Community Redevelopment Agency on 2026-04-20 1:00 PM - Apr 20, 2026

2026 meeting of the city of clearwater community redevelopment agency this time we'll move to item 2.1 on the agenda approve the minutes of the march 2 2026 CRA meeting motion to approve the minutes motion to approve the minutes second all those in favor aye opposed unanimous it's time we'll move to item three on the agenda so this to be heard regarding items regarding the CRA items that are not on today's agenda here now move to item 4.4.1 present new vision behavioral health inc as a april 2026 recipient of the business spotlight program good afternoon my name is tasha hatley CRA specialist and i'm pleased to recognize new vision behavioral health as our april 2026 business spotlight winner operating from the willow carson health and wellness center at 1108 north mlk the practice delivers counseling services that support mental and emotional well-being in north greenwood founded by zaneda ellison mcgraw new vision behavioral health has was created with a clear purpose to expand access and communities where is needed the most through counseling and life coaching the practice helps individuals navigate life's challenges build resilience and develop tools needed to move forward with confidence the organization also receives an ARPA grant to support its location and expand access to behavioral health services in north greenwood to help share their story the CRA and public communications created a video highlighting the impact in the community the video has been shared across all of our CRA platforms and you can find an article on myclearwatercra.com new vision behavioral health supports the city's and CRA's shared goals of strengthening communities expanding access to essential services and promoting overall well-being within our redevelopment areas at this time we invite you to view the video my name is anita ellison mcgraw the name of my practice is new vision behavioral health incorporated and we have been here in greenwood since 20 i would say 2023 new vision behavioral health is a outpatient group practice private practice we see individuals families and we provide group counseling services we serve those who are dealing with mental health as well as addiction and just kind of need that support so someone who's come into therapy specifically my practice for the first time i want them to know that we here are passionate about serving people i know that a lot of people feel like oh i don't want somebody in my business or to judge me but our job is not to get in your business per se our job is to to know enough about you to see where we need to support i remember having a client who was so deeply into her grief in her depression that we weren't sure if you know if tomorrow was promised for her three years later she's still with me still thriving still working through becoming self-directed at working through her own layers of mental health that you know she's grateful for the support that she was able to receive all because she was willing to step out and get the help that she needed our hours of operation are monday through saturday essentially from 9 a.m to 6 p.m we have multiple locations in the st pete tampa and clearwater area we also serve those who may not have access to getting into the office by providing telehealth services very good let's do a group picture please all right three two one perfect thank you congratulations congratulations thank you for seeing the value of highlighting our organization and the work that we not only do in communities but in the lives of individuals children and families we have been able to support the will of carson and the great work that they do with providing free healthcare services for the last three years with our ability to secure grant funding to provide free mental health services so these mental health services are free for any tampa for pinellas county resident by way of bay front not bay front but um i can't remember they care they care yes don't kill me they care is great and so we are so grateful for the opportunity to serve children and families and we want more people to know that we're there the will of carson is there the will of carson has been great with serving those who are uninsured or underinsured or just don't have access to help here so thank you again for the opportunity i've moved to item 4.2 on the agenda accept a proposal for the redevelopment of 706 north missouri avenue from st benedict holdings llc and authorized CRA staff to negotiate an agreement for development purchase and sale of property with said entity good afternoon jesus nino CRA executive director today i'm here to provide you with an overview of a proposal was a redevelopment of 706 north missouri avenue i'm going to show you some maps here as far as the property so 706 north missouri avenue is more commonly known as the armory site this is the way the building looks here and these are from other views of the building so this is the map for the public here so they can kind of see where the armory is located at you can see north missouri avenue to the right seminal street to the north then eldridge street to the south and as far as the location of the armory site again this is for the public that's watching you can see the boundary for the north greenwood community redevelopment area in yellow and you see the property here highlighted in green or blue so it's right by the boundary of the CRA just to give a little bit of background on august 27th 2025 the state of florida transferred the property to the city of clearwater then on january 26 2026 the city transferred the site to the city's community redevelopment agency to support redevelopment within the north greenwood community redevelopment area so currently the property is being used by the city's parks and recreation department for storage and limited office space this has been a tax-exempt property for decades now basically so it's been generated no ad valorem revenues so following the transfer to the community redevelopment agency in accordance with florida statute the community redevelopment agency issued a public notice on february 22 2026 inviting proposals for the adaptive reuse of the site so that notice did establish minimum requirements for submitted proposals including a minimum purchase price of two million dollars along with a project description financial details and a development schedule so this solicitation period closed on march the 24th 2026 and the community redevelopment agency did receive one proposal from saint benedict's holding limited liability company which is an affiliate of your mama's foods which is already headquartered in north greenwood community redevelopment area right across the street from the site so the proposal was reviewed by staff and determined to be responsive to the advertisement or the notice and meets all the minimum requirements including the required purchase price so at a high level the proposal includes a two million dollar acquisition offer and focuses on adaptive reuse of the existing armory site and building so rather than demolish the building and the structure all the structures on the property which is not our preferred choice the applicant proposed to repurpose the site into logistics warehouse and light manufacturing hub integrating with their existing business across the street which is your mama's foods saint benedict's holding limited library company so this project will create a consolidated campus supporting distribution e-commerce fulfillments and continued business growth this is in alignment with the north greenwood community redevelopment area plan particularly particularly the vision for this area and from an eye level economic development impact standpoint the project is expected to generate additional jobs while also converting a long-time tax-exempt property putting it back on the tax rolls to start to generate revenue so the revenue that will be generated that's called the increment that increment ad valorem taxes from the city of clearwater and pinellas county will be deposited into the north greenwood community redevelopment area trust fund and those funds will be used to reinvest back into the community from a redevelopment perspective the proposal aligns again with the north greenwood community redevelopment area plan by activating an underutilized site supporting job creation and advancing private reinvestment more specifically just to put this on the record for the public and those that are watching this is from the plan the north greenwood community redevelopment area plan goal number one public safety which is page 93 of the plan activates an underutilized site and contributes to reducing conditions associated with blight goal number three poverty reduction that's page 93 again which supports job creation workforce development and increased access to employment opportunities then goal number five quality of life page 94 enhances community vitality through reinvestment and improve economic activity then for redevelopment policies page 94 and 95 it advances the reuse of publicly owned property to support economic development and private investment and i have another map here to show you so this is a map that comes out of the redevelopment plan on page 108 page 108 it's called area c the cs6 industrial area and armory area so if you can see on the slide there it shows that the armory site is contiguous to the existing redevelopment area industrial zoning district shown here in purple then the armory site shown in blue it's contiguous to that zoning category in addition you also see a boundary around all of that it's called the emphasis area for industrial purposes you see it here in brown a little dotted line there so that section also states that if the armory were ever to go out of use for the city's purposes that it was recommended that it go back out as far as for industrial purposes and for job creation so in addition it also aligns with the city's broader strategic plan priorities by strengthening public private partnerships and supporting business growth within the community this proposal is tied to an existing operating business your mama's foods st benedict's holdings limited library company which has its presence in the north greenwood community development area across the street from the armory site they have identified that they need additional space for increased capacity in the area and for the record i would also like to highlight and i do want to stress highlight that the north greenwood citizens advisory committee or cac they held a special meeting on wednesday april 15th 2026 at 7 pm at the north greenwood recreation center the purpose of that meeting was for staff and the applicant to present the proposal to the community that was in attendance there were approximately 89 individuals that attended the meeting at the conclusion of the meeting the citizens advisory committee made a motion recommending that the trustees reopen the solicitation period to allow for additional proposals to be submitted and considered that motion passed by a vote of five to zero so many of those citizens advisory committee members and other community members are here in the audience i saw them when i looked over so at this time your agenda material also outlines potential actions for your consideration and again they're just for your consideration one is accept the proposal submitted by st benedict's holdings living liability company as responded to the public notice and compliant with the minimum requirements to authorize staff to negotiate a development purchase and sell agreement along with any other associated legal instruments alternately the trust as the trustees you can choose any other direction you may decide today so with that that concludes my staff presentation so mr habib the applicant and mr battle we're all here to answer any questions and if you wish mr habib has a presentation ready to provide you and it's loaded up here on the screen that'll be up to you and i'm not sure if mr battle wanted to add anything else trustees but i'd like to hear the presentation from the applicant there's no objection so i'd like to invite the applicant good afternoon mayor council members city manager assistant city manager mr kohler nice to have you on the dais miss call thank you so much katie cole with the law firm of hill ward henderson representing mr david habib and the various entities that make up the yo mama's uh food uh company including st benedict's holding which is the respondent to uh this rfn so uh it we're here today for a very specific reason to ask that you authorize staff to negotiate consistent with the president with the bid that you um issued and uh that is intended um it was intended to fulfill the community redevelopment area's goals as mr nino already covered i would want to say very respectfully we both attended wednesday night the community meeting we appreciate everything we hear and we hope that some of the things that you hear this morning or this afternoon excuse me can answer some of the issues that were raised on wednesday night we know that there are others that will continue to be uh evidenced and hopefully through the negotiations with your city staff and with the contract to come back to you all for approval many of those things uh can be addressed we also know there are things that this uh presentation and this request will never address and those are concerns that i think we all hope to work on as a community uh the city's request was specifically to seek a buyer for the armory uh that met the goals of the cra and the cra plan uh as mr nino said identifies the north greenwood community redevelopment plan as area c zoning emphasis as this is an industrial area in addition to the two the exhibit that mr nino said there are two other references to this property in the plan the rfn asked for a minimum purchase price that was intended to cover the relocation costs of the parks and recreation staff that currently occupies the facility a project description i'm sure intending to meet the goals of the adaptive reuse