music or in the park or wherever seeing it differently.

So I think that's gradually having an impact.

And hopefully the hotel that's going up soon, and then the Gotham property gets going January 1, and other continued opportunities there on the bluff.

We'll see more and more activity downtown.

Okay, anything else on this agenda is yeah.

I went to uh Market Marine and several of the vendors, mostly retail non-food vendors, still continue to express interest in being involved in any initiatives that we have in having mobile vendors on uh the streets.

So that's a good thing that they are still expressing that interest.

Okay, nothing else, then we'll move to the item 5.1 director's report.

Not sure if you can see it on your screen, but I can't see it up there.

There we go.

This is a director's report for this month.

Uh so I'll just get straight into the grants.

So we are actively pursuing more clients to participate in our grant program.

You know, the numbers you have up there, we do have 66 grants that we're basically processing through.

Some of them already been complete.

This is a breakdown between the North Breenwood CRA and the downtown.

So you can see the numbers up there.

But as far as for the public, I do want to say that we did have flyers in Spanish.

We did run out, but we're ordering new ones, and then as far as staff, we're starting to sit back down and do that that reassessment to see how we can outreach more of the small businesses out there in the downtown and the North Greenwood area.

So hopefully our efforts are gonna pay dividends, and then we can have more grant grant recipients here before you far as for the downtown.

Just want to show you some of the projects we have there as a Clearwater Gardens.

That's projects is essentially complete, so they're open.

They're all starting to fill up the units with tenants.

We're hoping to have a ribbon cutting soon.

But this was a perfect example of why CRAs exist in the past.

This was a motel that had all kind of issues with crime, with I'd say prostitution, drug activity, and just so many other problems that were there in the past.

But the CRA did acquire the property, demoed the property, and reinvested funds into that property in partnership with the city's housing department and the rest of the departments, and now it's a beautiful asset there for the Cleveland Street area.

Perfect example of what CR why CRAs exist.

This one was reported by Miss Ann Lopez DDB meeting, but this is a little bit of bad news.

This is for the Cleveland Street Market.

A lot of the businesses there, they are shutting down.

We are in contact with the property owner and the property management company there.

In addition, we're working with our economic development staff to see what we can do to help those small businesses.

In addition, we're also working with Pinellas County, SBDC, Small Business Development Center with Corey McCaster to see if he can also aid some of those property owners, not property owners, business owners, and just to see if we can help them find other units or at least resources to be successful.

And feel free to ask any questions throughout my presentation here.

This is a fairly successful program that we have in place.

A lot of business owners love it just because they get to promote and market their business a little bit more here in our area and just regionally, especially the video that we help them put together.

A lot of them don't have those resources to put together that high caliber type videos for them to share on social media.

So it's it continues to be a very popular program for us.

In downtown construction, we still see a lot of activity as far as construction.

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail because all of you know all the magnificent projects that are about to come down.

And if you haven't seen Mr.

Battle's interview that he had in the news lately, you know, he also there smiling.

But he did it, he did a great job.

He's a superstar.

But any time that we get to be in front of the media to talk about all the wonderful things that are happening in the downtown, we take that opportunity quickly.

And for the Osceola Garage, if you're not aware, they've already mobilized creative contractors out there, they're already got the erosion controls and other machinery that are about to get to work.

And for downtown, we do continue to have our monthly meetings with the downtown community.

These are evolving monthly meetings.

Every meeting is a little bit different because we do want to engage those, the community in downtown.

If they say it's a little bit too structured, like a city council, then we scale back and make it more of a type of uh conversation with them.

So we're getting better and better.

Yes, sir.

Went off.

Okay.

Now, so far we've had the next one, sorry.

I was trying to get to the next one.

But we had three meetings in the downtown.

We're about to have our next one next week, I think.

And they're just getting more and more popular, like I said before.

But we are going to sit down and do that reassessment of that meeting to see how we can attract more of the community to the downtown.

And activation, we continue to do more and more to activate the downtown.

You know, we have a lot of other stuff up our sleeves that we're going to bring in a later date.

But right now we are having some signage installed or at least funded by the CRA.

The cities installing these signs.

