Council Work Session on 2026-05-28 5:00 PM - Special Work Session - May 28, 2026

This time we'll call to order the special work session of the Clearwater City Council for May 28, 2026. This time we'll move to item 2 on the agenda. That's council discussion. Agent item 2.1, downtown redevelopment and construction activity, Cleveland Street Alliance update. This is a special work session called by Councilmember Menino and his request for the fairly narrow purpose of discussing business activity, development activity between Osceola and Myrtle in downtown Clearwater on Cleveland Street. So the purpose today is to talk about activation of those properties along Cleveland Street between Osceola and Myrtle. A lot of other things we could talk about today, but today we're focusing on that stretch of downtown Clearwater on Cleveland Street. And we're also, this work session was really set in response to some announcements that were made about movie theater and some potentially very exciting business activities taking place that some or maybe none of us knew very much about. The leaders are hopeful. At the time they were announced, so Councilmember Menino suggested this work session be held for us to learn more about things that had been announced publicly, that we weren't able to answer questions that we were getting from citizens about these activities. So today is really, there's not an opportunity for public comment. It's a chance for us to hear from those who are participating and participating in businesses along that stretch and for our council to ask questions of those who are invited today. So we'll start with our economic development group, our director. Yeah, I think we're having technical difficulties here. It's like the media, yeah. See if we're good. Okay. Yes? So we'll start with a report by our economic development director, and then we have four organizations that have been invited today. Flag Organization, Cleveland Street Alliance, Evo Entertainment, and Myrtle Development LLC. Each one of those four invited entities will have separately 10 minutes apiece to introduce themselves to us, to talk about who they are, who's involved, and what their involvement is in potential activation activities on the area street. But each one will have 10 minutes separately to do that. Now, before we go any further, I did want to give Councilman Mimino a chance to make a few comments. This work session was his idea, suggestion, so I want to make sure that he has a chance to go ahead and have the first say to make some comments. Thank you, Mayor. This evening's public meeting marks a significant moment for Clearwater, not only because the first time in 50 years entire blocks of downtown development are moving forward, but because of the nearly $100 million of investment on Cleveland Street that we'll be discussing this evening, but because of the opportunity this moment presents for the future of Clearwater. It's an opportunity to help shape a downtown that is vibrant, welcoming, and designed to serve the entire community, not just for this generation, but for generations to come. For decades, conversations about downtown Clearwater, its redevelopment, and the role of major property owners, including the Church of Scientology and its development partners, have drawn intense public interest, concern, speculation, and at times, frustration. Tonight we're choosing a different path, one rooted in openness, transparency, accountability, and clarity. That is why this unprecedented special session was requested, to bring city leadership, the public, the Cleveland Street Alliance, the Church of Scientology, and its development partners all together into one room, under one roof, in the sunshine, in full view of the public. The purpose is straightforward, to engage in a fact-finding discussion that brings clarity to recent development announcements, public statements, social media messaging, and press releases related to Cleveland Street and the broader redevelopment plan of downtown Clearwater. Right now, information is widespread and omnipresent, but it's also fragmented, too often clouded by speculation, and unfortunately diluted with misinformation. Tonight gives us a rare chance, a chance to provide clear, reliable information that can inform our residents, our visitors, prospective investors, help residents and businesses prepare for the construction and change before them, give our business community greater confidence about upcoming market conditions and changes, provide the media with dependable public reference, and reduce confusion before it has the ability to turn into misinformation. I want to thank everybody here this evening for participating with us in this publicly respectful and hopefully constructive discussion. I also want to thank our outstanding staff for their time, their energy, and their care that they've devoted to making sure this significant evening is not only possible but runs smoothly and professionally, that represents them to the fullest of who they are, and to my fellow colleagues for recognizing this important moment and this effort and its significance for the future of our city of Clearwater. Thank you. Thank you. And to Council Member Menino's point, we're really most interested in activation, what businesses are leasing, either under lease or thinking about leasing or going to fill these properties. The construction activity and design and all that's interesting, but I think we're really interested in what came out of the announcement was that there's some proposed activation for these properties that have been empty for a long time, as everyone knows. And so I appreciate Mr. Roberts being here tonight to represent Evo and hear more about you and your company here tonight, too. So with that, we'll ask our Economic Development Director to come up and begin the presentation. Good evening, Mayor, City Council, City Manager, Assistant City Manager, other respected city officials on the dais. Tonight's presentation provides a factual overview of redevelopment and construction activity associated with the Cleveland Street Alliance properties in downtown Clearwater. Through this presentation, staff aims to provide transparency and public understanding regarding current permit activity, redevelopment status, and any remaining review processes. Staff's objective tonight is to clearly explain what applications and permits have been submitted, as well as permit activity, demolition, and renovation work, and where projects currently stand within the city's review process. The goal is to distinguish between work already authorized administratively and future approvals that may still be required. Tonight, we clearly want to explain what applications and permits have been submitted, what approvals have occurred to date, what work is currently underway, and what may still require additional review. Many permits discussed tonight are administrative permits process under existing zoning and land development regulations. The Cleveland Street redevelopment activity occurring in downtown is being reviewed within the framework of the city's adopted plans and policies, inclusive of Clearwater 2045, downtown redevelopment plan, and the city's strategic plan. Existing plans do support downtown reinvestment, adaptive reuse, business activity, walkability, and long-term economic vitality. Staff continues reviewing projects for consistency with adopted planning policies and applicable development regulations. Current city activity generally includes, and you could put them in these three categories, interior demolition permits, renovation and white box permits, and building demolition permits, all at some various stages of active activity or completion based on the particular property. The current activity in progress can be defined in these general categories. Adaptive reuse, white box commercial renovation, demolition and site preparation, as well as new construction, and there are some associated definitions as well. These are some of the categories that we currently have to kind of simplify what particular permits are we referring to. There's interior demolition, building demolition, white box, which basically is taking a property and preparing it for a future tenant to occupy, as well as exterior rehabilitation, which can sometimes include facade, windows, doors, architectural features of a building. These are just more categories of the same. This particular slide gives you an opportunity for those who are interested in accessing our current portal for information. A CELA reference tonight is basically an opportunity for you to scan the QR code that's provided on the screen or perhaps visit the link at your discretion to learn more about the permits and where they currently stand. There are some quick facts I just want to share with you tonight. As of May 25, no public funding has been used or requested. No zoning amendments have been submitted, and all properties remain commercially zoned. For those individuals interested in learning more about the Cleveland Street Alliance vision, the overall plans for the corridor, you are welcome to visit their Waters Edge building located at 331 Cleveland Street. They have visualizations and various other exhibits and displays for the public. This is just pretty much to give you an overview, an aerial, if you will, of the different blocks that we are referring to for tonight's presentation. They include the 400 block, the 500 block, the 600 block, and the 700 block. So this just kind of gives you some kind of geographic understanding of what areas we're referring to. And now I'm going to walk you through each of the properties individually. We're starting with 432 Cleveland Street. Permits have been issued for interior demolition, interior remodeling, fire alarm installation, and rooftop solar improvements. The estimated completion is currently projected for May 2026. And this is just giving you an exhibit or a depiction, if you will, of the before, the current, as of earlier this week, and after, which is a rendering our concept of what was originally provided to us. This is 519 Cleveland Street, the former Woolworth building. This property includes interior demolition, white box renovations, exterior rehabilitation, roofing improvements, and building system upgrades. The estimated project is substantially, excuse me, complete per staff at this time. And this gives you more pictures before, the current, and after. 534 Cleveland Street is a renovation activity at this property. It includes major interior improvements, fire alarm, and sprinkler systems, as well as rooftop solar signage and exterior rehabilitation. Work has largely been completed through the administrative permitting processes. This kind of gives you more depiction before, current, and after. 615 Cleveland Street. We have the property basically includes interior demolition, more white box renovations, storefront restoration, roofing, new mechanical, electrical, and plumbing. Construction activity remains ongoing with an estimated completion projected for 2027. And this, again, gives you a depiction of the before, the current, and the after rendering. 623 Cleveland Street. Work at this property includes interior demolition, white box renovations, exterior rehabilitation, storefront improvements, and building systems upgrades. The construction activity remains active with an estimated completion late 2026. And this, again, gives you an indication of this particular project here and where it is current as of the 26th. 629 Cleveland Street. Renovation activity includes white box preparation, roofing improvements, storefront rehabilitation, and modernization of building systems with an estimated completion of late 2026. 