and intending to maintain that appearance of the armory a financial plan to ensure that the respondents and the eventual purchaser has the sources and budget to fulfill those plans and a development schedule so this doesn't linger or or waiver in any kind so what you asked for in the response for negotiations is exactly what mr habib's response and the st benedict holdings response provided it required a local business headquartered in clearwater a warehouse distribution and light manufacturing because that was something that despite the institutional zoning could be supported and was reflected in the plan job creation and cra area hiring commitment and a capital investment facilitating further tax and increment growth most importantly the community and substantial economic benefit to the cra why this proposal fits in the plan and how it delivers exactly what you thought and what you asked for uh the private investment and job creation in the corridor increases the employment employment above the density which was called out in the plan um there is a proposal to increase employment by 20 to 30 uh members currently mr habib employs 20 about 24 employees on site this would more than double his employment numbers with a 65 000 median salary as we discussed as we heard on wednesday night it was important to the community and i think important to mr habib that those jobs vary from uh the stock and and warehousing jobs to the executive jobs and of course all all employment opportunities are available uh it takes a tax exempt property that was previously owned by the state until recently and converts it into a tax paying owner uh this would generate between 45 and 55 000 dollars in tax increment financing to the cra immediately and that's an annual increase obviously the way tax increment financing works is as uh property appreciates because of investment those dollars increase creating more opportunity for reinvestment into the community there's mr habib's commitment to first access hiring working through st petersburg college through the pipeline he already has a hiring partnership with homeless emergency project or hep and he also is committed to providing summer internships within the community the cra plan calls for the adaptive reuse and preservation of historic assets which this does within the response was a draft flexible development application that's been submitted pending this outline which shows what the plan for the armory is including the restoration of the original building aesthetic improvement of underutilized properties the facade and site improvements um that were proposed show a visibly better building on a visibly better block accompanying the parcels across the street with which mr habib's entities own where yo mama's currently operates um he also the plan calls for minority owned business support in the district and also included in his response was his certified minority owned uh business certification from the state of florida this has been headquartered here uh for over six years i'll hand it over to mr habib to tell you a little bit about yo mama thank you katie mr mayor council and city staff thank you for your time today uh i uh i want to share with you a little bit about our history uh for those who don't know but um really this is at the heart of our clearwater origin story and this is a project that we've been working on for over six years our company is nine years old we were launched on mother's day in 2017 in my parents dining room here in clearwater florida what this picture shows you is our first headquarters which was a storage unit off of us 19 and clearwater off of nursery road so uh you know we're a clearwater born company we're a clearwater raised company and we very much want to stay here in clearwater as katie mentioned we've also been in north greenwood for the past six years uh so since our founding on mother's day of 2017 we have grown to an established national brand we're now a top 10 united states pasta sauce brand and that data comes from from nielsen so we've we've come a long way in our humble beginnings here in clearwater to ultimately become and ultimately have a national presence here in clearwater which we want to keep on growing on um these show you some uh specific figures around uh our instacart growth uh we were named number two on instacart's fastest growing brands list uh so we hope that this shows you that this is a established business and something that's uh we take very seriously about keeping it in clearwater and and uh obviously wanting to to stay here as well so we're expanding we're not leaving we did acquire the site of 1143 elder street in addition to 1125 elder street which is our main headquarters uh 1125 elder street was acquired in uh june of 2019 and 1143 elder street was acquired in december of 2025 so as katie mentioned this uh goes on to our plan of ultimately anchoring a campus here in north greenwood uh so really again we're we're built in clearwater um you know we're one of the top 10 pasta sauce brands in the united states uh we export to 20 countries in the u.s um excuse me we ship to 25 000 uh stores in the united states and we export to 20 countries outside of the u.s uh there's over six years in north greenwood we've invested over 150 000 in pre-development costs into this project as well in over six years of time so this really was a coordination between the state between the county and between the city we proposed a five million dollar total investment and uh in addition to that 20 to 30 new jobs at the site over the next five years so nine years again one one zip code um you know we started uh in the family kitchen this just shows you some of our pictures um i say this because clearwater is a very uh important piece of our story and uh it's a very important piece of my upbringing i was raised here in clearwater i went to school here uh and this community specifically is very important to us as a business as katie mentioned our entire team is at headquarters we don't have uh remote positions we all come to work every day it's been a centralized location for our company to come from tampa old smar palm harbor really everywhere so having that headquarters anchored in north greenwood specifically in in clearwater is very important to us we did establish our headquarters in north greenwood in 2019 for those who are not familiar with the site of one one two five it was business record management the business uh the the building needed a lot of work and we've committed to that so as we've improved our building our neighbors have also made a lot of improvements in the area as well we expanded our campus as i mentioned in december of last year and this is very much you know a very big piece of our mission to continue to be anchored in clearwater so we're not arriving again we've we've been here we've been part of the clearwater community uh since our origin we have partnerships with feeding tampa bay we do a lot of different opportunities and donations for food scarcity specifically with them we have a partnership with mcdill air force space here in tampa bay we also have partnerships with 360 eats hep and as katie mentioned st petersburg college usf ut we do a lot of different local internships and a lot of uh hiring opportunities as well uh so what the op what the armory ultimately adds to the community um this is our our commitment is uh you know by allowing this to proceed today um you know our ability to expand within clearwater our ability to invest in clearwater ability to really be that economic driver uh create more jobs in north greenwood directly aligned with all of the cra points so our first commitment is workforce development in north greenwood you know we've we've heard our community on the meeting last wednesday specifically we're proposing some summer internships targeted towards the north greenwood youth we have full-time roles with first access hiring for local residents training and placement through spc and hep and this is really an opportunity for us to grow and expand within north greenwood we'd actually be relocating a facility from chicago to the north greenwood area there's a tremendous amount of inventory that's currently sitting there for our business that we'd be looking to centralize and ultimately locate within the north greenwood area our company's really committed towards food scarcity uh so expanded product don't donations both locally and throughout the the tampa bay area we have an ongoing food partnership with 360 eats who's also targeting the north greenwood area as they are expanding and the armory space really enables us to facilitate a larger community footprint which is what again we we heard on wednesday so that deeper neighborhood investment is very important um and i want to reiterate we're a small business uh you know we're not the the savior of north greenwood we we want to be very much actively involved in the community and we do that with the best of our ability we're a small team so that deeper neighborhood investment is very important to us and it always has been once again we've been in north greenwood for six years so um i think that this is a really important piece of our story and our story to ultimately stay in clearwater um so what this project ultimately delivers to clearwater i'll pass it back to to katie sure i know that you all are sitting as the cra but i think this project and this request speaks more broadly to the city's intentions from an economic development standpoint um it we speak often of the tourist and hospitality wins we have recent wins in downtown but i think everyone collectively in the community gets excited when you hear about employment opportunities with high wage jobs from an economic development standpoint the acquisition of the armory by a small business like this provides specifically employment opportunities increasing the tax base and a better block three huge things that every project you would hope in clearwater from an economic development standpoint could reflect i wanted to touch on the fact that uh years ago when the federal government established opportunity zones uh the federal government did an analysis of certain census tracts throughout the country at the time governor scott and then subsequently governor desantis were extremely involved intimately involved in ensuring that the state of florida had some would say a disproportionate number of opportunity zones but that said clearwater has several including the north greenwood area opportunity zones were created to incentivize investment in underutilized areas and asking property owners or businesses to come in and either expand their footprint operate economic development opportunities or invest in real estate in these communities um this project is a can be a wonderful example of how this opportunity zone process works to incentivize other investment into the community this is um in a rendering of the restored armory you'll see in the rfn response that this was the uh sketch that was included so this is just a color version of the sketch that was also online in today's agenda packet um so this is it is exciting to see something that's been in the community for so long so many of us have been there inside and out during our times growing up in clearwater and this is an opportunity to really see it be brought back to life albeit for a different use but something um that certainly can be uh a pride of the community uh we obviously as mr habib and i already both stated um there were some very specific asks on wednesday night from the community and um i think that as he's very eloquently stated um this project is not intended to be um a community service this is intended to be one piece of a very large puzzle to make the city of clearwater and the community redevelopment area um great and have and be able to contribute on a regular basis it provides permanent living wage employment for residents with an established small business ongoing payroll that hopefully will flow to those employees who reside in the community a tax generating asset those dollars through tax increment financing will be reinvested at your direction directly into the community private capital being infused into this area this was a coordinated effort um no secret here you know years ago mr habib said he wanted to make this his home he started his business in clearwater he needed to expand he wanted to expand he reached out to the city and asked if the armory was an option the city said no because the city didn't own it and so at which point as any entrepreneur would do he went to the state and said is the armory an option would you ever consider parting with it through the coordinated effort with representative burfield and senator hooper the state worked on an appropriate opportunity to either sublease the property or lease it directly from the state because of certain restrictions that the state had the end result was that the state would transfer this property to the city of clearwater for economic development uses and so that was what generated the rfn that was issued in february and why we're here today through this time both in establishing his own business and an opportunity to expand mr habib has worked with pinellas county economic development and has received uh small business uh dollars from it as well um to support increased wages and increased hiring in pinellas county city of clearwater economic development uh obviously worked with him hand in hand back even when miss sanderson was here um looking at how he can hire employees how he can better grow his business in the city of clearwater to keep a successful household name brand as a city of clearwater business um this is a plan in motion as evidenced by the response there's bank financing secured there's already an operational campus that this would supplement uh this would facilitate the relocation of a portion of the business from chicago to the city of clearwater um and uh mr habib is willing to obviously pay fair market value um and fair market value the two million purchase office offer i will discuss that the city