This time we'll call the order of the July 13, 2026 meeting of the City of Clearwater Downtown Development Board. This time move to item 2.1 on the agenda, approval of the minutes. Is there a motion to approve the minutes for the DDB meeting of June 1, 2026? Say so moved. Say so moved. Yes. So moved. Second. Thank you. Second. Moved and seconded. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Unanimous. Moved to item 3 on the agenda, citizens to be heard regarding items not on the agenda. Are there any citizens here today that desire to be heard on a downtown development court issue that is not on today's agenda? And you're saying none. Moved to item 4.1 on the agenda. Adopt a tentative millage rate of 0.9700 mills for fiscal year 2026-2027 and set hearing dates on the millage and budget for September 15, 2026. And September 21, 2026 at 5.15 p.m. Good afternoon. Ann Lopez, CRA Assistant Director. This item is to approve a tentative millage rate of 0.9700 mills for fiscal year 26-27 and to set the required public hearing of the millage and budget for Tuesday, September 15, 2026 and Monday, September 21, 2026, both starting at 5.15 p.m. As part of the truth and millage or trim process, the downtown development board is required to adopt a tentative millage rate and establish public hearing dates before the budget can be finalized. This information must be submitted to Pinellas County Property Appraiser and Tax Collector's Office by July 28, 2026 and will appear in the trim notices that will be mailed to property owners in August. The recommended tentative millage rate of 0.9700 mills is the same rate as the current fiscal year. While this rate remains unchanged, it is a 0.65% above the rollback rate of 0.9637 mills. The rollback rate is the rate that would generate the same property tax revenue as last year, including revenue from new construction and other changes in the tax base. Because of the proposed rate exceeds the rollback rate, if adopted, the final resolution will reflect a 0.65% increase over the rollback rate. Finally, the board will discuss a proposed fiscal year 2026-2027 budget at the meeting held Monday, August 3rd at 2026, and I would be happy to answer any questions. Does anyone hear from the public today the desires to be heard on agenda item 4.1? Hearing, seeing none, is there any board discussion? If not, is there a motion? Motion to approve item 4.1. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Humanist. Thank you. Agenda item 4.2 approved the May 2026 financial statement for filing. Good afternoon, Chair, members of the board, Brian Olberg, CRA coordinator for the record. The May 2026 financial statement is presented for filing. During the month of May, expenditures totaled $35,467. To date, total expenditures and transfers are approximately $894,991. The total balance across the budget is $1,177,705. Any remaining balances have been reallocated to the unallocated special events grants line to support future downtown development board programming. Staff recommends approval of the May 2026 financial statement for filing. I'm happy to take any questions. Does anyone hear from the public today that desires to be heard on agenda item 4.2? Hearing, seeing none, is there any board discussion? Not as there a motion. Move to approve agenda item 4.2. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Unanimous. Thank you. Gen item 4.3, approve a new logo, a branding message for downtown Clearwater from R.B. Oppenheim Associates. Presentation of DDB, Marketing and Public Relations Initiative, Deliverables and Implementation Strategies. Good afternoon. Jesus Nino, CRA Executive Director. I want to introduce to you Mr. Michael Wynn, who is RBOA. He'll give you the presentation. Where's yours, sir? Sir. Good afternoon. Hello, Chair and members of the board. Michael Wynn, President and CEO of RBOA, Digitally Driven Marketing. Thank you for your time today. I'm here to present the final downtown Clearwater logo, iconography, and messaging platform for official board approval. Today represents the culmination of months of research, stakeholder interviews, public input, and board feedback. Throughout this process, two strategic ideas constantly rose to the top. First, downtown Clearwater needs a destination brand, something people can connect with emotionally, not something that feels like another government program. Second, our messaging framework, Find It in downtown Clearwater, captures the opportunity to reshape perceptions. Rather than telling people what downtown is, it invites them to discover what they've been missing. Today's presentation demonstrates how the visual identity and the messaging strategy now work together as a cohesive system. The logo is truly one of the hallmarks of our design work and is the strength in its simplicity and modern design. Successful destination brands don't try to explain everything in a single logo. Instead, they become recognizable over time through consistent use and memorable experiences. The logo represents downtown as a whole. The stories come through those experiences and messaging. That's where Find It becomes so incredibly powerful. Every campaign, event, restaurant, concert, festival, park, or business becomes another opportunity to answer the question, what will people find in downtown Clearwater today? The logo becomes the signature while the messaging creates the curiosity. Our icon system is where messaging strategy and visual identity truly come together. Throughout previous presentations, we've introduced Find It in downtown Clearwater as the messaging framework because it reflects how people actually experience downtown. You don't come downtown for one thing. You come to discover. This icon system gives us a visual language to support that idea. Instead of saying Find It in the same way every time, we can show people what they can find. Find your flavor. Find your rhythm. Find your style. Find where the city meets the sound. Those become repeatable campaigns that can all reinforce the same destination brand while highlighting different experiences. Throughout social