635 Cleveland Street was originally entered into our city's permitting process as a renovation project. However, following addition, building and project evaluation, the redevelopment strategy shifted toward demolition, which has now been completed. And you can kind of see the before, the current, with the structure removed, and, of course, the after rendering concept. 639 Cleveland Street. Activity at 639 Cleveland Street includes interior demolition, storefront rehabilitation, roofing, MEP improvements, and modernization of building systems. Work remains under active permit review and inspection processes. And this just gives you another iteration of that. At 645 Cleveland Street, similar to 635 Cleveland Street, this property also was submitted with the intent of renovating the existing building. But after additional assessment, it was deemed to be needed to be demolished. And so that has also been completed, as you will see in the next slide. And so you have the current rendering as well showing what will be replaced. The Cleveland Street and Myrtle Avenue area represents the 700 block for Cleveland Street. Activity in this area currently consists primarily of demolition permits, plumbing, cut, and cap permits, and site preparation activity. As of May 25, no formal planning application has been submitted to the city. However, a pre-application meeting did occur on May 8th. All future redevelopment activity in this area may require additional review and processes depending on the future submitted applications. This kind of gives you an aerial, if you will, of that site, what it looks like. Full site is not pictured, by the way. And then you have the demolished and the rendering thereafter. So having said that, we appreciate your attention tonight. As we have alluded to earlier, the staff will continue reviewing all submitted materials through established review and permitting processes consistent with city regulations and adoptive policies. Thank you very much. Do any of us have any questions for the director? I have a couple. Yes, sir. One, I didn't hear you talk about activation. What do we know about activation as far as any of these spaces? Do we know if they're under lease? I will defer to the new company's status. Thank you for that. Well, the second thing is there was one, two, three, four, five, six different LLCs listed as owners. I didn't see any of the folks who were invited tonight as being an owner of any of these properties. Do we know who the owners are of these properties that you just referenced? Well, yes, sir. We strictly went by the property appraisers' records of depicting who the owner is, and based on the information that was submitted in the application. Well, that would be helpful to us because I think that's part of the transparency that, you know, the community would like. Who actually owns these properties that we're talking about? So hopefully we'll get to that with presentations. So I didn't have anybody else got anything else for the director? Okay, well, thank you. Thank you so much. Then we'll go one by one by each of the four that were invited, and each will have ten minutes, and our clerk will start the clock at the beginning of the ten minutes to talk about her involvement in activating these properties on Cleveland Street. So the first will be the Flag Service Organization. Good evening, Mayor, City Council, and staff. Thank you very much for having me here today. My name is Scott Dobbins. I am the founder and principal of Highbridge Commercial Real Estate, a retail brokerage and asset management firm located here in Tampa. I've spent more than 25 years in retail and mixed-use project leasing and development throughout Florida. I also lead the merchandising, tenant recruitment, and leasing efforts for the Cleveland Street Alliance, overseeing the leasing and activation strategy for the Cleveland Street Corridor. The Cleveland Street Alliance is a coalition comprised of the Church of Scientology, its parishioners, and a team of urban planners, architects, designers, and real estate professionals working together on the ongoing revitalization of Cleveland Street. This team has put forth a bold, unified vision for the rebuilding of Cleveland Street that we are excited to share with you today. What you will see today is a coordinated approach combining historic preservation with new activation and redevelopment across the corridor. This approach is combined with comprehensive, data-driven retail analysis using tools such as consumer surveys, behavior analysis, market studies, merchandising planning and analysis, and void reports. This program is focused on reestablishing downtown Clearwater as an active, connected, and economically viable urban center. We have a great deal prepared for you today. You will hear from Gensler, Hal Fants and Pichette, Evo, and the actual Entertainment Center team. And in the interest of time, our presenters will be turning the podium over to one another as we move through this presentation. So with that, let me introduce our first presenter from Gensler, Roberto Jimenez. This organization has 10 minutes, so we're not running through all of them collectively. So this is for the flag service organization to make their 10-minute presentation. Thank you again to Clearwater City Council, Mr. Mayor, for hosting us, and to the whole team for their support. My name is Roberto Jimenez, as Scott said, and I'm here representing a team of designers from Gensler who work very hard on these projects. So a little bit about Gensler. We're a global architecture firm founded in 1965 and headquartered in San Francisco with over 6,000 professionals and 57 offices worldwide, working across sectors from retail and commercial buildings to airports and urban design. We believe in downtowns. Improving the downtown experience is one of the most effective ways to strengthen a city's brand, build a thriving local economy, and retain residents. We all know that. So I'm an architect, and I lead the design and space planning at Gensler for over 100 Church of Scientology buildings worldwide. Because of that role, I know their specifications and functional requirements pretty well, very well. And this work on Cleveland Street is completely different than that. I spent a good part of my early career designing retail buildings, and these Cleveland Street projects were conceived and designed as commercial and retail buildings. They were not designed to meet any standard used in church buildings, and I can say that confidently because I know exactly what goes into those other buildings. So we were given one simple mandate. It's for the historic buildings, as you have seen, that could be restored to make them truly historic, no half measures, no faux historic shortcuts, and that's what we did. So the three buildings that we designed, as you have seen, are the telephone building, People's Bank, and Wilbur's. And I'm not going to show you pretty pictures because you can walk right down the street and see them. I just want to give you a small glimpse into our process and the principles that we followed. And it starts with history. So Main Streets in the 20s began as carefully crafted brick facades. So over the decades, they were updated in ways that eroded this craft, first with simplified signage and altered openings, and then in the 60s and 70s, unfortunately, with giant flat aluminum panels and stucco skins that completely covered the historic facades, and later with generic remodels that treated the facades as billboards instead of historic assets. So in response to that, we focused on three guideposts, proportions, materials, and details. So proportions are, that's the dimensional relationship of one part to another and to the whole, creating a visual harmony. So when the proportions are right, you know it. It's really simple. The facades feel calm and coherent. And when they're off, you also know it. Anyone can sense that something isn't quite right with that facade. So on the screen is an actual image that I drew during the design of the People's Bank. And those red lines were drawn in CAD, and they were following historical photos. And they were overlaid on that black and white image to show what needed to be corrected. And that's exactly how they were ultimately built. Now, in materials, they preserved the building's authentic fabric and performance, and they age in step with the original construction. That's really important. Just getting that brick right, that type, and the color, and the mortar was critical because small mismatches stand out forever. And the wrong mortar can actually damage historic masonry. And finally, details. Profiles, joints, moldings, or hardware carry a lot of the building's character. For example, on many contemporary projects, the windowsills were flattened into thin metal angles, and they shed water. They work perfectly, but they lose the weight and the shadow line that visually sits that window on the wall. So the facades feel flat and generic. So here, we detailed thicker, historically-profiled brick sills with a proper nose and drip and set the windows back to emphasize that shadow line. Only a few inches, right? But it changes how that facade feels. Now, for the team, we have some very, very talented people on this project. One of them is Stephanie Farrell, which you may have heard of. Unfortunately, she had a family emergency. I could not be here today. Stephanie is an award-winning Tampa-based historic preservation architect. Who guided the restoration from the very start. And she reminded us that preservation is not just about fixing buildings, but bringing them back into active use while honoring the community's identity and history. And that vision has been realized here through skilled craftsmanship and rigorous attention to detail, from restoring 61,000 bricks and nearly 18,000 feet of mortar, just in the telephone building and the world wars. In addition to that, the People's Bank clock, bringing that back to life. So today you're going to hear from two of the specialists who carried out some of that work. And on a personal note, just really quickly, I want to add that my son's about to graduate from college. And that naturally had made me think about back, you know, thinking back 21 years of teamwork and sweat and late nights, but also looking ahead at his potential and everything that he's going to achieve in his life. In a similar way in architecture, and what I do is watching a project move from a rough sketch to drawings and finally see these beautiful buildings take shape is incredibly rewarding. And there's nothing quite like seeing something that you've invested so much time in actually stand on its own. It's a fantastic feeling. So I invite you, I invite everyone here today to share in that sense of pride and possibility as we look at these buildings on Cleveland Street and to see them as a strong foundation for the amazing future that's coming. I'd like to invite David to come up and Dennis to share their work really quickly. Hey, guys. My name is David Boyd. I'm a lifelong horologist. For those who know what that term is, congratulations. For those who don't, horology is the study of time and timepieces. So I started alongside my father at 7 years old, and by 16 I was already making house calls repairing grandfather clocks. But back to Dad. In 1944, at 14 years old, my father started repairing clocks as a way to make a little money on the side. But at 19 he got polio, which put him in a wheelchair for the next 66 years. So at 19 years old, he would make horology. His career. For three generations now, we are dedicated to the preservation of historic timepieces and the craft of horology. Today, Boyd Clocks works on more than 1,700 clocks a year throughout Florida, including historic tower clocks and street clocks that have become important landmarks in their communities. I'd like to show you the restoration of the People's Bank Clock here on Cleveland Street. When we first renovated the