did obtain two different um bids for this or appraisals for this property that was more than the two million dollars but uh the two million dollar threshold plus the financial investment into the restoration of the building plus the hiring of the employees uh creates an opportunity to for the city to be made hold in this situation i will note that the state did transfer the property to the city for no compensation for no uh consideration so this is a national brand and community pride and it is it's wonderful to see a business with such pride be located in a community that also has that same level of pride and the importance of this decision is not lost on mr habib or his team it's evidenced by the full room that was there on wednesday night and here today this decision today is about the city of clearwater it's about the north greenwood community redevelopment area it's about economic development it's about supporting small business it's about the adaptive reuse of the armory plan and most of all it's about a first step in implementing a very thoughtful and very specific community redevelopment plan that the community and the city work together to establish uh this opportunity meets the goals of that plan and we would respectfully request the opportunity to negotiate a contract with the staff and bring that back to you for further discussion thank you we're happy to answer any questions all right that um let's um let's take public comment first so this time is there anyone here from the public i believe there are who would like to speak to this agenda if you would when you come to the podium uh if you would identify yourself and then also fill out a comment card comment cards are located here to the right of the dais and also in the back and if there are multiple if yeah yeah you can come on first and then if you the others if you'd line up over here to the right side good afternoon councilman mayor and city uh employees i'm a clearwater beach resident i was born and raised here as well could you state your name please oh angelina caulkins sorry about that um i do commercial real estate i've done that for over 20 years um i'm in full support of david habib and yo mama's newest headquarters i've known david habib the founder uh ceo and owner for four years plus now i'm honored to call him my friend he is a local humble philanthropist that is absolutely extremely generous especially not in public he anonymously gives to schools multiple homeless initiatives feeds at risk residents the homeless empowerment project not only does he show up for all of these events he shows up with his product whatever you ask times two he serves the people he cooks the food he stands shoulder to shoulder with you he is definitely somebody that we want to keep in clearwater and i'm so proud to know him as a friend and i hope everybody in this room chooses to try to be a friend to him he's definitely our local success story and we definitely want to keep him here uh let's see what else oh if you call david habib and you tell him your great ancestors friend just got out of the hospital he will drop off anonymously homemade food to them to them and take care of them so for regarding this my vote is yes and full agreement for your mama and david habib as well as our community he has given back and he's never given up on his dream for six years so in order for us as a community to receive more tax dollars more job opportunities and most importantly the socially responsible organization and founder of yo mama's i suggest that we keep him here as well as uh susan prime she asked me to tell you that she's also in agreement as well thank you so much thank you next speaker good morning um is my time going to restart or do i just take her time okay all right yes it's a good question good afternoon i should say i'm sorry good afternoon my name is kimberly brown um i am a clean water resident um and in the north greenwood area i think we can all agree that is a special type of community um and so i'm here not against david habib or even your mama's i'm actually here today because i'm super sad and disappointed at that the city refuses to work with the community the coke was formed so we could revitalize the north greenwood community know what's going on with our community and this was not communicated at all i understand they've been working on this for six years we had no idea until like three weeks ago and i think that's very disappointing it's hurtful um we want our community to be revitalized those of us who have lived literally in this community for 30 40 years me 50 60 70 80 years we do want this but we do not want to be blindsided by the selling of our businesses in our community property it is very hurtful that community property is being sold without our knowledge again it's nothing personal against him or even your mama's expanding it's the fact we had no clue about it this is how gentrification happens buildings and property get sold from under our nose and we don't even know about it we don't even have the ability to get it for our own community and that is hurtful because like i said the cult was developed for that reason so we in the community who actually live there will have the ability to get this property and to use it and utilize it and build jobs for our community our kids so again i am just super disappointed for being blindsided by this um i just hope for the future we know i know you all see it as just a building it is not just a building not one piece of property in the north greenwood area is just a building or just property it means something to us and we do not want to see it just sold off without us knowing that's all we're asking keep us in the loop that is all we're asking thank you thanks speaker this is pastor carlton charles with the upper finance kind of ministry alliance and what a leadership coalition how you doing mayor council to all of you uh yeah we are very disappointed we got to quit meeting like this every time we come down here we are disappointed about something that has happened without not knowing about it uh nothing against mr abid uh nothing against his business i don't even know what your mama's is so i'm not here against him but i'm here representing the pastors and this community he said he's been there for six years i've been there 70 years so and the army has been a place for us ever since we were kids and to hear about i heard about i first heard about it mayor i was at a uh dedication across the street at the hair start for my niece they was namely in her honor and leaving there i heard that this it was being sold and i remember when the hurricane come one time we had to evacuate the kids over at the army now it won't be there for that purpose but to uh it's sort of like this affordable housing thing where all these buildings are being built and nobody in north greenwood can afford them it's like now all and the presentation was great everything sound great the numbers sound great mr jesus but you know it's hard for us to believe that it's ever going to come to the north greenwood residents you know we've been slapped two or three times and and it's tired like we're tired of being slapped let us know about these things uh i got a call from mr mermino a couple weeks ago a month ago and i appreciate the call but things like this the pastors need to know about the pastors are really upset that this has happened and nobody knew about it and uh all we're asking let us be at the table let us be involved when these things happen that's all we want to know this is our community we grew up there we live there and it'd be good if some of the jobs come but who's going to promise us that the job is going to be available to the residents in north greenwood good afternoon mayor and city council my name is barbara sorry love and this is not your first time seeing me i am the founder of clearwater african american foundation inc and our purpose and mission is to preserve and memorialize clearwater african american places spaces buildings landmarks and we heard about the proposal at a city council meeting well no take that back we heard about the proposal on the agenda i think it was part of the 6.1 item on the agenda so i followed up with pastor childs he didn't know anything about it we followed up with the coalition they didn't know anything about it as the pastor said nothing but nothing uh taken away from mr b i don't know the gentleman and according to what he presented in the community and the community outcry no one else knows him in the community north greenwood does not need another warehouse north greenwood was the hub of sophistication back in the day you see what's there now you see what has happened to the north to clearwater heights formerly known as the mcdipson subdivision all of that has a fingerprint of the city council not caring for african american communities here in clearwater you see what happened to the cemetery you see what's happening to north greenwood uh north garden avenue south greenwood south garden avenue pardon me i'm a little choked up right now but you understand what i'm saying south garden avenue north garden avenue clearwater heights north greenwood condon gardens all of those properties or communities are gone because of the decisions made here at city council mr habib had six years to work on his plan we were only given 30 days you advertise through the i guess tamper bay times we have a great communications department here with the coalition i have a online marketing uh paper that you could advertise with to let the community know no one knew about this until the day of this we met at the council meeting okay what can we do with the uh armory it can be a family center with ai interactive media we could have bowling there we could have movies we could have a micro pop-up as some of the people presenting here today we could have a similar thing like saturday shops it could be a food court we have we could have something like market marie um we have something uh once a year family night we could have a family night once a month they do a great job of presenting family night and it could be surrounded by the national guard armory so my my position is do not accept his proposal open it up for more proposals so we can get a fair chance to present a proposal to the clear council thank you thank you next speaker please thank you and uh thank you uh for uh brian for letting me move i was going to get in line and then i realized the line was way back there so uh my name is gloria campbell and i am the executive director of the clearwater urban leadership coalition first of all i want to thank those of you who did reach out uh to me as uh based on the information that i communicated a couple things one i want you to hear the mission and vision of the coalition first we believe our community can embrace who they are can define their future and can change the world the mission is to promote sustained economic growth in our community develop business opportunities preserve cultural history and promote academic excellence nobody here is against economic development nobody's here is against mr hafib and his project but what i do is i stand before you today to oppose this not because of david not because of what he's done not because of his business but because of the lack of transparency it's clear based on the conversations i've had with everyone that everyone here is going to vote for this you have sat at the table you've eaten the spaghetti and you've drunk the kool-aid now in our in our community that means that you disregard what we want with what we're saying you don't want to hear it you've already made your decision that's okay but when we look at transparency i want to talk about two different historic properties north ward in 2019 the city paid 1.6 million dollars to purchase that property from the school board it's been sitting there in 2005 the city decided to lease from the state the armory this the uh north ward on last month i believe it was january and february there was a call and tour for developers to come out take a look and come up with the recommendation what did we get on the armory we got a 30-day backdoor hidden agenda item on the for the on the agenda we can look back and we can look at the transparency lack of transparency yes you're right it's been going on for six years we asked about the armory in 2021 we were told it was a state asset and that parts and rug had nowhere else to go we've asked every administration about it we've been told the same thing all i'm saying is that you have to admit there was no transparency uh in june of last year there were letters written by county commissioners and economic development not talking about transferring the property it was talking about transferring the property to yo mama specifically when the LOI came out it was written for your mama nothing against your mama nothing against what they want to do but the lack of transparency uh is evident and all i ask is to admit that and that you make it right that's the end of my comments thank you miss gallum next speaker please hello council my name is brian beckman i'm here to ask you make this a fair process for the neighborhood of north greenwood and open up the bid process for more opportunities from the community as you're hearing today and was expressed clearly last week at the cra advisory meeting the process so far disenfranchised the north greenwood neighborhood the evidence uncovered so far clearly shows not only a complete failure of engagement with the neighborhood and the cra advisory it shows long behind the scenes actions that deliberately went around the neighborhood and created a situation where only one proposal could succeed to make matters worse our local current elected leaders are at the center of it including state representative burfield pinellas county leadership and city leadership now to be clear i understand mr habib's desire to expand his business and the desire of local officials to help businesses i support business development our community as well but our local elected leaders should know to