media, this is where the strategy really begins to kick in. Rather than creating one-off graphics for every event, the Find It framework gives us an endless content platform. So instead of saying concert this Friday, we're saying find your rhythm. Instead of restaurant week, we're saying find your flavor. Instead of art walk, we're saying find your inspiration. Every campaign builds the downtown Clearwater brand while giving people another reason to explore over time. We hope that people will begin to associate downtown with discovery rather than just another place on the map. And as we continue, you'll see that great food and incredible music continue to reinforce one of the overarching themes that truly came through in our interviews and feedback with so many of you. Because music emerged as of one of downtown's clearest differentiators during our research. Rather than simply publishing entertainment listings, this framework allows us to tell a larger story. Every concert becomes another opportunity to find your rhythm. Every performance reinforces downtown as an active destination rather than an event venue. And weekly events, one of the biggest perception challenges we uncovered was that many people simply don't realize how much is going on downtown. That's exactly why Find It works. Instead of debating with perceptions, it acknowledges that there is always something new to discover. Every weekly calendar becomes another invitation. Not just here's what's happening, but find what's happening this week. That subtle shift changes the entire tone of the communication. And of course, merchandise. Destination brands succeed when people want to wear them. The same applies to the messaging. A shirt that says downtown Clearwater is nice, a shirt that says find your rhythm or find your flavor creates personality. It becomes something that people identify with and talk about. That's why destination branding is so important and has been integrated throughout our work. As we've provided several signage examples, I love the color. You can imagine this on some of the downtown shops. To be recognized, because this philosophy extends into the physical environment as well. Rather than simply directing people where to go, signage can reinforce discovery throughout downtown. You'll notice throughout these examples that the Find It messaging becomes part of the experience. It encourages exploration. It creates memorable moments. And it reinforces downtown's personality every step of the way. The messaging and the visual identity are intentionally working together. The downtown development board recognition was really another part of one of our goals throughout the project. To be able to clearly distinguish between the destination and the organization that is supporting it. The downtown development board is the champion of this effort. The public-facing brand is downtown Clearwater. This allows the destination to build recognition while appropriately recognizing the DDB as the organization making that investment possible. And then, of course, the city partnership. The same philosophy applies to the city. The city provides the infrastructure, services, and leadership that make downtown successful. The downtown Clearwater brand exists to invite people here. Those two roles complement each other beautifully. One governs. One inspires. In closing, I'd like to return to the two strategic ideas that have guided this project since the very beginning. And the first is that downtown Clearwater deserves a destination brand, one that people recognize because of the experiences they've had, not because it's attached to a government agency. The second is that Find It in downtown Clearwater is more than a tagline. It is a long-term messaging platform that encourages curiosity, discovery, and repeat visits. The logo provides consistency, the icon system provides flexibility, and the Find It messaging provides the invitation. Together, they create a comprehensive and complete destination branding system that can grow for years to come, adapt to new experiences, support local businesses and events, and most importantly, change perceptions of downtown Clearwater. Because in the end, we don't just want people to recognize the logo. We want them to think, I wonder what I'll find in downtown Clearwater today. Thank you, and any further comments or discussion? This time, is there anyone here from the public that desires to speak to agenda item 4.3? Seeing none, are there any questions or comments from the board? I'm sure it doesn't come as a surprise in the many times we've spoken, but I really like both the slogan and the logo. So they're clean, they're catchy, relevant, not cliche, but most importantly, like you said many times, they're versatile, easily integrated into any initiative, campaign, or event. But it also consistently showcases our brand while being versatile, which is very unique, and I think it's going to serve us for many years. Also, one of the things I really like is our role, the DDB, our role, because I don't feel that we should just be an entity that funds other people's initiatives in revitalizing downtown. This is us actively being part of it. So I just want to be on record on that. Members, Councilor Merle Hall, Brandon. You know, like I said to you before, we had talked about doing branding five years ago, and that just, in my opinion, it wasn't the time. I mean, we were, you know, it was right around the time of COVID's just starting, and, I mean, the restaurants, there wasn't a lot of activity going on downtown. There wasn't the time to do the branding. It is time now, because things are starting to pop. Right. We've got a lot of activity downtown. I like this logo. I liked it from the beginning. I think it's good. Put the way you have it put with the different things you can do and find it in downtown Clearwater. It's a good tagline, because a lot of people, like you say, they don't know what's down here. They've got to come down, and they've got to look for it themselves. And so it's a good thing. I'm glad we're doing it. Thank you. Member Menino. Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Wynn, thank you. Thank you. What an enjoyable process this has been. I commend you and your team, not just for your talent and skills and what you delivered today, but your willingness to listen through the whole process and not just listen but actually hear our feedback and then take action moving forward. And that's what has brought us to this process today, a beautiful logo that's classy with movement that represents downtown, a tagline that's flexible and works. I think as we're a growing downtown district, we're going to grow with that tagline, and it's able to grow with us. I think that's awesome. I'm reshaping perceptions downtown. We talked a lot about that in our multiple times of discussing. And do you organically wait and kind of sit on the sidelines and hope it happens, or do you roll up the sleeves and get to work and take action and do it, and that's what this board is doing and what this program is doing is physically moving forward ourselves and investing in that future. A quick question for you, and you can help me understand the thinking. On the icons, I know we discussed a couple times about family-friendly events or how to identify those, and I didn't see those. What were some of the thoughts from the team on how to identify those? Well, I think the most important thing was we wanted a structure and an icon set that we were able to easily recognize, especially with the work that we did with Parks and Rec along with some of the other departments. And we felt like the core of the icons that we had designed lent itself to those things. It wasn't intentionally left out. It just didn't quite make it up to the level that the icons that we selected that they represented. But I think, again, as we said in our presentation, the icons give you a system to be able to accompany the logo design, right? Whereas what if we had put those four logos in the logo design? Then we're locked, right? So having an iconography that's designed in the style of the logo does give you that flexibility, especially if even more family-friendly environments and venues and programming come alongside, I think that would be an important component that we could develop. Yeah, because when I think about the duck or Sharkapalooza, and then I look and I'm like, well, food and drink, no, entertainment, maybe, shopping, probably. But I have a hard time trying to figure where that fits to illustrate what that event might be for a family. But I think you guys and your team did a great job. I mean, you know, obviously I'm a dad with three daughters. I have three grandchildren, so family and young people mean a lot. At the end of the day, I think the economic impact of young adults coming to this area is really a priority. And I think the icons that we selected represent those interests. But, like I said, we could extend that into those younger families when that opportunity arises. Appreciate all the work. Thank you. You bet. You bet. Vice Mayor Cotton. Yes, thank you, sir. I'll just keep it short and sweet. Thank you very much for your time. Thank your team at RBOA for everything they've done. You know, it says a lot when this board hires a company and, you know, you present the first set of two different unique ways forward for, you know, icons and graphics. And then you come back and meet with us and you say, you know what, we went back and we listened. And here's what we came for to make this decision better and stronger. So, again, short and sweet, thank you very much for where we've gotten to now. Appreciate it. Thank you. Just a second, everybody. Thank you very much for your work. I do like the log-up very much as we talked. And I think it's going to do really good for us branding-wise. And I do see how this will be recognizable everywhere. So, thank you very much. Fantastic. Thank you for your feedback. Okay. Anything else? Mr. Wynn, thank you. I really appreciate the hard work. In the course of four months, we've been communicating about the logo back and forth. And you took everyone's feedback very well. I do like this logo. Personally, even as being a business owner in downtown Clearwater, I do not think it reflects our downtown here, in my opinion. But I can understand why everyone went for this logo and how it can be implemented into flyers and all of that. Just wanted to point out, I mean, it is a great logo. It's just my personal opinion. Thank you for your feedback. I'll weigh in just to say, you know, one of the things that I shared and you just shared was important to the others was the music that'd be involved. But that's not all we're already having success with. And I want to piggyback a little bit on what Council Member Albritton said is things are already happening. You know, and, you know, we get sometimes we're getting often issues where people think, well, Clearwater still needs to do a Hail Mary pass to save the downtown folks. Because, you know, we are already having success. Coastal Park has been a huge success. Music there and music in the Bay Care Sound, it's already drawing. And building on that success. And we have successful restaurants already downtown. Some of the favorite restaurants of all the folks who live in Clearwater are already in downtown and are thriving. So building on that success, I think Council Member Albritton said, that's important here. To tell the world we don't want success. We're already having success. And we're just trying to build on that. And there's more coming. I know two of the buildings under construction on the bluff. They have some interesting ideas to bring even more great restaurants to downtown and music to provide opportunities for folks. So I like it. Again, we're building on success we're already having. And thank you for your work in doing that. Thank you. Okay. So with that, is there a motion to approve? Move to approve agenda item 4.3. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Unanimous. Thank you. Thank you, board. That will move to item 4.4 on the agenda. Approve a high-impact funding request from MIA International to produce the Mega Asian Food and Music Festival on the Water at Coachman Park on August 21 to 23, 2026. And I'm out not to exceed $30,000. Good afternoon. Vicki Shire, CRE Division Manager. This item before you is a request from the MIA International for a high-impact funding request to produce the Mega Asian Food and Music Festival on the Water, scheduled for August 21 through August 23, 2026 at Coachman Park. The event is free three-day culture festival featuring Asian food vendors, live entertainment, cultural performances, art craft food vendors, family activities, water lantern experiences, kite flying, and other interactive activities. The applicant estimates attendance of 20,000 visitors over the three-day event and has past experience producing similar large-scale events throughout Tampa Bay region. The total estimated event budget is $129,070. The applicant projects approximately $40,000 in vendor fees and is contributing $49,000 towards event expenses. The applicant is requesting $80,070 in DDB funding. The staff reviewed the application, and it meets the eligibility requirements for the high-impact funding request. Although the applicant is requesting $80,070, staff is recommending the approval in the amount not to exceed $30,000. At this time, I'd like to invite the representatives from MIA International to come forward and answer any questions the board may have. Thank you, sir. Good afternoon, Chair and City Council. My name is Chris Lee with Mega Night Market. I started with the Mega Night Market a few years ago, and we started at a small community center in Lowman. I worked with the city of St. Pete to help them with the honoring Asian American Pacific Islander Festival two years ago, and we also did that this year also. We partners with Hard Rock. We just did an event with them yesterday, which was a successful event. We did one also for Lunar New Year, which we had about 10,000 people show up. We also partners with the city of Tampa, which we'll be doing an event with them this weekend. The last event for Mid-Autumn Festival, Moon Festival, of September 2026 – oh, sorry, 2025, we did over 30,000 people that came out to our event. So we're looking to partner with the downtown Clearwater to bring the same amount of people down here and showcase our rich culture and great people that we have in our team. Thank you. Is anyone here from the public today that desires to meet this agenda item? And seeing none, is there any board discussion? Council Member Albrighton. Well, I see that the amount is not to exceed 30, and you were asking for 80. So the 50, are you going to be able to raise that with sponsors, or are you going to have to cut some of the show back, the expenses of the show? We look into – for some sponsors, we're looking into it. We've been marketing online. We have a big present on the social media, but we're looking for additional funding to showcase and bring more artists here so we can bring tons of people down here to downtown Clearwater. Good. That's what I was hoping you'd say. Instead of cutting it back and, you know, not having such a great-looking international show, I think it's possible to go ahead and get, you know, sponsor funding. So good luck with that, and I look forward to seeing this. Thank you. That's from Menino. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for coming in today. Best of luck this weekend down in Tampa with your event. Quick question for you regarding performers. It looks like you're spending about $26,000 on performers' accommodations and travel. Who are you bringing in, and what seems like a large expense? Yes, we have a lot of different all-star YouTubers like Fookmap and Big Time YouTubers that bring a lot of people to the events, different food influencers, artists throughout the United States that we bring out, which costs a lot, but they bring a lot of people because they have a lot of following. So a lot of the people that we bring are the artists or influencers. They have over a million, up to 500,000 followers on Facebook, and throughout TikTok, they have probably 2 million. So that brings a lot of people because people want to come see them. So that's why we spend that, and that brings a lot of people to our event. That's our formula that we use. Plus with the social media that we put together, we go hard on the Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, and we work with all, you know, local partners, press. You know, they release press on the news channels and other websites to showcase our night market. So we do a lot of great all-star singers that we have. We have Lion Dance, Dragon Dance, Asian American Pacific Islander Dances, Laotian Dance. We had, you know, all kind of different dances that just showcase our culture and bring people down to any event that we go to. And we went to Long Island last month. So we tried it out there. So just to see if we could do the same turnout, and in the two days, we did about 15,000 people that showed up in Long Island, tons of people. And we only did one month, a month and a half of marketing, and they did really well. And we also put the marketing into this Water Lantern Festival already here locally. We're running ads on it right now, and it's doing pretty well. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Okay. Councilman, I appreciate it. So I'm very pleased, actually, for several reasons. First, you do or you have developed over the years a strong reputation for having successful community events. I'm also very pleased that this is a three-day event. It opens up a lot of opportunities for people to discover downtown. Specifically, the fact that it's an Asian community event showcasing the culture I think is an important addition because we have had a long or have a long-lasting relationship as a sister city with Nagano in Japan. So I think it would be a good way to at least showcase part of it, right? I know we have a lot of Latino events, and so I would love to include the Asian community as well. And the fact that it's three days also allows me to think that I'm willing to fund a little bit more because three days is a big endeavor. It's a big ask. Yes, it is. Thank you so much. Anybody else? My only concern, I do like the whole plan. I do like the Asian festival. I think it's great. I do want to ask you about the food itself. How is it going to work? Who are you bringing in? How many? Who are the vendors? Okay, so Chiang Mai, right down the street, they're also going to come out. We just left their restaurant a few minutes ago. So we're going to be bringing them in, other vendors here locally. We're going to try to bring them out to support downtown Clearwater. But we have – it's just not Asian food. It's diverse. So we have all kind of foods. It's international. So it's – majority started as Asian, but, you know, we're trying to have diverse food in there. So we have all kind of food. But, you know, we're changing and making it more, you know, international. But we started as an Asian night market. So the food's really good. Home-cooked food, just like, you know, back in Thailand or Laos or something like that, where you see it on YouTube, we're going to have it out here. And tons of people come out, especially going to a new area. Anywhere that we go that's in a new city, tons of people come out from all over. And we market just throughout the United States and in Florida and locally, too. Very well. Yeah. Yeah, my only concern was it's a three-day event falling on a weekend. And I really don't want to take business from downtown vendors for the whole weekend. And one of the questions I had, if you did talk to Chang Mei or if you're already in communication with any other vendors, and if there is a way that you can include or work out with the local vendors to include them into your festivals with the benefit. Okay. Will, yes, sir. So I actually sent out an e-mail to all the restaurants locally here to come participate, actually free at our event. Only Chang Mei has responded. I'm still waiting for a response from everybody else because we do realize that it could impact their restaurants negatively, but it also could bring them business. Because if it's hot out, people may also decide, you know what, I just want to go inside a restaurant. But we have invited them. I'm just waiting a response back from them, and we are offering them free rent. You might want to talk to him. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. No problem. Thank you. We're a member to leave you. Yeah, thank you. I did receive your mic. Okay. I appreciate that. And we're considering it, but you'll probably hear back from us whether it's one way or another. My question to you, since being a three-day event, what are your objective revenue-generating, main revenue-generating aspects here besides alcohol sales? I mean, are you – I know that you offered to downtown vendors, restaurant owners or restaurants, free admission or to be part of the event. But the numbers that I see there, 1 to 94, how many vendors are you expecting to be there? Well, we're projecting to have 40 to 50, but it just depends on how many people are going to sit up. So we're running multiple ads right now. So we should know more, you know, moving in the next couple weeks. But we always get the, you know, late birds that come in late. But we put it on the – I believe it was Largo Claywater Facebook page, and a lot of people are excited about the event. It'll be the first time ever having water lanterns here, which they call it in Laos and Thai, Loikotong, where you just put out the lanterns and write on there and make your wish. So it's going to be a very, very good event because I don't think any other city can do it. The city of Tampa can't do it because of the restrictions that they have there with the waterway. And the city of Tampa can't do it also due to the same concern. So here we kind of – we could contain it, put the nets up, and protect it, and it's all biodegradable. And we'll make sure that we clean everything up after we're finished. And what are you going to charge for each vendor to be able to attend the – It's going to be between $800 for the vendors and then merchandise. What is that, sir? Around $600. $600 for the merchandise, yes. Thank you. And are you planning on having donation boxes around the area as well, which is very common in big cities as well, if it's a free entry, you'll get a lot of people joining and doing donations. It really generates a lot of – Well, we'll try it out if the opposite is not. It works. I mean, in Chicago, any event you go to, there are street events. They're open. Tens of thousands of people go there. Everyone drops in $5. You know, if you have 20,000 people, that creates a lot of – you know, brings a lot of – See, we already made you money. That's great. Well, we will note that down and make sure that we do that. That'll be all. Thank you. Thank you. I do have a couple questions. One is, you said you've done a similar event on Long Island, is that – Yes, Long Island, New York, yes. But here locally, the only one you – you haven't done any like this locally, except you have one this weekend in Tampa, Curtis, Exxon Park. Yes, we have done them locally. We've done them with the city of St. Pete. In St. Pete last year, with the mayor's office, I was the lead person that was in charge of that. So we've ran – it's called Happy Festival. If you look it up online, it means honor Asian American Pacific Islanders. And I worked with the city council on – well, the city staff on that to make that happen for the city of St. Pete. We've done them at the England Brothers Park. We've done them at Wynn Derby on Gandy, which was a very successful event. That whole parking lot – I don't know if you know the Derby lane there. Well, now the Wynn Derby. We packed that entire parking lot from the front all the way to the Gandy, our first one for Labor Day weekend. So we're looking to do the same thing here. Hopefully we have enough parking because we will bring a lot of people here just because it's a trend right now. The night markets, a lot of people are just traveling just to come to these events. And we have great entertainment, great singers, I mean really good