People's Bank Clock, it carried nearly a century of exposure to the Florida weather and the elements. So we carefully disassembled and restored the original clock housing, got rid of a lot of rust, preserved the copper exterior, rebuilt damaged components, and added new stained glass detailing inspired by the building's original Art Deco character. Inside, we integrated modern GPS-regulated clockwork so the clock remains accurate while preserving its original appearance and craftsmanship. For me, this work is about the identity and spirit of a community. The people will still be able to look up at this landmark and enjoy it for generations to come. Thank you. I now introduce Dennis Rood. Thank you, Dave. Good evening. My name is Dennis Rood. I'm the founder and president of Cathedral Stone Products. I've been cutting and repairing masonry since I was 18 years old, and for the last 40 years, we've been focusing, my company's been focusing on restoring buildings the right way. Over the years, I've had the privilege to work on some of the nation's most important landmarks, including the Empire State Building and Ronald Reagan National Airport. And there's a picture of me repairing a section of the White House. And what drew me to the historic buildings on Cleveland Street was the level of care being taken to preserve them properly. While others take shortcuts, the mandate here was perfection. Historic masonry can't be treated with inferior materials and shortcuts. Every historic building is different, and it demands a tailored approach and the best craftsmanship. So for these buildings, we performed laboratory testing to develop custom mortars specially matched to each substrate. That means the mortar physically matches the original building, so it expands, contracts, frees. Thank you. Yeah. I think I'm going to go ahead the way it's played out. You know, five of us ask any questions, you know, just presentation by presentation. So it was this time. Anybody have any questions for Flag Service Organization and what they presented? This was the Flag Service Organization's presentation on their involvement and activation of properties in Cleveland Street. I mean, the whole purpose was to have the Flag Service Organization come over here and talk about how they are involved in the activation of Cleveland Street. So, uh, uh, Gensler's one of the most impressive, if not the most impressive architecture firm in the world. We appreciate that and the two businesses, but unless one of these three businesses are going to lease space on Cleveland Street, it's not really helpful to us. We really want to know what businesses are going to go in these businesses and what, and what, uh, Flag Service Organization's involvement is in putting these in here. You know, when we had the earlier presentation from the city, um, the Flag Service Organization was not mentioned as an owner of any one of these properties. So, uh, I think the community is curious about what, what's the involvement here of Flag Service Organization in activating these. Apparently not, it's not an owner, um, but, uh, but, but seems to be very involved in assisting or facilitating. And that's really kind of what we want to hear, what the involvement of the organization was. So, I don't know if, Scott, do you want to talk about that or somebody can, somebody can speak on behalf of Flag Service. Yeah, so, uh, our specials here are all within the, the four buckets of entities that you've requested. I think we've just had a kind of a flow through under the idea that all questions regarding any of the four entities, if you will, would be addressed at the end. But I'm, I'm happy to directly answer that question. So, Cleveland Street Alliance is the coalition. Uh, that coalition is, uh, and all of the activity to date, uh, within the historic renovations and the 600 block, uh, have been funded by the parishioners, uh, of the church. Uh, and that is, uh, been, uh, worked and strategized and sequenced in conjunction with this, uh, a portion of which are here today, uh, with some of the most esteemed professionals in various areas that I have ever had the pleasure of working with. So, I hope that answers your question directly, Mayor. So, their involvement's been through members of the organization. It's not the organization. So, I think, as, as mentioned during my opening, the Cleveland Street Alliance is, uh, the Church of Scientology absolutely involved, their parishioner base, uh, and then this consortium of development, uh, space planning, design experts throughout the country and locally here. Okay. Okay. Any other questions? Council Member, to share that. Hi. Hi. Thank you for coming. Please, thank you. Um, as stated today very clearly, thank you very much, um, that this is a collaborative, uh, venture, um, it even states on page seven of the Good Life magazine that is a collection of isolated, it's not a collection of isolated projects. And, and you were very clear about that today. So, naturally, my mind goes to, um, let me think about, I'm trying to kind of phrase it. How does, knowing that it's an organized joint venture, how does this project avoid creating what planners like to call stage set urbanism? Hmm. So, I think the secret sauce of the downtown is actually the inverse of what I know has been referred to as kind of organic development and expansion. Um, I came on this project 10 years ago, and I was tasked with both Scientology owners and non-Scientology owners on the street to come up both with a strategy and, can you lease these spaces? And the reality was, we could not for any type of significant rent, uh, they were, um, uh, these buildings were ignored for decades, uh, the deferred maintenance of these buildings. Uh, so, it rendered itself un-leasable to a real degree. So, we've been working, uh, in concert with some of the best minds in urban planning and placemaking, and what was determined was unified ownership actually is a absolute competitive advantage to the competitive set out there. By having unified ownership and a downtown core over this kind of span of blocks, you're able to lease and manage the project like a mixed-use project. So, Pinellas County, we have a million people, give or take, in Pinellas County, a million two-plus over in Hillsborough County. Pinellas County today does not have a coordinated Hyde Park Village, albeit an accessible type of experience. You can't look to that in St. Petersburg, uh, uh, or any of the other, uh, tertiary markets. We have that opportunity at basically three times the size. Therein lies the opportunity and the excitement that this team is bringing forth today. I'll, I'll preemptively address the activation because that falls on me. Uh, I can tell you right now, I am negotiating at any given time a dozen letters of intent with best of class, and I want to emphasize that. Could I have filled this up? Could we have filled this up with what I would consider not the right operators? The answer is absolutely yes. But we are curating this, and we're curating it for the community. We want this to be accessible, and this has been very thoughtful as it relates to price points for various uses, uh, as it relates to the culinary options, both in full-service dining and fast casual. So, uh, I, I think we've been very coordinated, and the answer, the direct answer to the question is, is that we don't want to just open up the burger bar in the telephone building. This has to be coordinated with the first tranche of tenants, and that first tranche of tenants has to be in sequence with the most exciting thing that I think is going on in Clearwater, and that is the announcement of the movie theater, uh, to have a destination entertainment anchor really provides some gravity to the project, and I hope Mitch and the rest of the team can further explain that, uh, because we've put a lot of time and, uh, and effort into the presentation under the spirit of wanting to be very transparent. So, uh, I know kind of formatting we're a little bit, uh, a little bit off, but I can assure you we're ready to answer questions. Well, we look forward to hearing from Mr. Roberts, for sure. Yeah, yeah. And I'm, I'm really not trying to be adversarial here. No, not at all. We're, we're just, the, the community sees all these organizations involved. We're just wanting to know, um, and Flag Service is a tax-exempt non-profit, you know, just, just, the community wants to know, how is a tax-exempt non-profit involved in, with for-profit LLCs and real estate development? Yeah, you know, again, I... Just to be transparent, and we're just really looking at it. Somebody from Flag Service Organization, a client, to, uh, to explain that. So, uh, get it? I think you've answered, you know, our question in that regard. And then you're the next one on here, um, to represent Cleveland Street Alliance, to talk about the other things you want to talk about. Uh, I am, but, again, our sequence... Let me, let me... Can I have a follow-up? I have a follow-up question. Let us have questions for the, for the Flag Service. I have a follow-up question to what I just asked. Okay. Thank you. Um, so, watching the videos, hearing what you're saying, I'm kind of getting a visual of what you want, or what you think is favorable, or the best options. What I would like to know, though, is what type of businesses would you not consider? Is it lounges? Is it bars? Um, what would you not think is, is what you want? Compatible. Yeah, I, we are looking for an elevated, safe experience that's family-centric and that accessible from a price point standpoint. We want the whole community, uh, and visitors to hit this up. We don't want to be overly elitist, uh, or over, overly fashioned. We want this to be very accessible. Uh, there are certain uses that, you know, I don't think we're going to have a liquor store or, or a vape shop on the street. You know, I'm just going to be candid with you. We are curating on a storefront by storefront basis, and that's come with a lot of real expertise. I mean, we are looking to pull pedestrians from one block to the other based on specific programming on a storefront basis. So, I want to be very direct with you, Lena. Um, we don't want any of the rabble-rousing type of stuff. We don't, you know, you're only as good as your weakest link in this type of environment. And I think history will tell you that. The first group that does the 25-cent shot night, uh, brings an element that I don't think any of us want in downtown. So, that's how I would answer that question. So, you are open to any business of the caliber you're talking about, but that would ignite a nightlife. You'd be open to that. I think there will be an active nightlife down here, sure. No, I don't think it's going to be liquor-only clubs. Uh, I think, I think it will be more of a, a tamer kind of full-service restaurant scene that will go late. Um, I think, uh, we're talking about other uses, uh, that we'll announce, uh, in the future that are more nightlife-specific. Appreciate the follow-up questions, but I think we're going to move one question, by long, to give everybody a chance to ask one question first. So, I think you need to pick it first, and then Councilman Rawl-Britton. Thank you. Mr. Dobbins, thank you. Quick question. I want to back up a little bit and just get a better understanding from a 20,000-foot view. Um, why now? What, what's changed? You know, we've, we've heard discussions and seen presentations and videos, um, for quite a while, right? Um, but why, why today? What, what's changed? And is it the thought process, the strategy, the market? What's different? Yeah, I want to be real direct. Um, I think what's changed is we got our anchor. You know, uh, at the end of the day, we got our anchor. This was work. We were, we've been working on this for over 18 months. Now, concurrent to that, we're also