involve the community especially when it is public property within this new aspiring cra elected officials knew that neighborhood leaders have been interested in the same property they know the history here and how residents have been stepped over time and time again yet knowing all that the only conversations they felt were important to have with city officials state officials and mr habib neighborhood leaders had requested tours of the property and meeting multiple times over the last year zero responses in return all while plotting a course for one preordained outcome this is not only bad governance but a huge slap in the face to the community this looks like favoritism people are expecting a fair and equal opportunity and they're not getting it it's incumbent upon you the clearwater council to take a step back talk to the neighborhood leaders and give them a seat at the table for making decisions on this property thank you thank you mr peckman next speaker hello and good afternoon my name is mary favorite i am a proud staff member of yo mama's foods and formerly a elementary school teacher here in pinellas county when i first started working at yo mama's i started in the warehouse and was trained all the way up to where i am now which is in the office when i first began i went to mr habib and said hey there's this thing called the great american teach-in which if you have children you probably know what that is and i would like the opportunity for us to go teach them about all the different departments here at yo mama's and we were able to go to my old classroom together and teach the kids about marketing and finance and it's just another clear example of how willing and it's it's not even willingness it's just he he loves doing it going out into the community and giving back um so of course that that meant a lot to me but this this is about all of us at yo mama's it will make getting the armory will make a lot of things much easier for our company so being in charge of all accounts receivable at yo mama's having a third party logistics in chicago is a bit tricky for us and um there's a lot of deductions that happen when you're not able to track the load all the way to the store um and by having it all on the campus here in clearwater we would be able to track exactly who signed off and who loaded it and who took the picture of it all the way to the store itself um so that's all i have to say but i hope that you are considering in a possible thank you miss favorite next speaker good afternoon mayor rector and council members my name is hannah menard this is my husband rob menard we are both residents and business owners here in clearwater i am a proud member of the north greenwood citizens advisory committee however i stand here today speaking as a resident and business owner and not on the behalf of the cac we have all been following the proposed sale of the north greenwood armory as members of this community and as local business owners in north greenwood we would like to state that we stand with both the community and with mr david habib of yo mama's food both viewpoints are important and worthy of consideration mr habib is a clearwater native who has worked hard to pursue this opportunity he followed the appropriate process invested time and resources into navigating a complex situation and remain committed throughout what has clearly been a lengthy journey his dedication to our city and his business is meaningful at the same time north greenwood is a historic community with more than 7 000 residents many of whom feel surprised by how this process unfolded it seems there may have been some gaps in communication along the way that perception has understandably led to concern and frustration and has also placed a local business owner at the forefront of public scrutiny we should not pit business success against community voice instead let this be a learning moment the city needs to establish a more transparent inclusive notification and proposal process for future public property dispositions so that this situation can be avoided in the future as local business owners and members of this community we want to see positive development that moves in tandem with the community we truly appreciate the work that goes into these decisions mr habib's efforts and investment deserve a fair outcome at the same time our residents deserve equal opportunity clear communication and trust in the process by addressing both clearwater can support local businesses while strengthening community confidence thank you for your time thank you next speaker good afternoon mayor council members city staff my name is amanda payne i'm the president and ceo of amplify clearwater i am here representing our business community and our entrepreneurs that are part of our organization uh council member tusheda you said earlier that we are looking for a business with a proven track record you're looking for people to invest in this community and to come to the table and be partners with those that have a proven track record there is no one else in this room that has a better and a more proven track record than david habib i'm here and i'm honored to stand in support of him and in support of the growth of his community creating jobs in a community that needs the tax base that will create more opportunity for this community i think is imperative and a great next step he was born as you know we've heard his story born in clearwater raised in clearwater homegrown and is the exact kind of entrepreneur that we look to retain in our community this is the type of entrepreneur that we help every day at our organization many of those that are in this room right now and we're excited for his growth and the opportunity and excited to stand beside him and his continued success thank you next speaker good afternoon my name is ladrilla jenkins i've spoke several times before you all the presentation for mr habib it was excellent and everybody else that spoke about mr habib i have nothing against mr habib and his business i also heard about the demographics of the armory where it sits i'm two blocks from the armory i'm a homeowner and i'm going to tell you i pay taxes too when i first bought that house it is like it's quadrupled so i pay tax dollars too across from the armory it's the head start center behind the head start center there's home owners that area is over there where the clearwater country club is mr habib wants to move his business into the national guard armory as a warehouse where his business exists now that was florida power back in the day i out i also grew up in that area i have a love and compassion for it i hear everybody stand up here and they say our community no it's a difference it's the business community it's the residential community and having a warehouse right there where i have to go when i want to go out to north betty lane uh it's right over there where the phillies play uh baseball games and things that why do i need a warehouse in my area i'm all for him moving forward and as far as some of the descriptions of the north reed area it hurts me it's like we're a destituted area a blight we're not a blighted area we're a proud community i just shared with someone there was doctors and lawyers that came out of that community right there on uh pametta street let's go even further back on emond street dr talafan he moved the practice on uh pametta then he went to south side st petersburg lawyers there's professional athletes that have came out of our community young man now nelson taylor he's been out there at the phillies uh some of the children that have been going out there the community is supporting him out there so my area and my community is not destituted put it back in the hands of the community so we can decide what we want to see and as far as that armory i see it as being just like the hail center in dunny thank you miss jenkins yeah next speaker good afternoon my name is barbara miller i was born and raised in the north greenwood community and i am still a resident there i am formerly i am retired from the city of clearwater worked 35 years i was employed in that armory i worked in the armory for several years and from one o'clock until 10 o'clock on monday through friday it was full of kids and like everybody you know the other ladies before me say that it is personal right now i feel like i'm being pushed out of my own community i got my phone ringing people want to buy my house buildings are going down that i was born and raised to see come up they're just tearing down but they're not asking us what we want in the community or giving us a chance to make a proposal we we don't have a chance and and you know i have grandkids and i'm sorry to say that my grandkids will not know what north greenwood was only what i can tell them they won't get a chance to experience that i have great grandkids that will not get a chance to experience what home is that area is home and i really really feel like i'm getting pushed out with these factories with these large houses that are coming up that are not for us to live in in that community so i am asking that you do not at least today accept this proposal and give the businesses that are there the community leaders and our organizations a chance to do our proposal so please do not uh accept this proposal today thank you thank you miss member next speaker mayor council members my name is ryan burge i live in clearwater i work in clearwater um i appreciate the time today i met david a few years back david's all over clearwater i go to the pickleball courts he's on the pickleball courts i see him driving on my way to costco over the bridge from the beach he's out the new hall kogan trail so he's always at clearwater he's wearing the weighted vest he's participating in the activities in the community i met him five years ago while i was with my family enjoying a sunset on clearwater beach one of our you know arguably best assets that we have today david didn't ask me to come he didn't know that i was going to come my dad sent me an article about this meeting last night i read it and i said i have to come here to support him i think taking a long vacant building and breathing new life into it while creating jobs for local residents is ultimately the highest and best use for the armory uh i looked through google maps as far back as i could go year after year i was back in 2007 the gates were locked there's vehicles and storage there i think if this goes through instead of housing equipment it would house people it would create jobs um what david and your mama's team have done to put clearwater on the map is pretty remarkable given he's barely 30 years old um from the residential kitchen like we saw earlier to the heart headquarters to now a full campus everything he does is pretty careful and it's pretty planned out and he spends a lot of time on it he's not just another small retailer trying to keep the lights on he does have a big vision and clearwater is an integral part of the vision and i think he hopes to keep investing in the community there i wanted to share a quick story because uh for those that don't know david he shared some interesting stories that i think would be worth mentioning so uh if you don't know recently a few months ago he was on good morning america right that has a viewership in the millions uh he was prepared he had everything ready to go he thought he might get hundreds of orders they got thousands of orders most entrepreneurs you know might give up or they might quit or they wouldn't know what to do they might panic instead he went to work he hired a bunch more people he scaled up his production he literally worked until midnight you know all hours to get the job done and when they invited him to the view which has a much larger viewership a few months later he was ready they didn't have the same kind of issues again so he's always working to improve and to get better and this is uh what they plan to deliver when something unexpected happens they learn from it they gain from it and they move forward he's grown up in clearwater as you heard earlier he could operate this anywhere he could live anywhere he lives in clearwater he was born here he's raised here and he wants to stay here uh in the area where they go by a lot of their folks have been hired from the community there when he travels far and wide when he's meeting with costco and publics and sam's club at walmart he always tells me he's happy to come back home to clearwater and i you know tend to see him on the beach there and so it's uh it's good for me to represent a friend today i think like i said the armory purchase will allow you to continue to invest in the north greenwood area to create more jobs and to continue to serve the community and i think people have very good comments today when they say they want to have their family there and have meals there i think he would be happy to do it i think those that don't know david i think once they meet him they'll be very happy that he is the person he is because he loves working with the community and doing those things so thank you everybody next speaker uh hello mr mayor council thanks for having us today uh my name is morgan bradham and prior to joining the team here at yo mama's foods i worked for my mom at a restaurant 421 cleveland here carolyn's kitchen we were there for 10 years before she retired um this is our home you know we're all locals we're all from the area we're all just hard-working people from clearwater um we have no intention of of ever leaving clearwater of ever taking this business anywhere else and like was previously mentioned we're top 10 in our category now a couple years ago we were like 17 15 it was really really hard past couple years we've had a lot of growth which has just been a blessing um we because of that that growth and from just from someone growing up here and being here my whole life to me it's like people above us now are the giants like campbell's multi-billion dollar you know companies the fact that we could even have a chance against them and that headquarters is here