For instance, the Cleveland Street District signs are about to be installed in the downtown.

Three of them in the 400 and 500 block.

Medium lighting, we do have lighting out there already.

Uh it wasn't installed exactly how we wanted it, but the contractor is going to go out there and move the lights up where we requested originally.

I know they have a little little hiccups there, but we're gonna get fixed.

Thank you.

Something about the collars.

They're moving them up.

Uh, other activation items.

We do have kiosks that are out there.

We did update the maps with those kiosks.

Then bike racks, we're we've actually ordered bike racks, uh, parks and recreation and public works.

They're taking the lead as far as the installation, we're just the sponsors.

Uh the crime stats, I'm not going to go through all that, but these are here for you to kind of go through them as you need.

But if you do have questions, we do have a police officer here who's on standby, ready to answer questions if you have any.

I asked them first.

As far as North Greenwood, we are getting a lot of interest in the CAC as far as the community starting to come out to the meeting.

We do have some empty seats.

We just filled two of them, and we do have one remaining that we're hoping to have that filled fairly soon.

But as far as the actual meetings, we are getting a lot of interest from the residents, and we are trying to find more ways to get the word out so they can come and participate and give us feedback on how we can make that community better.

Then, as far as a shipping container, the mini container project that we're working with the Clearwater Urban Leadership Coalition that continues to move forward fairly efficiently so far.

We've issued out a $36,000 check to them so they can procure the services of an architectural firm, Gulf Coast Consulting to help them with their civil work, site plans, and just to work better with the planning department so they can get moving on the project.

In addition, recently they did host a community meeting with potential prospects, businesses that can move into those containers.

We also had financial institutions there that were ready to see if they can work with those prospects so they can be successful and have capital to be able to move into those containers.

In addition, we also have the St.

Pete College, um, Dr.

Rojas and his class working with the Clearwater Urban Leadership Coalition.

Um come back later next month to give a presentation along with um Dr.

Ross and his students so they can talk about the fantastic work they've been doing.

As far as the North Ford Elementary School project, so staff is going to be doing a presentation at the city council meeting on December 1st, 2025.

This is going to be at the council work session.

So there you'll get all the information you need as far as uh the details of the project.

Property disposition.

We're continuing to move forward with disposing of properties.

It isn't the fastest type of project that we have, but we are moving forward with disposing the properties.

I do want to say that on Trotch number three, we do have the MLK and Washington property, it's a fairly sizable property.

Uh I have here is that we were waiting for an appraisal.

We finally did get that appraisal back.

Uh the property is appraised at $2,520,000.

In addition to also have on there is that we were waiting on the phase one environmental study for that project.

We did receive that bet, and the properties are clean.

And we're hoping to put that out at the beginning of next month so we can see what kind of projects uh individuals come at bid for those properties.

Start on the far end.

Umor.

Yeah, I was just thinking, um, should we consider adding the North Ward property to the county properties just to see if there's any interest there?

Kind of increase our pool to a pool of reach.

Is that something that we would be okay with?

Is that even feasible?

It's pretty separated geographically from the other ones, so I don't know.

I mean, I don't I don't at least we'll get the word out.

I've expose it more.

I think we'd want the staff to talk to the county because it's the bulk of it's the county properties to see if but we have our own too, so I'm just wondering, even if it doesn't end um the direct proposal, maybe just expose increase the exposure.

I I would say that once the county gets a developer, maybe then allow staff to approach them second secondary to their other project and let them know what we might be able to assist with other properties.

Why not include it with the ones we already have?

Like the firehouse and the CMA lot and I I would agree with the geographical location too, being a little bit distant outside of it, but um also hard to have a developer on site that has something going on, and then letting them know about that.

I don't see anybody I wouldn't be opposed to that.

I I it's first time anybody has brought up that idea to me.

I just don't know, like said, how it works geographically for a developer, whether they'd be interested or not.

Certainly um certainly staff can ask the county about that.

Sure.

Um, and and just sort of for a little bit of clarity in terms of what's going on with that process.

So early on, um, the county's contractor CBRE did ask if there was any um additional um contiguous properties that we would be interested in them having as additional sites to be considered for assemblages, and so we did provide them a list of those things.