negotiating, uh, leases on spaces throughout the historics and the 600 block. But what's, what helps my job in accelerating those leases is the best, most innovative entertainment and movie theater on the planet. That's what's helping my job. So, it's a little bit of strategic, uh, sequencing. Uh, we're certainly been pushing, uh, to aggregate the first phase of tenants, all the while knowing that this was, this was the game changer, is securing our anchor, uh, and that'd be my answer to that. Thank you. Yeah. Congressman Robert. Scott, you and I talked about a year ago, I think. Yes, sir. Um, and, uh, I guess when we, I first, when we first saw this plan come out, and, um, and I'm glad we're doing this tonight, because that was one of my basic requirements a year ago, is to bring it to the public, show the public this, don't just show us, and then have us go out and try to sell it. So, this is a good thing tonight. Um, but as the mayor said, we're, we, we know that Scientology builds a beautiful building, okay? Because we know it. We've seen it. I mean, in the buildings they've done, they don't, they don't take any shortcuts. Um, but what, I think every one of us up here really are concerned about, because I know we go out, I go out to the public, and I'm, I'm talking to people about this great plan, and the first question I get is, well, what's going to be in it? You know, the activation part of it is real important, because, um, you know, when originally, uh, the church bought the, uh, properties on Fort Harrison, fixed them all up, and then nothing happened, everybody's very timid about, are they really going to have to keep something in there that we could go to? Uh, so, again, I'm going to drop back for a minute. I know, when I looked at it first, the thing that really, um, as a retired contractor, knowing about the business somewhat, was your data-driven retail and restaurants. And what, the amount of research that goes into what is going to do the best for that property, that, to me, was a game-changer for me, because anybody can build something nice and then get anything in there, and if, and you don't want to see it fail. You want to see it, you want to see something the public's going to want, and you want to see it successful. And, uh, and I also understand about having an anchor in a place where, boom, when that thing is in, everything starts to go from there, because that's what everybody looks for. That's right. So, can you just tell me, on the three properties that were already started or almost completed, being the telephone company, People's Bank, and the wars, what, what do we have to activate those spaces? I've heard several things, but you're the man, you can tell, tell us now what exactly is going in there. Yep. So, I can't tell you what's exactly going in there. This is also a part of our, both our strategy, and we're also bound by some confidentiality as we're negotiating with respective tenants. So, what I've stated to, uh, both the Tampa Times, I believe you were all cc'd on that correspondence, is that we are actively, uh, finalizing deals and putting them in the queue for announcements. We announced Evo, we announced the modern Asian restaurant on the 600 block. Rest assured, there is more coming in the upcoming weeks and months. This isn't some kind of long-term thing. But this is, I give the analogy, the first round of this is the real pioneering round. You're herding cats, and you don't have volumes to really show for it on the street today. So, you have to garner folks that are both curated, best-of-class operators, but they also have to get it. And then they also have to have the debt and equity capabilities to be underwrote and to actually, uh, get up and open and sustained over time. We only have one chance to make this impression. So, we are being very diligent with our curation. Activation doesn't happen overnight. Uh, and we are aggregating that first tranche, and there are, uh, more announcements to come in the, in the, in the short term and medium term. Wait until the presentation is concluded. Thank you. Yeah, if you guys wouldn't mind, a lot of these questions, as we've been... Yeah, well, you're next, I assume, for Cleveland Street Alliance. Well, Cleveland Street, uh, which, uh, which part of this I've addressed, and then also, uh, uh, Michael Halifantz, uh, also is going to be addressing the historics, uh, that are a part of that. Okay, sir, we'll move on to Cleveland. Unless, any of you have any questions, flags up. If not, we'll go to, uh, Cleveland Street Alliance. That's the next, yeah. And then Evo Entertainment, and then last would be Merle. Yeah. All right. So, uh, my name is Michael Halifantz. I'm in that picture. Um, I'm, uh, the design principal of Halifantz and Pichette. Uh, we've opened the office about, uh, well, 20 years ago, uh, this year. I've been also teaching at University of South Florida for, uh, 24 years. I've been teaching the tropical architecture course there, and, uh, I'm now the associate director. So, uh, in 2018, I was honored with the Medal of, Medal of, Medal of Honor for Design, which is the top award, uh, from the, uh, Florida AIA, uh, as the top architect in the state of Florida. As a firm, we've won more design awards from the American Institute of Architects than any other firm in the state of Florida, and this is why we were hired to redesign, uh, the street, uh, Cleveland Street. For all of our work, this is, uh, Tower in Sarasota, um, we are very careful in terms of, um, um, having buildings that respect the place, that, uh, take advantage of the shade, and, uh, take advantage of the climate, regardless of the scale. So, this is a project in, uh, in Orlando, where we extend the building to the outside and create a shaded environment for these series of restaurants to extend out. For another project on the Gulf Coast, um, we extend from interior space to exterior space, and, again, take advantage of the place that we live in. This is a house in St. Petersburg, uh, it's on the bay, and really the shaded space is, uh, is the architecture. Um, some of you might have, uh, noticed I have a slight accent, um, but I, you know, I immigrated to Florida, I love the state, uh, but I designed for the state, and, and this is one of the reasons that we were hired, is to create, um, a series of storefronts, 42, uh, storefronts along Cleveland Street that, um, that, you know, give a certain character to the street, to the street and to the city. So, what we wanted to do is to use the historic buildings as a springboard to create the next buildings. The historic buildings are wonderful. They have overhangs, they create shade, they create spaces for outdoor dining, and we definitely wanted to do the same thing for the new buildings. But we also, if a building has no architectural quality, no historic value, at that point, what we wanted to do is to create a new identity for the building, and what was, and I thought your question was very good in terms of what's important is for each building to have their own identity, to have their own characteristics. We also learned from the historic building in terms of, we want to maximize transparency so that, uh, the operators, the retailers that Scott finds, they will be, you know, the star of the individual buildings. They will be engaging pedestrians as they walk through. We wanted to start with the 600 block, show you the 600 block, because it is the block that is under construction now, and it's also the one that is the closest to the Florida, um, to the Family Entertainment Center. So, looking at the existing buildings, I think they're hard to look at. Um, you know, looking at this building, for example, it's very heavy. The doors are only seven feet high. They have dark tint. You don't see the inside. Actually, if you stand on the sidewalk there, and if it's raining a bit, uh, the roof is generously sloped, so that ball of the rain just falls on you. Um, so what we wanted to do is to, um, give a little bit more, uh, sense of arrival to all of these spaces. Give them a sense of dignity. Open up. Give it a little bit more height, and really celebrate the entrances. In this particular one, we have green foliage, you know, foliage that you can only have because we are on the west coast of Florida, and we, we would have foliage, you know, year-long. You know, it's a different place than up north. You couldn't do this in New York. Each one of them has their own unique characteristics. This one here, um, again, hard to look at, but also, uh, it's a difficult retail space, because if you look at the one on the left, it is so narrow and deep. It is really difficult for Scott to find a user for a space like that. So this one is the only one that we're including curves in, and, um, we've combined two of the spaces into one, so it's a larger, more usable space. It curves in to create a front porch to lead people inside, but also to create this transparency. So on both ends, you have these bay windows that are created. And this very generous space, shaded space, to transition you from the sidewalk to the inside, so that you have kind of this front porch before you get into the retail space. Next one, um, very flat building. Dark overhangs. You know, they were originally black, just faded out. A very small overhang, very little weather protection. It's actually a great space inside. It was a great space, but it's a very small door. It doesn't celebrate the scale of the space. So in this case, what we wanted to do is to create a lot of transparency on the ground floor. All of those sliders pocket to the side, open up to the outside, and then you have a sculptural marquee above that. That provides shape. As you're walking along the sidewalk, you know, you're invited in. We have great weather. For probably eight months of the year, these sliders could be open, and you just step inside. It's just very inviting. As you walk by this marquee, because of the geometry of the blades, it's always going to look different. As motorists, you know, the form of it feels like it's changing. It's just trying to be playful from building to building, and trying to be different, creating unique addresses. All right. So this one, again, very flat. We have a three-story building, very small entrances. That entrance has to be shared between retail spaces and two stories of offices above. We're changing the facade, but we're also changing the use of the building in terms of the floor plan. That existing building has the elevator all the way in the back, so you have to cross the retail space to get to the elevator. So in this case, what we're doing is we're celebrating the entrance to the second and third floor with a grand stair, with a new elevator. You know, so the entire building is reworked so that this actually can be leased, and it's not embarrassing for Scott to find tenants within the space. We have one entrance for the retail, one entrance for the office, and the office really has an address and a presence on Cleveland Street. This is probably the most important address on the 600 block because it's the intersection between the Pananis Trail and Cleveland Street, and you just have a solid wall. You know, the existing building just showed a solid wall to the Pananis Trail. The Pananis Trail is an asset for Clearwater. It crosses Clearwater. It's 45 miles long, and it's not really taken advantage of. The wall actually shows a better building on it. And it's faded. What we wanted to do is to celebrate that intersection, and so the sliders pocket away from the corner so that, as a cyclist, she can put her bike down, stop and enjoy a drink or lunch or break for residents of Clearwater. They can sit there, see people cycling. It is, you know, this is what the activation of the street will be like. It has to start with the transparency of the building. On the south end of