in clearwater to me it's just like the coolest thing ever right clearwater has something that could potentially be the next campbell's right or or reach that level reach that status um in in doing business and in in our category like you mentioned before costco buyers right we have top high level executives from all over the u.s flying in coming to see the headquarters coming to take tours right kind of getting the attention of these big retailers to come and check out their water and get in touch with the local area um seven from that we do certainly get back to the community um feeding tampa bay was mentioned in the past uh we have given over 50 000 meals to those in need and we continue to amp it up as much as humanly possible and um just like with the building that we're in now we've completely restored it made it nice again that's the intention with the the armory we're not going to change anything we're not going to ruin anything if anything it's going to be the best it's ever been and um i can't speak on you know everyone's history history with the the neighborhood in the area um but i will say that i do strongly believe that going with us as the owner of the new building or of the building would be its best possible outcome and keeping the history and keeping it restored as it should be and giving back to the community through the the tax situation thank you for hearing me out thank you thanks people council i think this is the first time i'm seeing you in 2026 and i'm not here about clearwater point which is my neighborhood i'm here because i want to share uh having worked with other neighborhoods how much i supported as you do i know the north greenwood neighborhood however a mistake has been made first of all i would like to commend mr hadid no pun intended if i was your mama i would be very proud of him because he's done beautiful work and i appreciate all the young people that speak for him because he's done well he did his homework he prepared the proposal he got supporters and including at every level state county city however i think that we failed him nowhere did we and i consider myself also one of the community leaders nowhere do we say to him have you sat down with the north greenwood community and asked them what they have in mind for the armory no one said to him stop son let me share with you how important it is to get the understanding of what is needed in the community so today you've heard things like beyond that uh that uh the proposal went out and it went out only a month no one in north greenwood knew about it you did get a very nice proposal uh from from mr hadid however you've heard words like the there was no inclusion of anyone there was a constant uh uh misunderstanding of what the city of the county of north redwood wanted and very other adjectives to say we did not listen to the people so i'm asking you and with what would you respect to change the tide and follow up on what the community has said go back and ask for more proposals because we the proposal went out and we only got one one project submitted i have in front of me a copy of this is what i really prepared before i heard all these good speakers have in front of me a list of what i call big buck developers versus caste poor neighborhoods this is a list since i became involved in clearwater starting with june 19 uh 2012 where the marriott courtyard went forward to build a marriott courtyard and they it was never placed on the consent agenda approved the neighborhood was never asked there's there's a whole slew of there and you'll get a copy of them then of course we had majorly and it's going on right now in 2018 at this uh in 2019 a decision for uh against the edgewood neighborhood to build to to build the serena now that same community is fighting that developer because they do not want the the the uh stevenson creek damage and the manatees so again please listen go start for more thank you thank you next speaker good afternoon mayor what has been said today much i don't have to be redundant um i want to say um i'm hearing all of the wonderful things that people have stated about mr habib and i'm sure all of those things are great i'm sure he's done great things in the community just wish he hadn't excluded ours uh sounds like he walks on water and he's done great things i believe katie said it was a collective effort and with that collective effort they gave him the opportunity to walk on water he didn't come and have conversation with us not because he didn't know us or he couldn't he just chose not to because he didn't really have to because he had enough people that were there supporting him from start to finish um again nothing against david habib i think he's a nice guy i'm sure he is just wish i had had more time talking with him and about how do we really make our vision for north greenwood cra to come to fruition which would be inclusive of all of the the community people that live in the community um i am very hurt when i think about almost seven years now we have been working to create the cra and that came from a grassroots effort from the community and we worked hard with to make that come to fruition we created the north greenwood citizens advisory committee so things concerning the cra for north greenwood would first come through the committee and if everything was so if it was so in alignment with what the cra plan had my question is why did it not come before us why did it not come before the citizens advisory committee before 30 days after we realized what was happening right that's what we're just we're heard about that and um i would just say that as you ponder or you make your decisions today which um i believe i already know how this is going to go that you put some things in in place in that agreement that allows um if he does not do the things that he says he's going to do that will benefit the community when we talk about employment and jobs i know in a conversation prior to last wednesday we were told he had one employee from the community then on wednesday we heard he had four maybe six four or six i can't remember exactly i think it was four so i'm not sure and that came from a staff member that said he had one and then all of a sudden he had four so i don't know what that was there was embellishment i don't know but the point is if we're going to do that let's let's just uh keep our word and let's put things in that agreement as you allow the staff to negotiate with him to make sure that includes those things and he holds to that all right thank you thank you next speaker mr mayor hello council members thank you for your time my name is vanessa pinkham i am a single mother i'm self-employed and i'm a clearwater resident in fact i live on north missouri avenue where i have for as of june of this year 10 years before then i lived at the corner of jackson road and betty lane so i am deeply invested in my community i came to the meeting today i took time off of work because i feel so passionately about the improvement of our community about the improvement of greenwood the time between my living on jackson road and moving back to north missouri i lived in johannesburg south africa where i saw disenfranchisement racism and inequality like we cannot fathom in this country and so listening to all of the concerns of the members of the greenwood community and deeply empathizing with what they say and how they feel and how long they've been here but also understanding that a rising tide truly lifts all ships by having such a strongly invested clearwater based small business not only improving the beauty the economic stimulus tax revenue but then also the attention to north greenwood what that will do for us as a community far outweighs any immediate protest or emotion that i could come up with i'm so impressed by all of those who've come up and spoken on mr pabib's behalf and then also those who have spoken to the history of the business how much it has grown and how passionately he has put back into clearwater and the homeless empowerment project food outreach the improvement that will come to the community will be incredible and i very much am in support of a yes vote thank you thank you so much thanks speaker hello my name is kevin rt can we reset my clock my name is kevin rt lachlan some of you may know me because i sit in the mayor's seat for the clearwater marine advisory board my second year as chairman but my 10th year on the board thank you for extending my term you're usually only supposed to do two terms i'm also a candidate for seat five on your council as of a week ago i didn't expect to do it i felt it was something i needed to do and at the encouragement of the beckmans and other people who i've supported for years i've been attending these meetings i went to the meeting for the landings presentation and i don't want to use any of the words that i would describe it i think i passed a note to somebody that says you can tell by the chance of success of a project by the quality of the presentation the fans you couldn't hear what they were saying the screen you couldn't hear some of them were very well spoken some of them said um um um they didn't cover the traffic they didn't cover the crosswalk they didn't address the they didn't get the same thing here oh take up your time we're talking about this agenda item for the north yes well this does relate it because i've been going to these meetings and when i looked over the proposal from mr habib who everybody speaks very highly of and i'm very impressed with i've looked at it as a businessman i've run businesses since i moved to clearwater 33 years ago i started a a vending company out of that same storage unit that he started his out of on us 19. i looked at the proposal it looked great let's expand there we know that's an area that needs expansion but then i went to the meeting and i saw the passion that the people spoke with i saw near tears of what that building means to them but what i also really saw was no demonstration of what he's given back sure part of his taxes are automatically go into the cra i believe the number estimated on there was fifty four thousand dollars a year but he couldn't name one person from that community that he employed i believe it was ten percent of his employees are are people of color maybe there were four some slightly larger than that you heard them speak that they they they hear that he's a nice guy but they hear it they don't seem to know him they don't seem to know he hasn't been a part of northwood he's been a business taking advantage of the cra advantages and i think he needs to do a little self-examination i do agree with mr battle conceded that maybe we need a little more time on this but i also think that maybe he needs to sit down with this community not just give a presentation talk to these people i thought that they could bring him to tears too that's all i have to say thank you speaker good afternoon everyone uh so for those of you that may not know me my name is kennard robinson i am a business owner at clearwater i'm a lifelong clearwater resident i also serve as chair as north greenwood citizens advisory committee so this is my first time standing in front of you and this is a very impactful moment for us but really for me and let me explain why around two or three years ago i started to do some research into various things and one of the things i found was clearwater city council meeting minutes from 1985 and in that meeting my great-great-grandmother ethel bryant and her sister cherry harris were in that meeting extremely frustrated and disappointed with the city and they were sure to express their disappointment and frustrations and as many of you may know uh through the efforts of a number of commit uh community members uh our park in our community was later named after my cherry because of her hard work her efforts in the community so the reason why this is so impactful for me is because here it is four generations later and now i'm standing in front of you expressing the very same disappointment and frustration and i think that's very important to highlight because the decision today is going to make it it's going to make an impact one way or another so it comes down to what type of impact do you want to have made so four generations from now when my great-great-grandkids are looking at this are they going to be able to see a measurable change or are they going to see the exact same thing all we're asking right now is a to be included in the conversation and b to have time to really put forth maybe a proposal of our own and truthfully if this is really you what you feel is the best offer for our community when it comes to david habib and yo mama's foods what's another 30 days what's another 60 days it's something that could still happen if you truly feel that this is the best decision but we don't know that because we were never given opportunity to put forth a proposal of our own so i say let's table this let's have more conversation maybe let's give some opportunity for other individuals or other companies to maybe put forth a proposal and honestly even better i think it's a phenomenal opportunity for david habib to really ingrain himself in the community to maybe enhance his proposal inclusive of all the thoughts feelings emotions and everything that we all want to see from the community perspective thank you very much for your time i appreciate looking forward to your decision thank you next speaker no other speakers okay now with that we'll move to uh council excuse me trusting discussion so with that start vice mayor uh yes sir i actually have a question for mr habib okay david how are you thank you for being here today uh my question is if this doesn't go through what would happen to yo mama's food in clearwater what what is that future look like i mean for us this has been a six-year coordinated effort so uh our distribution would continue in chicago the the plans to relocate and create more jobs here wouldn't happen and ultimately uh it would be a massive hindrance on our ability to grow and expand uh i hope that you've you've