singers. You know, we had some opera last night. We had some regular music last night, Vietnamese, at the Hard Rock, and it was incredible. So I think that will showcase our rich culture here and bring a lot of people out, which I think we want a lot of people to come down to downtown Clearwater. I grew up in Clearwater Beach. My mother owned a store on South Beach when I was eight years old. So it was, you know, booming back in the day, so we would love to help make that happen again here in downtown Clearwater. And I don't want to sound like we're sharp-tanking it, but we kind of are because this is the taxpayers, the citizens' money that we're contributing. So, you know, we just want to make sure that we're not funding a business idea and that you're at risk, too, on this because it's not fair to the taxpayers for them to bear the ultimate risk of supporting the event. So these other events you talked about locally, were they three-day events or is this a new thing? All the events are three-day events. It's every event that we are known for three-day events just because we started as a small mini-market at the Lelman Center called the Lao Art Culture Center, and we started there, and we got so big, we had to, the city made us get all the permits, so we had to move the event. So we moved the event to downtown St. Pete called the St. Pete Distillery, and the first event we did 5,000 people. Then we're like, oh, well, we did good on that day. Why don't we start doing more days? So we just started three days from there, and we never went back. So it's always been a three-day event. So we're known for three-day events because a lot of people are working on Friday to come on Saturday. A lot of people come on Saturday, but they have people that want to go out on family days, Sunday, Sunday, on Sunday, and they come out and enjoy our events. So we're known for the three-day events, yes. I've heard great things about this Asian market you're talking about. Yes. There's a go-to. I'm told I've heard about that for years now. So, yeah. Well, you'll get to see it now. Right in the city. Okay. Well, that's all I had. Anybody else got any questions, comments? If not, is there a motion? Motion to approve. Agenda Item 4.4. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Unanimous. Thank you. Congratulations. We look forward to your own. Thank you, Jerry. Thank you. Thanks so much. Agenda Item 4.5. Cleveland Street Mobile Vending Program Update. Good afternoon again. I'm Vicki Shire. Since the last update, staff has continued working with several city departments to refine the program and address their feedback. One of the changes we made is simplifying the program's name. Cleveland Street Mobile Vending Program. We're also working to align permitting process with the city's existing special event process where appropriate. The goal is to make the process easier for vendors while creating a more efficient review process for city staff. Right now, staff is working through the operational details, including vendor spacing and identifying potential locations along the four and final block of Cleveland Street. This work will help us ensure the program operates safely and works well with nearby businesses and pedestrian traffic. We also launched a call from mobile vendors. Today, 24 vendors have expressed interest. Once the remaining operational details have been completed, staff will bring the program updates back to the board for finalization. At this time, we're anticipating about a September 1, 2026 launch date. Thank you. Jen, questions? Council Member Ticheda. I know you're still working on it, but, like, my mind is buzzing with questions, right? How many vendors? Where are they going to be? What's the lease look like? How many park lists? What's that going to look like? So I'm looking forward to hearing all those answers, and this is something that we've been working on for a long time, so it's exciting. Thank you. Thank you. We move to item 5.1, event recap for Cinco de Mayo Taco Fest, 2026. Good afternoon. Marilyn Brown, CRA specialist. The item before you today is an event recap presentation for the third annual 2026 Unimex Cinco de Mayo Taco Fest, held on May 3, 2026, from 2 to 4. Unimex anticipated approximately 2,000 attendees for the event. However, attendance exceeded expectations. According to Placer AI data, the event attracted an estimated 4,100 attendees. Unimex is here to provide you an event recap. Hi, everybody. Eric Descamilla with Unimex, and I'm filling in for Elmer Pio Quinto, which turned in all the data to Vicky, so I don't have exact numbers. I just have rough estimates and ideas and here to answer any questions, and I just want to say we had a great turnout. I did not leave this event this year like I did the previous times, so I was a little skeptical that it would be better, but it actually came out better, and it was really great to see more and more people attend in previous years. I don't know if anything else I can share. I didn't bring anything. I just have a question. Yeah. Nice, Mary. Thank you. Congratulations. That's awesome. Thank you. It's always good to get data back that exceeded expectations, so I can tell you that probably everybody's going to echo that same sentiment, so great job, and we look forward to working with you on the next one. Thank you. You know I attended, right? Yes. I had a blast. I got a lot of good memories. It was exciting. I knew it was getting better. I knew it was more successful than the last one, but I actually was shocked it was 4,100 when you're expected 2,000. That was great. Even your food trucks, I think, had more variety, even your merchandise, and it only got better as the night progressed. By the time it was nighttime, it was just like all out, so congratulations. It is an event that I'm hoping becomes like a yearly thing, if not more. Really good. Thank you. We had a collaboration with Telemundo, and that really helped a lot, you know, boost the event, and it was really nice seeing their whole staff there and, you know, promoting the FIFA event. Yes. So that was really nice, too. That was my feeling, too. Having attended Telemundo really drove out bigger attendance, so I think it's a lesson to all if you can get television stations in the back of the room, but if we can get a television partner to promote an event, it really does help attendance, and they certainly, I think, played a big role in driving attendance this year. Yes, thank you so much for the opportunity. We're very grateful for the help for that, and we hope that this becomes something regular because it started as an idea because we saw a lot of Taco Fest, you know, in other cities, and they weren't doing any here, especially not by the Mexican community. And us having such a large Mexican community, I thought it was very important to try to do it for Clearwater. Okay. Very good. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much. Go to agenda item 5.2, DDB, First Friday Lunchtime Market Report. Good afternoon again. Vicki Shire, CR Division Manager. Today I'd like to provide a recap of the First Friday Lunchtime Market, which took place from October 2025 through April 2026. I'll briefly share program results, what we've learned throughout the series, and staff's recommendation moving forward. The idea behind the program was simple. We wanted to create a reason for people to come to downtown during the weekday lunch hour. The market combined with local vendors, live music, and a welcoming atmosphere on the 400 block of Cleveland Street. It created a unique lunchtime experience. From the beginning, we focused on three objectives, increase weekday foot traffic, support local activity, and expand community engagement. Looking back over the seven-month series, we're very pleased with the results. The market transformed the corner block into a community gathering space, welcomed more than 1,200 visitors, and increased weekday activity during the lunchtime hour. It became the place where people could gather, enjoy the live entertainment, shop with local vendors, and spend time in downtown. The numbers tell a great story. Across seven events, we welcomed 1,207 visitors, averaging about 172 visitors, attendees. Attendance remained consistent throughout the series, with October and April seeing the highest participation. The busiest time was consistently around noon, showing we successfully reached the lunchtime audience we were hoping to attract. In addition to the strong attendance, we also received positive feedback throughout the series. The market encouraged people to spend time in downtown, explore the area, and enjoy the atmosphere that was created each month. The combination of vendors, live music, and community activity helped make the lunch hour feel more vibrant and welcoming. Another highlight was return on investment. The total program budget was $7,423.02. The investment supported seven successful events, welcomed more than 1,200 visitors, created weekday activation, and provided opportunities for local vendors to showcase their businesses. These next two slides provided summary of feedback from our vendors, and it was overwhelming positive. We exceeded our goal of having at least 10 vendors at every event. We had more. And many choose to participate month after month. Vendors appreciated the organization, communication, and support from staff. They also shared ideas for future improvements, including stronger marketing, additional food options that don't compete with the local merchants, and exploring evening format. When we compare the results to the key performance indicators established at the beginning of the program, staff believes the market successfully achieved its objectives. We increased weekday foot traffic, created consistent community activity, and provided a welcoming space where residents, employees, and visitors could gather and enjoy downtown. Community support was especially encouraging. We received 69 survey responses, and 100% of the responders said they would like to see the first Friday lunchtime market continue. Based on the results we've shared today, staff recommends continuing the first Friday lunchtime market. As we move forward, we'll focus on expanding marketing efforts, recruiting additional vendors, food options that do not compete with the local merchants, and adding even more entertainment, live music, and activities to continue growing the program. Now let's hear and see first Friday lunchtime market. Current ice cream, come on down to the first Friday Clearwater lunch market on Cleveland Street. We've had such an amazing time being right down here at the downtown Clearwater market. It is an experience of a lifetime. This is my first time at the lunchtime market. I love being downtown near the water and near Coachman Park. Welcome to lunchtime market. This is my third time coming with Intuition Salon and Spa. I'm a dreaded fisherman from Barbara's Kitchen here. My name is Danielle, and I'm with Not On Purpose Crochet. I'm Hutchins, the owner of Hutchins Wax Company. It's my first experience here at the Clearwater market. I can tell you this is a first-class act. And my name is Dawn, and I'm coming to you from Coastal Classics today. This is our second time here at the lunchtime market, and it's been great. We've been here now, this is our fourth market. We love the energy and the atmosphere here. We really enjoy all the other vendors, especially Jason Momoa. We've been coming to the first Friday lunchtime market from the beginning in October. And what we love about it is getting to connect with more neighbors and local businesses. Thank you. Okay. Any council, excuse me, or comment questions? I just want to say thank you. I think it was absolutely incredible. I've been to the market at least five times every time I went. I've seen happy people, great feedback from local merchants, and I generally had a lot of fun. It was great. Thank you. Thank you. The staff team worked very hard. It was a group team effort on that one. Member Tadlici? I want to say thank you as well. I think throughout the weeks, the seven times. I mean, it was just great. And that's exactly what I personally had imagined. You know, when