the building, we're also including an additional shaded terrace. So whether you're driving, you're riding your bike from the south or from the north, you're inviting on both ends to stop, put your bike down, enjoy the city of Clearwater. Carry corner from it. It's a larger building, but same strategy of being transparent, being inviting, having a shaded space that greets you. Also, it's a shaded space so that you go see a movie, you come out, and you can enjoy a time, you know, on the street, chatting with people. There's a good space for you to wait for a friend before going in. What was really important for us also is to have the ground floor as transparent as possible. So you see the activity. You see the balding lanes. You see everything that's going inside. You're invited to come in. When you look at the history of theaters, movie theaters in America, it was the brightest building, the brightest marquee in the city. And now we have new technologies. We can do a screen that is a digital art that can celebrate the coming attractions, but that can also celebrate what the city has to offer. Thank you. Okay. So now do we have any questions for the Cleveland Street Alliance? I have one. Mr. Dobbins, you probably want to do it. It's really about your clients. And I'm asking some of these questions because it's what the public wants to know. You know, it's in St. Petersburg, a gentleman by the name of Bill Edwards wasn't the only one, but certainly it got credit for a lot of success, the growth and development of downtown St. Petersburg. Of course, there's Jeff Vinnick and all he did in downtown Tampa and Channelside. He got a lot of credit for that. None of these properties are all owned by LLCs, and you shared earlier that they're members. So the public is just curious, why are these members of these limited liability companies, they don't want to be known for some reason? Or what's – why are the – because that essentially is a commercial real estate agent. That's who you work for is the property owners. And I think it would help the public feel more comfortable about activity and intended activity project if they knew who are the people, the individuals who own these properties that are trying to activate them. Yeah, I think that's probably more of a legal question that kind of gets out of my purview. What I can tell you, because I've been very active with Jeff Vinnick, I've put restaurants. We have a retail tenant website to our business, so we do a lot of restaurant work. I've worked with Jeff Vinnick and his team, and we've driven restaurants in those projects. Jeff Vinnick, as an example, assembled a pretty considerable swath of real estate in order to do that. My experience in 25 years is it's pretty commonplace to put special purpose LLCs as the entities behind ownership groups. And generally, the developers, it's kind of inferred, and that's kind of where it ends. Anything short of that, I really can't speak to that. That can potentially be something to build. And I'm not quite sure that because, you know, I do this line of work too. Sure. I do this all over the country as well for real estate development. But we're usually transparent in the community about who's involved in the LLCs, oftentimes because whoever the property owner wants to take success for investing in the community. And developing, so. Sure. I think, again, if we can wrap up our presentation, specifically the Mitch stuff, I think there'll be further insight as we can kind of get through the presentation. And I'm happy to, at the end, you know, try to address some of these questions as well. Okay. Okay. Pastor Romano? Yeah, because it's not necessarily pertained. Thank you. Mr. Haufantz, thank you for the presentation. Appreciate your professionalism and your talents as well as bringing some humor this evening. So thank you for that. Absolutely beautiful buildings, no question. Hopefully we see them activated sooner than later. I know that's out of your hands. You design the beauty and make them functional, and that's appreciated. And then you guys all throw it at Scott and say, now do your job. But thank you. Mr. Dobbins, my question is regarding activation. And I know that because of, you know, certain things you can and cannot discuss. Sure. But are there any LOIs or activation that we can talk about? I mean, we've seen coming soon of a burger joint that's publicly advertised. I'm sure that can discuss. We heard a Japanese steakhouse. Is that, you know, in concrete and committed? And I've heard things about the people's bank building, and I don't know if that's official or been announced. But are there any activation that you can celebrate with us tonight? Only what we've already celebrated with the greater community. Our big wins as of right now are Mitch Roberts and the Evo deal and Sheng, our modern Asian restaurant, which is more than just a Japanese steakhouse. I look forward to discussing the nuance with you, Michael. But it is going to be something dynamic for this market. Short of that, all the historics that are about completed, a lot of which are not, we couldn't move in tenants if we wanted to. They're at either final stages of lease negotiations or in the throes of LOIs. We will be announcing tenants on a consistent clip as we continue to kind of flush through the lease items. I can tell you again that we've seen an acceleration both of interest and in our negotiations with prospective tenants as a result of our announcement of Mitch and Evo. This is now a fear of missing out market versus pushing the boulder up the hill, which, frankly, I've been doing for a bit of time. So I want to be very transparent with all of you folks. We will have pending announcements coming once we're allowed to do that and in coordination with our tenants. Last thing I said, if you can let us get through the – we were told that all questions were going to be at the end, and we really want to get our operators up here to kind of provide insight from the horse's mouth. So the ask is, if you can let us finish, we're happy to stay as long as you guys want to answer any questions. All right? Thank you. We'll call Evo Entertainment and Mitch Roberts. Will you come on up? Welcome to Clearwater, Mitch. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council, city staff. I know I've spoken with some of you. I look forward to getting to know everyone as we continue to work together to bring this incredible project to life for Clearwater. For those who don't know me, my name is Mitch Roberts. I'm the founder and CEO of Elevate Entertainment and Evo Entertainment, and really the only thing I know is movies. For nearly a century, my family has built and operated movie theaters from local brands like Texas Cinema and Showbiz Cinemas to regional chains like Starplex Cinemas or Movie Tavern to global circuits like Cinemark. And as a fourth-generation exhibitor, gosh, I adore the cinema. But when I launched Evo in 2014, about a decade ago, I did so understanding that that industry was evolving and the guest experience needed to evolve with it, which is where the name Evo comes from. It's the evolution of entertainment, the evolution of cinema. So from the beginning, our vision was to create entertainment destinations that go far beyond that traditional movie theater and bring people together to the power of shared experience, and that remains the foundation of our business today. You know, at Evo, we build what the industry now calls cinema entertainment centers. It's a play on family entertainment center. These are third-place destinations that blend world-class cinema as an anchor with family entertainment offerings such as bowling, gaming, immersive attractions like laser tag or rock climbing or ropes courses, with food and beverage, event and conference spaces, and social experiences all into one thoughtfully integrated environment. And what we're building here in Clearwater is not a traditional movie theater. I know I've heard that a couple of times, it's a movie theater. It's not a traditional movie theater. And nor is it a simple family entertainment center. This is a next-generation entertainment destination, one that's designed to be truly differentiated for families, the residents of Clearwater, tourists, and guests from across the region and beyond. And we know that people travel for differentiated experiences. Across our portfolio, up to 90% of our guests are coming from outside of the immediate zip code that we serve. In almost all of those cases, they're passing other entertainment venues, including traditional cinemas, to come to us. And the reason for that being, they're not simply coming to watch a movie and leave. They're coming for a broader destination-based experience. And that behavior matters, because destination-based entertainment really creates economic pull in the communities that we're in. Now, I know it's been a topic, and I want to give a brief introduction to what we have in store for Cleveland Street. We'll walk through that. On the first floor, Evo Entertainment Clearwater features 16 lanes of bowling, over 100 of the latest and greatest video and redemption arcades, immersive attractions, again, such as gravity ropes, rock climbing, and laser tech, private event, conferencing spaces, and, of course, incredible food and beverage throughout. As we rise up to that second floor, our guests will find a seven-screen cinema that truly redefines what modern cinema can be. Every single auditorium in this facility is equipped with what's called Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos Audio. This is the first cinema in the world where every single auditorium is that premium feature, and it's now the consistent standard for every single guest to ensure that they experience every film just the way that its director intended for that film to be seen. But as exciting as that is, we're not stopping there. At the center of it all, rising an incredible seven stories tall and stretching over 131 feet in width, to put that into perspective that's wider than a Boeing 737 jet, is EVX, and that is the largest cinema screen on Earth. Again, meticulously designed by the greatest minds in cinema to achieve studio-grade Dolby Atmos audio quality and Dolby Vision light, clarity, and brilliant standards. This is truly a modern marvel in cinema that was previously thought to be impossible. With this remarkable and uncompromising attention to detail, paired with world-class operations and hospitality, I truly believe EVO Entertainment Clearwater has the potential to become a globally celebrated, prized, and recognized cinema entertainment destination. But a project like this, it does so much more than just provide entertainment. It will serve as a regional draw, driving upwards of 650,000 annual visits to downtown Clearwater. It will create economic opportunity to the tune of over 300 jobs, generating over $2 million in ongoing annual wages. And those wages meaningfully outpace the current average incomes here in Pinellas County. And it will drive significant incremental value in property tax revenue for the city, north of half a million bucks alone from our venue. And when it's thoughtfully integrated, it will become a powerful anchor for the long-term community energy and economic growth here. Now, I don't have to tell all of you, but Clearwater already has global visibility. It has tourism. It has regional accessibility and extremely strong long-term potential. But when you combine a venue like this that we're talking about with all of those incredible attributes, the possibilities are endless. From world premieres to international film festivals, even Entertainment Clearwater has a unique opportunity here to become one of the most unique and consequential entertainment destinations globally. Now, I'm going to show, I'm going to turn it over to just a few members of our