seen that we've been a good community member over the last nine years that that we've been here and um i would uh really support that this proceeds today another 30 days or 60 days is is a lot for us um each each day is time each day is money we've spent a tremendous amount of that already on this project and um in order for us to to proceed we would we would very much hope for yesterday so does that look like you would still be able to have operations in clearwater or does that mean you'd be focusing elsewhere in the county in the city we wouldn't maintain our operations in clearwater we're committed to that but the ability for us to relocate um another facility in clearwater would would be hindered thank you i've got more but i'll let the the rest of the questions happen thank you dave i don't do you know do you have questions i don't have questions i just wanted to yeah good you have something i want to go this direction yeah i'm good thank you thank you for being here today i have um i have some stuff i want to say at the end but just for purposes i was i was at the meeting last week um as well on a personal level did you learn anything from that meeting absolutely i think uh this is a very passionate community uh you know i was part of the north greenwood uh steering committee before the cra was formed i was told i was told last week that i was only in one meeting i was in 17 meetings and i have receipts and and records of that um i think i appreciate the passion of the community tremendously and our effort and the ability that we want to move forward as a partner and as a neighbor with them i welcome them i welcome all of them i i haven't seen any of them come to to us either and i say that in in a a true sense of you know i know everyone uh i know what their stance is here and i know that they're very passionate about the community and i very much respect that i respect our neighbors and i look forward to the opportunity to to build a bridge and to accomplish what all of us want in north greenwood which is economic development job creation reduced poverty i think everything that this community has put together through the cra plan is is very much uh why we are in north greenwood and we want to be a part of that story so i welcome everyone from the the neighborhood i welcome the opportunity to get to know everyone and i'd like to know what specific organizations they would like us to you know work with i would like to know what what what specific people uh who we should be meeting and i've already had a lot of those conversations with with three of them so i look forward to continuing that as well thank you um that was a kind of rolling into my next question was there was a lot of discussion in that meeting not necessarily about your lack of community involvement because there's no question you're passionate about your community but the lack of community engagement in the north greenwood community is there anything post that meeting that you are willing or plan to do different regarding community engagement in the north greenwood community absolutely so workforce development was instilled into our plan and that's something through the creation of of summer internships and creating further opportunities for north greenwood residents the ability to partner with a lot of the schools potentials that we would like to outline uh in an actual agreement um so going off of what what what maryland said those are already in works i have wonderful counsel with with katie and we're very much committed to partnering and making sure that the community is heard and that that's also included in our proposal moving forward specifically the um agreement or the rfn outlines the minimum that would be required in the agreement um after the responses were due and there was the notice of intent to granted we had a call with the team and then mr kohler and i also spoke about what some of those additional minimum requirements might be obviously in light of wednesday's ninth meeting and some of this reaction i would expect the council to ask for additional items things like a deed restriction for the use um the renovation of the property to maintain it um in its historic format uh whether some of the things that i think mr habib is willing to do and are appropriate like the internships or um those things might be appropriate in a separate agreement or we we bounced around a development type agreement that's independent of you know the conveyance but our expectation would be um your authorization today to continue negotiation or to enter into negotiations would be exactly that an opportunity for you all to give input to staff for the community to give input for staff and for us to bring back a uh a contract or a proposal that you know everybody can be um just another thank you thank you for that um david a question um and i appreciate you answering these questions um commitments are one thing um and they sound great um and they excuse me look great on a presentation what kind of assurances or safeguards can you give to the community that for instance my biggest fear is your head's been down you're grinding your businesses crushing it there's no questions about it congratulations you just outgrew your footprint in a handful of years what happens in three years if you've once again crushed it out through your footprint what type of assurances or guarantees are there for the community that this beautiful building you plan to restore and preserve today doesn't all of a sudden get knocked down in three years to the highest better can you speak to that sure so as as katie mentioned there would be protective measures that would protect the community in both the city as well we're a growing business you know we had one one head we came from my parents dining room to where we are today there's additional space for us to expand at the armory again we're not looking to to demolish that we want to preserve it but there is additional property adjacent to the existing building that we have plans for to ultimately create additional space if that's needed when that time comes but once again you know we're we're committed to to clear water i want to stay here our team is committed and we're we're very much committed to to the north greenwood corridor and as you've you've heard today we we could have gone everywhere i mean there's there's many other cities and other opportunities that we've explored and i've made it very intentional that i want to stay here so um that's my goal and um you know very much want to see that happen i appreciate that uh the last thing if you don't mind um in in going forward is there are you willing to have and i know there were some ideas thrown out in the meeting on wednesday and some were probably not feasible you're a small business can you just create additional jobs for community development or involvement probably not at the size of your business but are there discussions you're willing to have with the community whether it's scholarship opportunities certificate programs at pinellas technical institution maybe being an annual sponsor at one of their biggest community events down there to get more engaged in directly in in that and in our greenwood community are those discussions you're willing to have absolutely i i look forward to having them and i welcome all of them thank you thank you man yeah okay got a few things dave i've known you for now two or three years i know what kind of person you are uh you're a man of your word uh you know my office was right across the street from where you are now i just have to retire back in 2016 so i missed you coming in but uh all the neighbors around there told me about you as you started growing and i've been very proud of your growth and um in what you've accomplished um here's what i do know about you i know that when you say something you stick to it and i know you want to be you're like me you're born in clear water i mean you're here in clear water you've lived in clear water all your life um you want to be a good community leader but first of all when i'm looking at this whole thing um there was really nothing done back door on this at all i mean you didn't even know that you could get the auditorium that was something that just came up i mean for a couple of years we were trying to get the state to do some kind of something with us we weren't even guaranteed that it was going to happen then it kind of happened real quick um i think i think you're doing everything a business should do for a a uh a community because now an untaxed big piece of property in that area is going to become on the tax rule and listen you guys have been here i've worked with you for seven years on the cra and i'm very proud that we have a cra there this is the kind of light industrial is perfect for a cra it's perfect because they don't require they don't require anything like parks libraries or anything they don't require it but they give you the money to for you to get that kind of stuff and i mean you already have a beautiful library you already have a beautiful rec center there you things are happening there and i i'd love to see um the downtown be like it was when i was young growing up there i mean and i think it's going to happen with the cra and you guys have worked real hard for that but this step here this is going to really help fund a lot of things that i mean you could maybe even get the kind of things you're talking about with him helping you in fact he's got enough area he might even if he says he's going to work with you i think he'll open his doors and work with you on that i'm just making a statement i'm not asking for a debate trustees discussion so i i think this is a good opportunity and and again i want to congratulate you for what all you've done and uh and i know that you're going to do for the community that's it thank you okay that's so as you can imagine this has been in the forefront of my mind for weeks now um i'm trying to process everything that's been said to me and everything that i've read and i'm trying to organize my thoughts so um for the purpose of transparency i wrote it down so that i can make sure i cover everything and explain clearly in a transparent uh fashion how i how i'm thinking and the my thought process so let me begin by saying that one of the most meaningful aspects of me serving on this council in the last four and a half years was the opportunity to witness support and champion um an initiative that was literally started and finished by the community um and i enjoyed being part of it i've all i'm always saying i'm tired of the talkers i want to see the walk and you guys are walking um so truly a pleasure and an honor to see that i also had the privilege of going to several meetings where i saw firsthand how engaged the community was we did interactive exercises so not only did we hear the voices but we actually saw through actions what their vision was and that means a lot participation means a lot and so that speaks to the people who are involved not only to the community but the community leaders as well as the city so but i want to kind of go through my thought process and it starts with this the council um and i was happy about this we allocated the arpa funds to help kick start the cra because i knew it was very important to be healthy right at the start um it was an intentional one-time investment to move momentum into action it is important to recognize that this type of funding will not be available in the future which means it is more critical that these initial dollars are used to to establish a strong foundation since then i have been very passionate about supporting its early stages making sure that it's successful including looking ahead to projects like the container initiative container initiative and if you recall the containers idea was originally for downtown and when we couldn't do it and you guys took it over i was like you go girl i was really happy that the community was so active in that in creating that environment um and i believe it's going to be really important for the future of that community and the engagement we also made the decision um where we purchased a debilitated property which i as a businesswoman know it didn't make sense in the numbers didn't it was above appraisal it was about and it was debilitated but you guys needed that it was a strategic decision because we need you to kick start and be successful from the beginning and as we know the cra is still in its infancy it is critical that the tiff revenue generating projects are prioritized versus the wonderful projects that may sound good but will bleed the cra these projects will effectively feed the cra helping to ensure its long-term sustainability and financial health as it grows at its core this effort has been about responding to your vision and i've enjoyed the process um and taking tangible steps to bring your vision now here's the difficult part and rightfully so what i'm going to say is going to be scrutinized and i'm hoping that you will understand my thought process this part of the conversation is tough um especially the decision i have to make the fact that i have read and heard from various sources including two conversations with mr robinson who um i want to thank one of the rare um individuals that we can disagree and have a robust conversation and still feel safe we're still gonna have lunch next week thank you for sharing your ideas because he actually did um enlighten me into to some aspects that i was not aware of and we were able to do that because we were honest with each other and open so mr robinson thank you um i understand and empathize with and respect all perspectives that have been shared and there have been several different ones i want to be transparent about that what i'm afraid of though is that this conflict is going to set us back and it shouldn't because we've been working well together for years and so i'm hoping that this will be a learning opportunity to see where the errors happened errors that i'm hearing are lack of transparency uh lack of communication communication