you have the markets and you bring on more people, you have vendors, they talk about it, and then they come back. With that being said, I do have one question, and it doesn't have to be, you know, the exact number, but what was the percentage-wise were returning vendors? Oh, it was more than half. More than half? Okay. I mean, we had to find additional spacing and be very creative because we had returning vendors. And then when the new ones heard about it, we wanted them to come, of course, too. So we had to get very creative as a staff team and find spaces with still being safe and within guidelines of the city. Yeah, that's awesome. I think that also shows that they enjoy, they're willing to join as well. Are you planning on promoting the market over to the residences as well, maybe just, you know, flyers or any type of marketing strategy in that aspect? We did, but we're looking, if we do this again, and it's not something that we definitely will be doing again, but if we do do it again, I know my marketing team has some new ideas that they'd like to try to do with hitting the residents more and getting more outside of just the Clearwater area, but expanding into Dunnington Safety Harbor, too, because they would like to come down to Clearwater, too, and visit us as well. Absolutely. There is nothing at that time, nothing going on, so I think that's a great idea. I also have bad news for you. I think the musician James left, so you might want to look for a new one. It's okay. I'm sorry to hear about that. I hope it was for a good thing. Yeah, but thank you so much, Piki. I think this was great, and I would like to see it again. Thank you. I'm trying not to cry here. The team, like I said, was a team effort, and just thank you for the good feedback. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of hard work. I know what we were trying to do, and we just hope that the merchants, you know, were successful, and we did get the community down here, and you did. You did. You saw the community, and it was great, and it's just a piece of what we can potentially see in the future and stuff for the State Clearwater, so thank you. I think from my end, just the timing, you know, I don't know what you learn, you know, or what we've learned just, you know, summer months are tough. Everywhere kids are on vacation and all, it's a tough time, so I think, you know, the program we had before was centered on those months when not during the heat of the summer like today. So I think that it's great and appreciate the team's efforts in making it successful. Okay. With that, thank you. We'll move to item 6.1, Director's Report for July 2026. Again, good afternoon, Jesus Nino, CRA Executive Director and DDB Director. First, I do want to thank Mr. Michael Wynn with RBOA. Still here. Thank you for sticking around. I do want to say that he represents other communities and organizations, and I'm sure their budgets that they provide him are way bigger. But he is the CEO of his company, and I've been impressed that he's been attending every single meeting. He's been having his most senior staff attend our meetings, and I'm sure they probably have already exceeded our budgets, but they're doing a great job. Thank you. And we're impressed. So as far as find it in downtown Clearwater, we've embraced that. And just to kind of quote the mayor, more is coming, so we're happy. Just to give you a little bit of an update, you know, we're trying to be very good partners with the city, so we did fund some banners along the 400 all the way to the 700 block. This is for the America 250, so we're proud that we were able to be able to be that partner with the city. I won't go into this too much, but we're also very excited for the call for mobile vendors, and we're hoping to go ahead and put that team together and start evaluating those submissions, like Vicki mentioned, 24. I'm sure some of them may not qualify, but I'm sure some of them will. As far as event recaps, you know, we did have Symphony by the Sea celebrating America 250 with their wonderful waterfront evening of orchestra music, and it was just a great time for individuals that attended. That took place on June the 6th, 2026 at the Baycare Sound. And as far as the DDB funding, $50,000 of that, and we were very proud of that event. This one was a fun project as far as for the downtown gimmick. Gimmick Art Walk. We were hoping to have some photos of the event here for you today, maybe at the next month unless we have a very big agenda. But it was very exciting just to see the art that was out there. This took place on July the 2nd on the 400 block of Cleveland Street. I'm not sure if Kevin would like to say anything about that when I conclude the presentation. I think that concludes most of the presentation, but I did have one item on here. I'm not sure if you can show it on the screen. This is salsa and bachata for July the 25th. The reason why it wasn't in the report was because it wasn't approved yet, but it's already gone through that process, so here it is for the public. This will take place on the 500 block July the 25th, Saturday. So anyone who's interested, hopefully you can attend. With that, I'm open for questions. Okay. Any questions? Councilman Tichetta. Just a quick question. I'm not sure if you're going to have the answer, but is it too early to know what the attendance was for the Symphony by the Sea as well as the 400 Chalkheart event? We may have that data. We'll just get it back to the entire body here. To echo Jesus, we do have it. The presentation that's online has it included. We did not upload that one for you today. So for both of those events, we did include LASER IA data. We just didn't upload the right presentation for this afternoon. Anything else from the director? If not, thank you. I will move to item 7 on the agenda. Board members to be heard. Any board members to be heard today? If not, we will adjourn the July 13, 2026 meeting of the City of Clearwater Downtown Development Board. And we will recess for a few moments while we switch out some nameplates before we begin the CRA meeting.