design team that will walk you through the building and show you the extraordinary effort and attention to detail that's gone into making this facility so special. And you can take it from an incredible cinema nerd that this place is truly, truly special. So with that, I'll turn it over to Melissa Miller and Mike Cummings from TK Architects, who will give you a little bit more detail. Again, thank you so much for being here. Thank you, Mitch. Good evening. My name is Melissa Miller. I am a principal with TK Architects. At TK, entertainment design is a core specialty of our firm. With experience spanning cinemas, experiential entertainment, mixed-use destinations, and hospitality-driven environments across the country and throughout 53 countries worldwide, our work focuses on creating highly immersive guest experiences while coordinating the complex technical, operational, and architectural systems required for modern entertainment venues. Representing TK today for this project are Senior Principal Mike Cummings and Jack Muffoletto, who unfortunately could not be here today as he is out of the country, along with myself. TK Architects is serving as the architect of record for the Evo Clearwater development, and we are specifically brought onto this project for our expertise in cinema and entertainment design. Our responsibility extends far beyond traditional architectural services. We are leading the coordination between consultants, engineers, operators, technical partners, and ownership teams to help translate an ambitious vision into a cohesive, buildable, and operationally successful reality. One of the most technically demanding aspects of this project is the level of acoustic isolation required throughout the building. To achieve the premium entertainment experience envisioned for this facility, the auditoriums are being designed with floating floor assemblies that isolate vibration and prevent sound transmission between theaters as well as from the FEC spaces below. In addition, the walls between auditoriums utilize multi-layer acoustically engineered assemblies incorporating CMU block, multiple layers of gypsum board, and acoustic isolation. The seven-foot-thick walls and truss system for the EPX auditorium are specially designed for sound isolation and to support the height of the building. These systems are critical in ensuring each auditorium maintains a fully immersive and acoustically isolated environment to achieve the extremely high performance levels required by Dolby Atmos. Another key component of the guest experience is the mechanical system design. Each auditorium is being provided with independently controlled air conditioning systems to maintain highly controlled performance environments within each theater. This level of separation is important not only for guest comfort, but also for maintaining acoustic performance by minimizing sound transfer through shared ductwork and mechanical systems. The structure of the building itself represents a significant engineering achievement. One of the defining architectural elements of the project is the dramatic front entry canopy, which creates a bold and highly visible arrival experience for guests. To achieve the large, open, column-free span envisioned for the entry sequence, the canopy is supported by a specialized bridge truss system engineered specifically for this project. The structure itself becomes part of the architectural statement, helping establish the scale, energy, and identity of the entertainment destination from the moment guests arrive. The EVX auditorium presents perhaps the most unique engineering challenge within the entire development. The scale of what is planned to be the largest cinema screen in the world requires specialized structures designed to support the immense span and structural demands of the auditorium. The theater itself is being engineered in close coordination with Dolby due to the unprecedented scale of the screen and technical systems being integrated into the space. Portions of the auditorium are effectively being custom-engineered specifically for this location, representing a level of technical coordination and innovation that has never been executed before. So this one and the next one, Myrtle Development owns most of the property where this is being proposed. So I'm going to invite Myrtle Development, I don't know who's here to represent Myrtle, to take the podium now, but if they want to continue, then that's got it. I want to come back to my questions I asked earlier, you know, if somebody from this part can answer it, but if you can go ahead and continue on with Myrtle Development, it's 10 minutes, yeah. Thank you. In addition to the structural and acoustic systems, the design and shape of each auditorium is being developed to studio-grade Atmos standards. As Mitch stated, every auditorium within the facility will feature Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos technology, making this the first multiplex of its kind. The ceiling systems are being designed with Dolby-specific sound transparent materials to conceal overhead speakers while maintaining precise acoustic performance, and the sidewall speaker systems within the largest auditorium are being fully integrated into the architecture to create a seamless and fully immersive cinematic experience. Every detail of the auditorium design has been carefully coordinated to support the highest possible level of audio and visual presentation. What makes the Evo Clearwater project so remarkable is that it represents far more than a traditional entertainment venue. This is a precedent-setting, state-of-the-art destination that pushes beyond anything currently existing within the cinema and experiential entertainment industry. From the world's largest cinema screen to the first fully Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos multiplex, this project is redefining what audiences will expect from entertainment experiences moving forward. I truly believe that this project has the opportunity to position Clearwater at the forefront as a next-generation entertainment destination, contributing tremendous energy, visibility, and momentum to the continued evolution of downtown Clearwater. Thank you. And now I'll introduce Mitra with RDC. Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to present. It's a pleasure to be here. My name is Mitra Esfandiari. I'm an architect and partner at RDC. RDC is a 47-year-old, award-winning architecture, planning, and interiors firm with more than 200 employees across our six offices nationwide. Our work focuses on creating human-centric, experiential places where people can shop, play, live, and work, environments that foster a sense of community. RDC also has more than three decades of experience designing iconic and award-winning cinemas and entertainment destinations nationally and internationally. We're honored to collaborate with this talented team in designing the entry plaza and also the interiors for the project. Our overarching vision to create a unique, immersive, and experiential journey as guests arrive and move through a series of distinct spaces. We began our design process by crafting a story that became the roadmap for the interior design. Light as narrative is the core of the story, just as cinema uses light to tell stories and create emotions. The lobby is the first major moment in the guest journey, and we wanted to create a memorable wow moment upon arrival. The space is designed as a two-story grand atrium, bold, dramatic, and cinematic, featuring a central lighting installation all around LED screens and circular forms inspired by camera lenses and projector beams. Sculpted escalators guide the guests upstairs, and on the ground level, the openness of the lobby provides visual connection to bowling, bar, lounge area, and arcade, as well as a glimpse of upstairs. While light is the overarching vision, each space has its own unique interpretation of the concept based on the function and experience. The arcade and gaming zone is envisioned as a portal to another dimension, transporting guests into a vibrant and interactive world through illuminated portals, immersive lighting, and playful colors that enhance rock climbing, arcade gaming, and rope courses. The bar and lounge area, as you see in the background, is designed with a sense of coastal elegance that reflects the surrounding seaside context to create an elevated hospitality-driven atmosphere. Strong connection to the outdoor seating and surrounding neighborhood create an inviting and social gathering place. The bowling area is designed as an energetic environment featuring immersive video walls, lounge seating, and pool tables. Large windows connect the space to the outdoor, bringing the natural light and reinforcing a strong connection to the community. As guests arrive upstairs, they are welcomed by featured video wall, artifact displays, and the main concession. And as they move into the theater promenade, the atmosphere becomes warmer and more intimate through art displays, celebrating the filmmaking heritage and local cultural events, curved forms inspired by film reels and pin lights that prepare the guests for the cinematic experience ahead. In the smaller auditorium, the intimate scale, monochromatic color palette, and indirect ambient lighting create a comfortable and immersive cinematic experience. Inside the grand auditorium, EVX, the scale of the space, combined with monochromatic palette and ribbon-like ambient lighting, create an environment that feels theatrical, iconic, and memorable. Now, I'm going to take you outside in the corner plaza. Well, speaking of activation, this outdoor plaza is designed as a flexible gathering space for everyday use and tourist hotspot and special events. Landscaping, landscaping, seating, public art opportunities, and strong indoor-outdoor connections activate the streetscapes and create an inviting public environment. Ultimately, this project reimagined the traditional entertainment center as a landmark destination and unforgettable communal experience for the Clearwater community. Thank you. So, if I could just close by putting the overall scale of what you've just seen and heard into perspective. I'm sorry? Looks like you're up there, but I'm not in part of this. So, what you've just seen represents more than 72,000 square feet already under active restoration and renovation across Cleveland Street. Historic renovation alone now represents more than $31 million invested already completed or underway. Collectively, current renovation and redevelopment across the district only represents approximately $50 million invested or under active construction. And the revitalization effort now continues into the south side of the 500 block. Together, the next phase represents another more than 112,000 square feet of planned renovation and activation across the district. And beyond that, the revitalization effort continues further east across Cleveland Street. Together, these next phases represent another $50 million in planned private investment. The Evo Family Entertainment Center now becomes the eastern anchor of Cleveland Street. And this cannot be understated. What we found through much diligence and research is that the key to revitalizing downtown districts is creating a true destination anchor. We have done that. Once that anchor exists, the entire leasing and activation environment changes. The goal now becomes attracting the best-of-class restaurants, retail, and experiences citizens actually want to see downtown. Additionally, the district already supports a substantial, active, occupied office environment and daily downtown population. Collectively, what you have just seen represents approximately $200 million in privately financed investment into downtown Clearwater. And it's already physically underway. Thank