breakdown let us work on that but not use this as a reason to go backwards because we've got a lot of work to do together but regarding this property it is my opinion that context matters nearly six years ago mr could be fixing significant business growth and need for additional space initiated the process of acquiring the armory it was hard i don't think he was going to be able to do it a lot of hurdles a lot of challenges but he was persistent as a direct result of those efforts we ultimately the city received an armory as a gifted asset nothing to the taxpayers we didn't pay for anything then we followed the requirements we put the public notice on um and was issued in january and then by march mr becky was the sole responder from there the city made the decision to move forward with selling him what we were gifted and this is not i believe just a transaction it is a project that is guaranteed to be successful in my opinion it is expected to generate 20 to 30 full-time jobs with an average and this is important mean salary of 65 000 this is not flippin burger salary with meaningful exterior improvements as well as upgrades to several other aspects of it it will strengthen the local economy encourage long-term private reinvestment and carries a high level of execution certainty it is also important to note that this building was previously city occupied therefore tax exempt nothing nothing to to to give to the cra you did not benefit from through this transaction it will return to tax rolls directly benefiting the cra and contributing to the long-term financial sustainability at its core this opportunity exists because of mr habib's initiative we did not want it we did not initiate it we were not actively going for it we were pretty comfortable over there but this was his work this was his challenge so quite simply um we would not be having this conversation if not for him it would be a moot point this is where my principles come into play after years of work led by one individual to bring this opportunity forward i could not in good conscience support receiving a gifted building sail it sell it back to him as a result of his efforts and then actively redirecting it to another party i find that difficult i would never do it to you or anyone else working so hard for for an objective and then having it taken away and i'm sorry i disappointed my my decision has disappointed you but don't this shouldn't stop us i'm hoping this will be a learning opportunity vice mayor yes sir thank you um let me start with miss uh gloria miss maryland mr canard other leaders that have spoken here today i want you to know that i have heard you and when i when i say that let me explain what i believe that you're saying and that you've been left out of the process that you weren't unaware and um you were surprised by this so i want you all to know that i am going to take that back and see how we can make sure that that communication process is thoroughly sent out especially to our cra leaders leaders of the community because we can tell we can i can tell feel the passion it's your neighborhood just like where i grew up in countryside i feel those same passions the roots and what's happening around that area i understand it so my commitment to you is to follow back up and see in the future where things go when they come in that you all are fully briefed and prepared and understand what's happening making sure that gets back to our churches through pastor child's and and all of those things because i know that you know church is definitely another area where the community goes and and word spreads so i want you to know i'm definitely going to take that back and that's what i've heard if there's anything else please respond back to me let me know that i hope that each of you understand i do reach back out and and we'll definitely do that um so mr habib i think that that story of growing up in clearwater being born and raised here wanting to start something and doing it in your mom's kitchen founding your business here wanting it to stay rooted in clearwater is not only just a cool story but it's something that i think that all of us can try to draw inspiration from um the reason i asked what would happen if he if he didn't get the property is because i don't want to see a story like that leave right and when you're forcing a company to start looking out into other regions whether it's here in pinellas whether it's in the tri county or tri regional area you know even though his intent is to stay here depending on what other building he might find in said area it might just be smart to where he has to make the decision to now sell his property here in clearwater and go there and move all operations to pasco hills barrow manatee right and then then what do we have we don't we don't have anything um so when it comes to the inspirational story that mr habib has for this area for this community um and what i know of mr habib too i i do believe he's a man of his word i i i know that it's hard to probably process that through what you're going through now um and being blindsided with some of the words that i had heard to maybe try and start trust from that i i'm not faulting anybody but i do believe the fruits of of his labors and and the and the meaning behind his words are going to be there um this is the start of that negotiation process in my mind um and you know i've talked to some other people since your meeting as well and and i want to reassure you that we're going to protect the community we're going to protect taxpayers and those community members that um if something were to go awry that the city would definitely be able to take or or have a first bid to that property to get back and and i think that he will have no problem agreeing to that um just knowing the man of mr habib that i know that you've heard others state and know so that's um what's going to dictate my decision here and i want the community here at large so everybody that spoke that feels blindsided um i'm definitely taking that heart too and and we'll try and i will try and definitely make sure that that doesn't happen again with future things um yeah i don't want to you know say what's already been stated but um i do think that that we do have to know that this did start from the state level and it just kind of started happening rapidly so um that's where my decision is going to be coming from i hope that i articulated that well enough um and where we go from here so thank you there very much for your time for everybody genuinely uh thank you mayor thank you um to all you that got up and spoke much appreciated i've had a lot of in-depth conversations with several of you um emotional heartfelt genuine real um and i appreciate that opportunity i attended the meeting as you know last wednesday and as every single one of us that sat in there you felt and you witnessed the passion and pride that exist in our north greenwood community and i said earlier on the phone i wasn't reminded of it because i never forgot um but you felt it and you couldn't get away from it um and that that's powerful that's a powerful feeling in that community we heard stories of the armory's history we've heard stories of storm shelters after school youth programs we heard stories of youth dances pick up basketball games in fact i have memories of playing basketball on basketball on that court in the mid 90s i go back and have memories there there as well i was touched by the expressed emotions there was a lot of emotions that were said i took notes on every single speaker and it was hard to not be saddened some people cried in there and rightfully so frustrated disheartened saddened tired of broken promises those are all powerful emotional words that any of us sit there and hear about any members of our community it's hard to not be touched it meant a lot additionally what stood out were the many conversations that focused on what's not being discussed so much here as and now and that's the process the process that brought that event together that night the process that brought 89 individuals from our community out that said why do i keep having to come to these meetings to feel like i'm fighting for something right why can't we at some point have 89 of us gather in a meeting to celebrate right and i hope we get there soon and i pray we get there soon miss barbara sorry love you i can quote you if you don't mind and you said the process fell short of communicating miss gloria campbell you said the idea sounds great but it sucks the way it was presented i agree with you 100 i would be lying if i said i didn't the process did fall short the idea does sound and look great but the process sucked i learned a lot from the process or lack thereof or the fractured process that it may be i think our staff did i think they've already had as a leadership team probably pretty deep discussions on re-evaluating or evaluating our processes because everything that staff did was legal it was by the book it was a precedent that set all throughout our community it wasn't treated any differently than some of the other projects that are in front of us now but there are deep discussions that need to be had on are we doing this right are we handling these processes right and for me this process did not did not feel right and we need to reevaluate that i think it's important at this time we find a way as a community to try to shift away from the layer of emotional arguments because there's a lot there and those are easy to have and try to shift more into those practical areas in an effort to make not only a the best business decision this council can for today but for future generations to come for four generations to come mr canard when your fourth generation grandchildren look back at the city of clearwater notes and see you proudly and humbly stood before us and addressed us with strength and leadership i hope they look back and see a positive change i truly do studying cras and some paths that they've taken not just in the state or in our community it clearly tells a story that the the perfect project doesn't always come first momentum does we've heard that word momentum a couple times early revenue is how we can create that revenue in the cra so that when that right opportunity does come before us we're ready to act we're able to act and move forward instead of watching it go somewhere else or go to a different neighborhood i think establishing a strong stable anchor project early in our cras life stage which we are at we have to find ways to drive revenues we have to find early in that cycle a way to create those revenue streams so that we can make bigger successful prop possible down the road history also shows that there's a natural instinct to wait cra so often all over the country they wait and they hold out for that perfect community project that perfect community partner that perfect applicant we don't have that today we truly don't we don't have a perfect process mr habib would tell you he's not a perfect community partner the perfect applicant it's probably not the perfect time but the truth is those type of projects don't just happen in a vacuum those projects happen in places that already show signs signs of stability signs of investment and signs of progress and forward movement that's when those big moments become possible an anchor project is how we create that signal it's how we communicate not just to our community but to developers investors and the rest of the region that we are moving forward an anchor has reliability brings consistent use consistent activity and consistent revenues into the cra and the north greenwood community without waiting years for permitting process of new construction projects shovels to be thrown in the ground and bricks to be laid think you said last wednesday that the day this property is handed over to you and the keys are handed your group is immediately going to work in the building and working from day one it's turnkey and ready to roll without a steady base we're left just hoping hoping for that perfect project hoping for the perfect time hoping we can act fast enough hoping that we have the resources available when we need them we need to tell a story of change that's actually happening not broken promises not one time recurring dollars from a sale revenue that can be reinvested like we've talked about so often directly backed into the community and whatever those may be that our community decides whether it's letting kids swim for free instead of putting a credit card down for a north greenwood child that wants to swim during the summer not sure how many of those seven-year-olds have credit cards when they show up to go swim whether it's upgrades to infrastructure sidewalks safety signage historical preservation monuments whatever it is projects like this are what enable us to get to that place to make those decisions we're building momentum instead of waiting for it i am sorry that you feel left out i'm sorry that i'm disappointing you today in this decision like i told you on the phone and i know i am i've prayed on it i've made a lot of phone calls i've dug deep i've poked and bothered and prodded staff at all hours to push them to be better but i think this is a decision that i have to make and the council has to make going forward to ensure future generations in the greenwood community don't just stare at a historic beautiful dilapidated building that holds so many memories it's solely holding bleachers garbage cans and as a storage facility but that that beautiful memorable building has the ability to pay it forward to raise taxes and revenues to truly help the community and provide resources where it's needed thank you okay well i will go last and i'll do my best not to repeat what's already been said by my colleagues up here but uh did did want to say a few things first thing i want to say is that this discussion today is not about one lot one piece of property it's about not you know it's not even about one neighborhood it's not even about one community redevelopment area it's about our entire city and the importance