Um, so they do have a list of that.

I don't uh from what I understand, those aren't going to be advertised, um, like as part of the just that there's additional properties potentially available.

Um, however, they are currently the A being C BRE are currently working on what that solicitation is going to look like.

It will come before the council.

I don't know that it's gonna come before the council officially.

We haven't talked about that process yet in terms of if it'll be at a meeting or if it'll be individually through one-on-ones, um, but you all will certainly have an opportunity to review that, see what it looks like, um, and if there's anything else that we can add to it.

But if if council wants me to, I can certainly add that um to the list that has already been provided to them.

Whether or not you know they are interested in that would be up to them, but I can certainly provide it.

I think we would make them aware.

At least make them aware.

I think that's fair.

Yeah, I mean that the county is looking for a master developer to come with a master development plan for all those together.

So again, I don't know how far away walking distance.

Um there I applaud the county.

The county is looking for a premier big big uh big uh idea developer for the properties.

So I don't I don't mind making the county aware of it.

Okay.

If if someone was interested as part of that, sure.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah, but I want to back up a minute to the uh Clearwater market.

Um I was uh disappointed to hear that they had gone out of business, and um you know I was hoping they them the best because they got off to a rocky start uh with developing that uh took years and they ran into problems with the building, having to rebuild some of the building that wasn't really their fault.

But you know, I've always I've always said that if you've got to put your money in a restaurant location, location, location, and I know that was kind of out away from everything.

So I was hoping that they would spend some money on advertising to bring people to understand what they where they were and what they had there, and maybe draw people in.

Do you see?

I mean, do you have any reasons uh why they fail?

Was it because of lack of advertising or people going in or it's all is above as they do have a very tough location where they're at?

They were trying to rely a lot on the tenants that were around that area, and unfortunately they weren't really going down there to cater those businesses that much like they expected.

Yeah, sometimes they just went down there and got on their laptops, and that was just rarely unfortunate.

Uh very unfortunate for them.

Uh, but that's the resources that we're trying to connect them, even though it's kind of after the fact now.

Um, originally we were trying to help them as well to see if we can find resources, but this is just it's a tough location.

Yeah.

Okay.

I just thought maybe there might be something that I missed, but uh we'll see if we can get that cranked up again somehow.

Then they got to know that they've got to really advertise it.

Well, the the reality is there's just not a lot of foot traffic on that part of Cleveland, and there's not a lot of vehicular traffic.

So even if they had signage, I know some of them wanted to put up more signage and really I I don't know who would see the signage until we start generating more traffic, foot and vehicular along that route.

So I think it's gonna be tough for the type of businesses that these were.

You know, when I had a business when there was no foot traffic in downtown, um, it didn't take me long to realize that when you have no foot traffic, you have to have you have to be event-driven.

You have to have specific events um scheduled.

And so I was hoping in the future if if they all would get together and actually have a very robust event list so that it would bring people for that specific event without foot traffic, people are not just going in.

And so it's challenging, but I think that's the one of the only ways that they can overcome that lack of foot traffic is having events consistently, and if they would work together instead of different businesses or different stalls, but act as one and have an event every night.

I think that's the only way you can overcome at this point that low uh foot traffic.

That's Broman.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Um, I I agree with you.

Um, years ago we kind of shot ourselves in the foot when we shifted the bridge orientation and move those thousands and thousands and thousands of cars from our downtown area and shifted them to the north.

I know the businesses down there are extremely supportive of keeping Cleveland Street closed.

The unintended consequences that are we're not getting the foot traffic, you're also not getting drive-by traffic and people seeing new businesses and signs and people and life because we close it.

Um, so that that is definitely gonna be a challenging location.

I appreciate I appreciate your report.

Uh you hit on a lot of the hope and optimism that I mentioned earlier.

There is so many things going on downtown, uh, and I think we have to continue to find ways uh to share that hope and excitement with the community uh that many don't know.

Uh I know we say a lot about construction and what's coming on, unfortunately, with the words construction and those kind of things, that brings a negative connotation to people's minds sometimes.