you. Okay. So for this one, back to my original question, and again, I'll ask you, who is Myrtle Development LLC? Myrtle Development LLC is an LLC that was put together for the development of Evo. It is funded by a series of parishioners. It's not just one entity. Who are the members of the limited liability? I think we're pressing a little bit further than I think anyone here is comfortable with. It's disclosing specific people within an LLC entity. Do you have anything to add? I just want to add that the investors, the owners, are not going to accept your opportunity to disclose that, Mayor. Okay. I think what's important is you want to know who's going to control these buildings and who's going to control the businesses that go into them. Are they going to be put to institutional use? The whole purpose of tonight is to try to demonstrate that this whole design and features are designed to attract the community as a whole. They're not marketing to a segment of our city. In fact, they're marketing to the entire world. I can tell you that that guy right there wants those 14 million visitors out there on the beach who it rains. This never happens in Florida, but he wants them to come see a movie if it's raining or if they're sunburned and they need some air conditioning. So the answer is this is consumer-focused, profit-oriented businesses that are going to occupy these buildings because that's the only way it's going to be successful. Well, I think, you know, the public just wants to know who's doing business in our community. And real property ownership and developing that property is just something that I think the public is concerned. There's not transparency there where typically, you know, real estate developer, owners of property are very proud of the investment they're making in community development. And we certainly – Mr. Roberts has been very impressive. He came up all the way from Texas to tell us who he is, what his business is, and to introduce himself to the community. And – but he's not going to own this property. Somebody else is owning it. I haven't had a collection of people. So certainly they're not required to share with that, but it would certainly help the public understand. And who is it that wants to be involved in the best in our community? And if they don't want to disclose that, that's their choice. I agree with you. That said, I think it would help the public if they knew, you know, who are the people who own the property that they're trying. To develop this. And because there may or may not be some folks that are already known in the community, that already have a good reputation, people work with. But that's certainly there up to them to decide whether they want to be transparent about that or not. So thank you, and I appreciate that. And we'll move on to something else. Okay. Any other questions? Councilmember Albritton. Just to add what you've mentioned, I think the owners of this are parishioners of the church that have formed corporations. They're private-owned properties, and they're taxed properties. People I talk to say, oh, well, all these properties they bought are not taxable. They're all privately-owned, taxable properties. And I just wanted to bring that up. If you want to expound on that, I mean, we just heard what Evo is going to give back to the city, which is important. But every other property that's being developed down there, it's probably under a separate corporation on each one of them, which is standard in real estate. That's right. It's a standard practice. I'd just like to say, again, we are aligned with wanting to be transparent. I know plenty of developers that don't want us disclosing the LLC behind any particular development. So, again, I think the measures that we as a group, the Cleveland Street Alliance, have made, both online, offline, the brand-new showroom, I am accessible to all of you, and I know the aggregate of the team that we've put together are as well. So I appreciate the concern. We're trying diligently to answer it in the most transparent way possible as we have been approaching this whole project since the announcement of Evo. Thank you. And, of course, it was Mr. Roberts, too. I'd ask that. Well, thank you for that. Yeah. Thank you for that presentation. It was very interesting. It solidified my belief, like many others, that the renovations that are happening are high caliber and very well done, and they're beautiful buildings. I never had a doubt. That's not where the questions are coming from. Now, we see what's being done, and there's no question that you are all doing high-quality work. The questions that I have from the, let's say, from the people from the 400 block is, like, how are we going to deal with the smaller local operators as we transition, right? So how is it going to be priced as you transition from this stage to the next? That is a real concern that's been conveyed to me, but the caliber of the buildings have never been a concern. You've proven that. So what can I go back and tell, though? How can I address those concerns to those small business owners? I think we are inclusive to best-of-class operators, regardless of local, regional, or national. I think that's kind of been the mandate that we've been operating under. So it's the operational expertise, and it's how these uses fit in our merchandising plan that I think are very important. But I want to be very clear that we are very much inclusive, and it's our goal that the local business community and the citizenry at large collaterally benefits from all that we're doing and investing in the downtown. Vice Mayor Cotton. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Scott. Thank you for everybody being here today. Thank you for the audience, everybody showing up. And, you know, there's a lot of excitement, I think, that we can see going into what's happening downtown. And, you know, growing up here, we've heard this before, I'm sure, you know, the term ghost town and nobody walking downtown. And it's finally to that precipice of things are happening and moving forward. Because at the end of the day, I don't just want to go to the beach. I want to be able to enjoy our downtown, right? We shouldn't just see Safety Harbor and Dunedin thriving, St. Pete thriving. It's time that Clearwater starts thriving. So I appreciate everybody coming here, showing the sentiment, showing the encouragement and willingness to want to invest in our community. Thank you, Mr. Roberts. Amongst others, to the architectural minds and everybody that shared things today, I genuinely appreciate it. To city staff, thank you for putting together the presentation. I was a little disappointed. I probably didn't convey one of the things that I wanted to be seen in there. And it comes from a question of growing up, right, and thinking that all religious organizations are tax-exempt from whatever that denomination is, right? Christianity, Judaism, Scientology, you name it. I grew up always thinking that that property doesn't pay a lick of taxes. And I did ask for that to be shared. And like I said, maybe I didn't convey the portion of what I was looking for. So I would like to share the 2025 Pinellas County property appraisers' real property taxes for last year for the downtown Clearwater development. Because, Mr. Mayor, when you alluded to a flag organization being tax-exempt and nonprofit, what do they have to do with it? I don't disagree with that. Because, you know what I mean? We do want to know what's going on. I think that's why these people are here before us to present what they're planning on doing. But the order is 949 Cleveland Street paid $39 million in tax. Church of Scientology, Religious Trust, $35 million in tax. Tower 1100, $30 million in tax. Church of Scientology, Flag, $18 million in tax. 940 Court, $15 million in tax. And I'm not going to go on down the list. So, you know, I had learned that roughly eight years ago through the fire department, which is my career by nature, dealing with a Catholic church down in my district that, you know, I was assuming that it was a tax-exempt property completely. And the fire marshal, of all people, enlightened me that, no, it's only specific portions of those properties that are tax-exempt. And so I think that there is a big narrative, especially when you go on social media and seeing things being shared or, you know, some excitement news releases when people comment and they say, well, XYZ needs to pay more taxes. And, listen, I was in your same boat nine years ago. But the reality is, public record, you can go to the property appraiser's website and find that. Scientology is paying taxes. They're the largest taxpayer downtown. The parishioners are paying taxes. Because Evo Entertainment says that the estimated $500,000 is the revenue generator that they could potentially be. So, you know, in a time when property taxes and governments are going to be seeking to try and find new ways of being innovative with our budgets, depending on how homestead exemption and everything is coming on the forefront, I think that we definitely need to not be driving away potential development and investment but trying to welcome it as much as possible. To that, listen, I'm a limited government conservative firefighter. I ran for this because I was sick and tired of government. I want to try and make it better for people. I do not think it's our place, and I'm surprised, Mr. Mayor, to hear you say, that you need to hear individuals behind an LLC. It is your right. Most of those things are public record. But at the end of the day, if I form an LLC, it's for my protection from insurance property, from people who might want to know who I am, and I would like that to stay private too. So I don't know from that limited government perspective of why we're trying to push so hard to know that. I understand from transparency and all that aspect, but everybody's been here to show their plans and be as transparent as they can without releasing the name of whomever so that then some deranged lunatic can go look up what that person is, where they live, and maybe do something crazy. We deal with it already, being elected officials, and certain things that we have to go through for public scrutiny. We all count on the cost. We know what we're up here doing. But at the end of the day, to keep crying like that, I don't know that we should be doing that. So thank you all again for being here. I'm excited to what the future can hold. Hopefully, you know, we've got to get through the actual important stuff of making sure processes are followed, things are safe, everything's done. But the future does look bright, and I'm excited for Clearwater because we've been outside of the limelight, and it's time for us to honestly, quite frankly, be better in any city in our region. And I think we do. We already have a world-class beach. We should have a world-class downtown. We've got to make it happen. Well, so, you know, this is really an informational session. We invite these folks here to give us information, so all five of us to ask questions. I'm sorry that somehow you don't like the questions that I ask or any of the other three ask. I do want to correct you on two things, though. I've had the honor and privilege to practice law for 35 years. All 45 of those years, I have helped nonprofit organizations get their tax-exempt status. And so I know that you have to be very careful about making sure that your nonprofit charitable activities are separate from for-profit business activities. So that is why I ask the question. Not that, yes, there are a lot of nonprofits that pay taxes on that they can't do too much for-profit business activity. But to the extent a church or some organization offers a food service or cafeteria, some market-type thing, yes, they pay taxes. We all know that, and I agree with you that there is