of this area this neighborhood to our entire city it it's not a discussion about mr herbeeb it's not a discussion about north greenwood it's not a discussion about the city it's a discussion about us and the one thing that i think that i have taken away from the talking with members of the committee and folks over the last several days is i have learned a lot the one thing i have learned is we need to do better as a city in communicating with this neighborhood and with the folks who live within the cra and one of one of the committee members gave me the a little bit of a pass she said well you know i know this has been going on six years and you haven't been around for all the history and all well i appreciate that but i won't take a pass i'm the mayor now and i'm a council member now one of the five folks who should be engaging in the community and should be engaged in this neighborhood and uh we all staff and i know mr battle apologized and for communication the other day at the meeting and uh but i want to apologize to you too because it's on me just like it's on all of us we need to do better and we'll do better and pastor charles was here he pointed out that that i've not met with the pastors recently and i intend to do that made a note to do that but uh i hope we will see this coming out that we have a lot and i know uh mr habib's already uh uh acknowledged and miss cole that you know they need to make some more intentional efforts to lean into the community too but i hope i hope that we all know that this discussion today it's about us and the city has of course invested you know quite a bit of money to seed money to start the cra we all want this to be successful and uh hopefully that's where it's all headed um that we will continue to work together after today to to make this not just this neighborhood the cra but the entire city thrive i didn't want to point out somebody that came to the microphone talked about um you know to you it's just a building and i want to share at least for me that that's not true at all it's not i've i've been through that building several times and never had the opportunity to play basketball there like council member menino but i see all the pictures on the wall i know the history i've also been through the armory in tampa um that armory in tampa is you know elvis performed there three times i think back in the day and i know there were other notable famous performers that performed over there i know it's been a focal point for uh the entire city over the years and i also know it's across the street from jack russell stadium which was another focal point for the city for years with the phillies and uh then you know we have buccaneer field just on the other side of that why well the tampa bay buccaneers used to have their uh their pre-season practices over there and of course we know the ross norton excuse me north greenwood recreation center is on the site of where the original clearwater athletic field was at where the brooklyn dodgers first started the spring training in clearwater 110 years ago that entire area has incredible history and i know there are many other activities going over there through north greenwood that that we we want as a city we want to protect and i hope that you know this we are simply approving accepting the proposal today i hope that we will engage mr abeib in conversations about agreements to make sure that this history is preserved and some of these other things that the community has shared with me are very important to them to helping the entire neighborhood and cra thrive i hope that we will negotiate those in to the agreement to make sure that there are commitments as we go forward to making this property and the whole cra successful a couple other things i wanted to just mention briefly one is council vice mayor cotton mentioned it earlier and he asked questions mr abeib folks um mr abeib's business has been incredibly successful so successful that there are surrounding communities cities just in this county who would in a heartbeat love to have him and would incentivize him to come there but i thank him for his efforts to stay in clearwater and to stay in this cra he hasn't he has grown an internationally known business in the cra and uh just across the street from the property that he wants to occupy he could go anywhere and i can tell you over uh clearwater's history many many businesses have left they have gotten to a point where they're too big can't find property available they leave in a heartbeat so his efforts to try to stay not only in the city clearwater but in this neighborhood i i thank him for that because i do recognize that it would be really easy for a lot of other businesses and they have to move elsewhere and i hope that him staying here and growing here that the cra will be able to use it to be very proud that this is the headquarters and location for an internationally owned business in that it will encourage others to come here and establish their their economic opportunity they'll bring jobs they'll do these sort of things that will i think one of the funniest moments i've had in dealing with the cra was one of the initial forums i think it was before they even officially became the cra was the residents came in and talked about the needs for the neighborhood and cra and one of them was that it's a food desert there's people don't have transportation to go get groceries and there's not a grocery store within an easy distance for them to get to and uh and then the gentleman said well i've got an idea you know i have you know i have a relationship with this supermarket company and and immediately everybody said no no no no we don't want that one that's that's that's not the one they wanted but but unanimously everybody recognized that we need economic inspiration into this area to get a supermarket in there to provide these essential services that we want so that's what i'm hoping that this will inspire more economic activity and that we have other places the growth and possible growth to provide some of these things that the neighborhood has wanted for so many years that will only come by folks having confidence in businesses like this one yo mamas not only staying there but growing there they believe it's a great spot to be and hopefully others will come and want to join them as well so with that uh i just want to thank everybody that i spoke with that shared the thoughts with miss sorry love i didn't get a chance to talk with you but you gave me some time tomorrow hopefully we'll talk too and uh and i'd i hear from the others up here too and i am personally committed i know the staff is committed to uh to leaning in listening to you more carefully and doing better and uh in the way we communicate with you and those the folks that live in the neighborhood in the cra going forward so if that is there any further trustees if not is there a motion move to approve agenda item 4.2 second all those in favor aye opposed unanimous thank you all for attending and who came today to share your thoughts on that agenda this time we'll move to agenda item 4.3 downtown revitalization this is your item to discuss anything you wish any discussion from trustees okay no thank you uh this time we'll move to 5.1 director's report i'm going to keep this one short but there is a few items on the powerpoint that i do want to highlight if you could put it up yeah make sure it was actually was a cra director report so some of the items that i do want to ladies and gentlemen um ladies and gentlemen appreciate it mr habib if everyone could take the conversations outside we're going to continue the meeting thank you yeah please continue yes sir i just want to make sure that the community understands we're still having the monthly communication outreach meetings here in the library every month that's a good way for us to get to the stakeholders and get their feedback on any type of items that are happening plus for us to give them information that we may have on construction or whatever else they may be and here i'm sure all of you are aware if not then there has been demolition permits pulled on basically a 600 block you see the powerpoint here before you some of those addresses and you also see some of the demo that's happening in addition to down the street on cleveland street where the old hacienda restaurant was located there's construction there's demolition going on there as well this is the outreach meetings as for the library we still continue to move forward with our outreach to different entities and also give tours and we're also going to send two staff members up north to philadelphia to go to the american alliance of museums conference they have every year and they're going to be doing interviews with entities and just getting information back and plus us giving them information on our beautiful community grants we continue to move grants forward in downtown so for north greenwood and this was i was hoping there was going to be some residents still here but as they left that's why i was trying to get through pretty quickly so the northward elementary school we're still in the pre-marketing phase for that particular building so what we want to do is we want to take it in june to the north greenwood cac so they can hear a presentation from staff as far as what we're doing right now in addition set up a tour maybe with the cac at the northward of course we would advertise it to make sure that we're compliant with you know as far as how in the sunshine for all this wonderful stuff but it has been shrink wrapped i'm not sure if you want to add anything else on that not quite not quite shrink wrapped it is shrink being shrink wrapped the wrapping is going up as you see if you drive by you see it looks like a big shrink wrap being applied to a piece of property so a couple of things i just wanted to highlight appreciate jesus you put you pointing to me um so we we had talked about advertising formally and like the june july time frame i'm gonna uh ask that you give us some grace to maybe extend that to like the july time frame or august for a couple of reasons a um and really prior to the conversation with the um north greenwood citizens advisory committee we had always envisioned having some type of open house event and we think that would be great to kind of coincide with the advertisement of the county properties so we're going to try to do an event driven um type of open house and really uh capture all of the folks who want to go through it night at the north ward is kind of the idea kind of like urban renaissance over there catch on right yeah exactly so we're going to work towards that more to come on it but really uh we have while we receive interest it hasn't been the type of interest that i would have expected but at the same time the commentary that we've gotten about some of the challenges it's older property not really a proven market for that type of project even though we'd like a style that we'd like to see so we just need to do more and and we've gotten great coverage we just need to continue to market the property so just want to say those couple of things so that you would understand what our our steps are moving forward thanks jesus thank you and i also want to take the economic development staff cra staff and city manager's office for the north ford it is a partnership grants we continue to move grants forward in the north greenwood area we're going to continue to do that more aggressively especially the commercial grants so the citizens advisory committees are active and they're becoming more and more active as you see there so usually they meet quarterly but now they're starting to request special meetings on certain items so we're respecting that it was just us setting up four meetings per year with adoption for them if they needed additional meetings they could always come to us so now they're starting to exercise that that prerogative their next meeting is set for june the 3rd at the north greenwood recreation center to talk about it at their meeting as well as have that particular event so that was again not in response to what happened today on the conversation today but we were already thinking they're only about a year old so now they basically have their feet wet they're understanding the process they're understanding the rules as far as how crs operate city policies you name it so now they're they're they're getting they're getting their gears ramming up as far as property disposition we do have a large section of property that's been advertised that's here in the downtown in the mlk martin luther king jr avenue area and seven parcels it's we have a technical review committee ready to review those five proposals that have been submitted it's going to be tomorrow or april 21st 2026 we'll be reviewing those proposals and if any of them have merit either way we're going to bring all of them to you for your consideration there's an evaluation committee they operate you know as far as minutes and all this other wonderful stuff as well 900 palmetto this is a property that's located in the north greenwood area we're planning to also take that to the north greenwood cac for them to kind of see that property is a small commercial property tampa bay neighborhood housing services they have plans right now preliminary plans for development of that site and those are the smaller properties that are outside of the cra area for instance small wood circle 801 howard street that's located outside of the cra i'm not going to go over the armory again so but it's there other than that we're continuing to move certain properties from the city into the ownership of the cra the ones that are located at least within the boundaries includes the presentation any questions from the director okay thank you that will we adjourn the community redevelopment agency meeting of april 20 2026 and we will take a five-minute recess before we start the pension trustees quickly through that and we'll we'll give in we'll give in we'll give in we'll give in we'll give in we'll take a five-minute session