I wish we had faster and further discussions regarding some sort of marketing and branding plan down here.

We're missing a lot of opportunities with a lot of great events, a lot of doors opening, a lot of new businesses, a lot of shovels getting put in the grounds.

Uh I think that's a great opportunity for us.

I hope we can continue to further those discussions.

Just for instance, downtown Jacksonville did it.

I don't recommend using their slogan, but it was Jacksonville's on fire.

Um might scare some people, so I wouldn't uh say that's the one.

Uh but they used it for probably two years leading up to their billion dollars of downtown renovations, and they had a lot of success with it.

Um, I think you know, we're kind of missing the vote a little bit on that.

I I thank you for the report.

I I did notice that we left off a couple of the new Cleveland Street activations.

Can you give us any update on any of those?

Say the burglar joint.

I see you know, new signs in the window.

Do we have any expectations on opening or progress of that?

I know Bistro successfully opened, had a great ribbon cutting in the one next door to it, a multi-use kind of multi-venued bar.

Any updates on those?

Yeah, we have uh many small businesses that are opening up.

I don't have the specifics far as detail, but I do have staff here if they want to come up and say anything.

Yes, Mita and Lopez are talking about it earlier.

So we're gonna go.

And Lopez CRA assistant director.

Um, I have reached out to the owner of Flipside Burger.

Um, haven't heard back from him yet, but I did speak with the property management, the gentleman who's overseeing the management of bringing in those businesses.

Um we're supposed to link up the next time he is in town, so hopefully that will be relatively soon in an upcoming meeting.

We could provide updates.

Um, but I was provided the email address for the owner of Flipside Burger, so fingers crossed.

Good start.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Yeah, I just think we need to continue to talk about the activation and exciting things that are down there.

You know, we have a lot of hope and optimism in new new projects.

Uh the hotel coming in, the Gotham property and condominium coming in, the 16.2 acres of county properties is exciting.

I just saw uh Tampa Bay Developer podcast had Brian Lowak on of visit St.

Pete Clearwater, and he spoke for about 30 35 minutes on the excitement of of Clearwater in downtown and this development.

Uh so one thing we can do this moving forward is anytime there's a new business or even a new BTR.

See if we can just go ahead and put in a report for you so you can have those new businesses that are coming to the downtown.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Um, thank you.

Thanks.

Well, the burden of going last is everything's already been said.

Um, but I will just uh double down on if you haven't had a chance yet to uh visit the the district bistro, it's a fantastic establishment.

I think that the ambiance is really cool, so make sure that uh anybody watching, anybody in the audience try and make it down there, especially if you're going to a show at the Capitol Theater or the Sound.

Um the foods were great, service was great, um, drinks were great.

And then I also look forward to uh seeing what goes on with Flipside Burger and the information that we're getting from that owner.

Um we're still in the infancy stages, right?

But we're we're making progress, and I think that that's what we really need to highlight as Councilmember Manino was saying.

Um, you know, and as we look at um the sports bar 45 that we just gave a grant to and the remodel that they'll be doing, you know, hopefully with these uh renovations and the space lift, if you will, you know, we'll see more foot traffic come.

The people that come down here to visit the the sound and um whatever event come back because of the experience that they had previous, you know.

So thank you very much for the report.

I greatly appreciate it.

Okay, yeah.

Um, well, you know, to echo what everybody else is saying.

We we all want clear water to be successful, everybody, everybody and throughout the entire city.

Uh we've had a slow road getting there because it's taken a long time for things to get activated.

Uh so we certainly celebrate any activation that is going on and ask the community to support you know these businesses as they open.

So we just continue to look forward forward to uh downtown Beach Pro Echo Councilman Cotton is fantastic.

Owners already had a place there on Cleveland Street for a while, and so it's really a second location for them, and it's great to see them flourishing.

That family-owned business couple with a young child, and really great to see them flourishing.

Um but we we we just need to keep the momentum going and and hopefully uh we'll we'll see more openings and things actively going on, and community will come out and support these businesses once they actually open.

Yeah, if not, we will adjourn the November 17, 2025 meeting of the City of Clearwater Community Redevelopment Agency.