After more than a decade of planning, county officials expect to break ground on a new public transportation center in downtown Clearwater by fall 2025.
The project cleared one of its final hurdles as the city and the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority completed a land swap to build the $45 million transit hub on 2 acres of vacant land at the northwest corner of Myrtle Avenue and Court Street.
The transit authority acquired the land on March 21, according to director of project management Abhishek Dayal, though the transfer is not yet reflected in public records. In the first leg of the swap, the city took ownership on Feb. 28 of the transit authority’s current bus terminal on Park Street, which will remain operational until the new center is expected to be completed in 2026.
City and county officials gathered at the site on Monday to reaffirm their commitment to the center, which transit authority CEO Brad Miller previously called “the most pressing transportation need in Pinellas County.”
It also advances one of the elements of the city’s downtown revitalization vision that includes a new City Hall nearby and a hotel and apartment project on the waterfront bluff.
A new City Hall is in design for vacant land along Myrtle Avenue directly north of the transit center site along with renovations to adjacent Municipal Services Building. Together, the projects will help build a walkable and accessible campus for city employees, visitors and residents, City Council member Lina Teixeira said.
“This is all something we’ve been working on for decades, and it’s just a relief that now there’s momentum, there are actions instead of just discussion,” she said in an interview. “And it’s just the beginning.”
The new transit facility, described as “multimodal,” will include bus bays, bicycle and scooter storage, ride-sharing connections and a green design with solar panels and electric vehicle charging stations. It also calls for retail space for a coffee shop and connections for potential future light rail.
It will replace the 40-year-old bus station a few blocks away on Park Street, one of the busiest hubs in Tampa Bay that is largely obsolete. The roof is too low to fit the transit authority’s new electric buses, so operators have to pick up and drop off passengers on streets around the terminal.
“It’s important we have crossed another milestone on our journey to improve public transportation for visitors and residents for Clearwater and for all of Pinellas County,” Miller said.
The transit authority received a $20 million federal grant in summer 2022 for the transit project, adding to $2.3 million in state funding. But city officials declined to complete the land swap valued at $4 million until the transit authority closed the rest of the funding gap. The Pinellas County Commission allocated $8 million in Penny for Pinellas sales tax dollars in November 2022. Since then, Miller said officials have been completing the design, now in final stages.
The remainder of the costs will be covered with transit authority grants, Miller said.
City Manager Jennifer Poirrier said no plans have been finalized for what will be built on the Park Street site once bus services transfer to the new center.
But council member David Allbritton said it expands opportunities for redevelopment on property the city controls. Most commercial real estate within the downtown core has been bought since 2017 by limited liability companies controlled by Church of Scientology parishioners that now sit vacant.
But Pinellas County is planning to build a consolidated government center east of U.S. 19, which would free up about a dozen county-owned properties downtown for redevelopment.
Combined with county land next to the Park Street lot, Allbritton said in an interview that he’d like to see housing development with restaurant and retail on the ground level.
“What a perfect opportunity right in the middle of our downtown,” Allbritton said.
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