somewhat of a misconception in here that all the property in downtown Clearwater is owned by the nonprofit organization. It's not. And as we've heard today, along Cleveland Strait, it's members and for-profit LLCs that own it. But that is what I'm referring to. If you've worked with nonprofits like I have for 35 years, you know, when you fill out those applications with the IRS, you have to be very careful about making sure that your charitable activities are separate from for-profit activities. That's all I was referring to earlier. And on the LLCs, I get it. I set up LLCs. We probably set up five or six a week all over the country for liability protection. And you do it in real estate just without even thinking about it because of folks who can trip and fall on your property and all the things that can happen, particularly with construction. So they've got a right not to say whoever the members are. Absolutely. But the public would like to know who's owning property and doing business in our community. And they don't have to share that, but the public would like to know. And certainly they're entitled to their privacy and do what they want to do. But it would go a long way to helping the public build trust if they knew who it is that's owning this property and that's doing these activities. That's all I'm asking is just for some transparency for the community's benefit to know who it is who's doing these great things for our city. So, again, didn't want to get back and forth, but, you know, since you raised that, I just felt a need to respond to that. But really tonight we're just here for ask questions, gather information, which is what I think prior to just a minute ago we were all doing. So with that in mind, anybody else have any other questions? Councilman and Nino. Thank you, Mayor. Not really a question. Just wanted to run by real quick. Mitra, Melissa, Mike, Mitch, Scott, Roberto, Michael, David, and Dennis. Did I get that right? Yeah. Dennis and David. Hey, you guys switch seats on me. There is absolutely no question in your professionalism, your talents, your abilities. When you put on a screen in front of us and it says stuff like number one firm in the world, largest on earth, these are moments of gravity. And I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedules and your lives and away from your families, however far you travel, to come join us in our beautiful city with our residents, with us as council, our leadership team, our staff, local media, and to display those talents and to help change a narrative and perception in our community that's plagued us for 30, 40 years. And we still hear it. And we still hear it. Downtown is a ghost town. Downtown's dead. Nobody goes down there. We just had 38,000 people downtown for country thunder. That's not true. And your professionalism, your passions, your abilities are helping change that narrative and change that perception in our community because the entire community and citizens of Clearwater deserve it and deserve this moment and deserve that brighter future of Clearwater. So, I greatly appreciate all of you coming in and joining us today. We understand as a leadership team, we are at an unbelievable place of momentum that our city hasn't been maybe before. This is, we've discussed for years and years and years, yes, we have a beautiful beach and, yes, it's world-renowned. And, yes, people come from all over the world to enjoy it, but it does rain in Florida sometimes, right? And people do get sunburned in the first 48 hours when they're on that beautiful beach, right? Mike, it shows. But then what do you do, right? And for far too long, and I won't say other great sister cities around us, but they leave our beautiful city to go enjoy those amenities and entertainment outside of our city. And we're hopefully witnessing a turning of a page where that doesn't have to happen anymore, that they come here to play and to sleep and to shop and to eat and to dine and to rope climb or laser tag and whatever that might be. And hopefully those times are changing. The notion for so long has been, please, just develop, develop, develop. And it's unquestionably happening. And now the page is turning to activate. And all the pressure is on you, my friend. There is no questions. You are the man of the hour and the man in the room. And your team obviously has faith in you. And we hope to be able to put that faith in you as well, to do exactly what you're saying. And we're going to hold you accountable to that. And you would expect us to because you're a professional. And we want to see and we want to hear about and celebrate those moments of activation. And that's on the horizon. And it's a process. And we get that. But we are impatient. And we want activation today and now and to shoot the confetti and throw the balloons up. But those times will come. But I just wanted to say thank you to all of you. And we look forward to seeing what Clearwater and downtown truly can become. Thank you. Listen, I want to thank everybody that came here tonight. This is so – I am so elated because I've been trying for so long to get some kind of activation and something to happen in downtown Clearwater. And I can tell you in the last eight years I've been on council, you know, we've got a hotel going up by the library. We've got the Gotham development on the bluff. We've got a new parking garage. We've got the sound. I mean, just the park and the sound is amazing. And, you know, Capitol Theater. And this is a perfect bookend for the other side of the town. We've always needed to have a bookend on that end. And I am just blown away. I know – and I've heard from so many people, like, have you seen what's coming? I go, yeah, I've seen it. I'm really happy that it's coming. And it will – once that gets underway, it will start snowballing a lot of construction downtown. And, I mean, and we've got all the county properties. I mean, we've got such a great future for downtown. And I'm just – you know, I saw this plan over a year ago. I was like, we've got to get it out to the public. And thank you, Mike, for putting this together because this is what we really needed. We needed to get it out and let everybody see what we've been seeing for so long. So I think that we've – what we could do with properties, we've done. And now I think the private companies are coming in to start doing what we really need to have done down here. So we do have a – we do have a pearl here. And it needs to come out. It's – I can see it happening now. And so thank you for telling everybody what's going on. I think we needed to really have that. Thank you again. That's what I'm going to say to you. Yeah. So at first, Mike, when you suggested it, I was like, oh. But I'm actually really glad because I think it's important that information is relayed in a very consistent way. And it actually ended up even better because there was a lot of confusion that was based from the media campaign. And Mitch, you and I were talking before the meeting. And I don't know if I communicated it correctly. But having seen your presentation and how you're very much into movies, the best way I can say it is being invited to a premiere before the movie was even cast. That's the best way I can convey. And so it caused a lot of negative outcomes or impact that we had to address. So having this scheduled is actually very good because I would like to reiterate that we will be following the process. And the process has not really begun in full force. And so nothing has been decided, even though the campaign may have communicated that it was. I do want to address those concerns or confusion to the residents. But there's a lot more questions. But I think I might just save that for later. And it's a lot about the leasing. How are you going to transition from what Clearwater is today to tomorrow? And when you're projecting your rates, what do they look like? Because right now they're at $30, $33 a square foot. And then what districts are you basing those projections on? What are you comparing? So I have very specific questions that I can probably do on the side and maybe present it. But I appreciate all the information. I think it was much needed. But I would like this conversation to continue. Vice Mayor. Thank you, sir. So as Council Member Menino pointed to, maybe I just missed it or I'm just anxious and want it now. Scott, can you tell me when that Japanese restaurant is estimated? It'll be a 2027 opening, perhaps a little bit later. Obviously, we don't have a building there yet, so it's going to be subject to it. Thank you. But we're shooting for late 2027. We do allow food trucks. We do allow food trucks. Oh, yeah. Very good. Well, just kind of to close, I just want to share a little bit what Council Member Tashad has said. Mr. Roberts, I can't thank you enough for – I'm chair of the public that Mr. Roberts did not hesitate to return my call when I first reached out to him. I saw the announcement. You've been completely transparent about who you are, what your interest is in Clearwater, what your family business has been. It's a very impressive family history story about your family's involvement in the movie industry and theater business. And I can't thank you enough for being as transparent as you have been and sharing with me what your interest was in this community. And you had some doubts at first, as you shared, but you came back and, you know, you decided this is a very exciting project for you. So – and thank you for traveling all the way up here from Texas for this. So I appreciate that. And all of you, I – like I said, I've been a paid-by-the-hour professional for many years. So I understand that Mr. Roberts may not be getting paid to be here, but some of you are. But I do appreciate those who came out tonight from afar to attend the meeting and contribute. And including – and Mr. Dobbins, you didn't come – I guess you did come overseas because you came from Tampa. So – here. But to – to follow up on just what Councilman Tashad is, you know, I'd love to have more conversations with you about what's going on on this street. And – and I think all five of us, you know, we can't talk to you collectively, but if you would be willing to answer questions that five of us have on ongoing projects and activation. Because that's really what we're trying to get the heart of. It's – the – we – this is not against the architects. You all do great work and very impressive work. But really, at this point, it's about activation. It's about what businesses and activities are going to take place in these buildings. And you're the front person on that, so – Front and center, I'd just like to note, we only have one building done, you know. So that's the other thing. The telephone just got delivered. And we're in the throes of design and menuing on the telephone. So I anticipate an acceleration in announcements and happy – I think this was great under the spirit of transparency. And I think that also goes both ways. There's a lot of myths out there with regards to the Cleveland Street Alliance. You know, I'd like to demystify a couple right now. Number one, the predominant investors in this Cleveland Street Alliance are community members. These are parishioners that live, work, and play here. They also have a shared love of this community, just like we all do. And they want something great. I think – I think we need to focus on what we share versus our differences as it relates to this project. And I do think this is a new era, a new day, and thank you, Michael. So to follow up, you know, any of us, but particularly me, I'd love to hear from you any time you have news to share. Very good. I will do, Mayor. Thank you. Okay. With that, if there's nothing else, any other questions, then we will adjourn the special work session of Clearwater City Council for May 28, 2026. Thank you.