06/25/2018 M 3
CLEAR LATER DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT BOARD MEETING
June 25, 2018 – 5:30 PM –City Hall – 211 Floor Meeting Room
Members Present: Paris Morfopoulos Chairman
Stu Sjouwerman Vice-Chairman
Caitlein Jammo Treasurer
Thomas Wright Member
Lina Teixeira Member
Ray Cassano Member
Venkat "Vincent" Devineni Member
Also Present; David Allbritton Ex-officio Member/Councilmember
Hoyt Hamilton Ex-officio Member/Councilmember
Amanda Thompson CRA Director
Anne Fogarty France Board Administrator
1. Chairman Morfopoulos called the meeting to order at 5:35 p.m. He welcomed the Ex-officio
councilmembers and asked the board and ex-officio councilmembers to introduce themselves.
2. Citizens Comments--Items not on the agenda.
None.
3. Review of 1-Year Tactical Plans for Marketing, Business Assistance and Policy & Project
goals–Copies of the results from the May 22 collaboration were distributed. It was observed that
Items 3 and 4 of tonight's agenda, Review of 1-Year Tactical Plans and Development of FY 2018-
2019 Work Plan, could be combined: the board concurred, and discussion commenced.
Amanda Thompson, CRA Director, addressed the color-coding of various sections.
• Green - items on which the DDB can take action on.
• Yellow - items that need more information is needed.
• Red - items on which the DDB has no current input.
The items on the three spreadsheets had received the most votes at the collaboration.
Chairman Morfopoulos suggested the board review each item and decide it if was something the
DDB can do and wants to do, and who on the DDB might be the contact person for each item. The
board concurred.
Marketing I-Year Tactical Plan
1.3, Plan a launch party. A launch party budget was discussed, with a temporary target of
$10,000 being agreed upon, Members Jammo and Wright agreed to be the champions.
2. Hire PR and marketing firms. Various points to promote in the downtown area were discussed.
2,11, and 2.2. Fund RFP and develop scope of services. The items were re-ordered, replacing
each other, Members Wright and Sjouwerman agreed to be the champions and CRA Director
Thompson agreed to follow up.
2.3. DDB hires and funds firm. A potential budget was discussed at $3 ,C and members
suggested sharing the cost with another agency. CRA Director Thompson agreed, and suggested
Downtown Development Board Meeting—June 25, 2018 1
the DDB portion might be 20% with the CDP and Chamber of Commerce being asked to
participate as well.
3,1, and 3.2. Review status of ULI action items and determine incomplete items to address.
Members suggested it is the DDS's role to make recommendations, and that with a title revision to
"Review ULI and make recommendations", the DDB cold have the greatest impact, This item was
originally the responsibility of the Assistant City Manager, but a new City "point man" should be
identified, and October was agreed to be a reasonable target date for an update. The board
concurred.
33. Review and provide recommendations for Imagine Clearwater implementation, Members
Devineni and Cassano agreed to be the champions for 3.1 — 3-3,
Business Assistance I-Yea r Tactical Plan
1.2. and 1.3. Court potential tenants for vacant storefronts and create campaign to attract tenants-
Much discussion revolved around these items with incentives for tenants being discussed as well
as potential tenants such as Trader Joe's, Mazzaro's Top Golf and Big Storm Brewery.
CRA Director Thompson noted the concern that the area's median income is approximately
$40,000 whereas many large companies require a median income of$100,000+ before they'll
consider a location.
Members agreed to the creation of a high-tech CEO council for companies in the downtown area.
Working together, they could attract employees who would want to work and live in the downtown
area.
In the end, a consensus was reached that the items would be renumbered as follows, and
Member Cassano would be the DDB member to work with CRA staff,
1.1, Coordinate with PR campaign to attract tenants (Trader Joe's, Top Golf)
12, Court potential tenants for vacant storefronts.
2. Get programs in place with universities. The section was renumbered as follows:
2.1. Establish contact with SPC.
2.2, Establish contact with USF
2.3. Coordinate with PR campaign to attract a university.
It was agreed that Member Sjouwerman would pursue his existing relationship with USF and
Member Mammo would be the contact for SPC.
3. Develop high-tech job incentives—General discussion:
Member Sjouwerman noted that all floors in the Atrium building include tech companies. He also
suggested a 'cluster of 20-ish options' in business and activity would inspire people to live nearer
to their work.
.1. and 3.2. Identify regulations for eligibility and identify incentives for tech incubators. These
items were recognized as outside the DDB's authority, Member Sjouwerman agreed to continue to
monitor.
Downtown Development Board Meeting—June 25,2018 2
3.3 and 3.4. Make collateral available and promote downtown tech corridor. Discussion
continued regarding hosting concerns in the downtown area, creation of a high-tech council, and
incentives to attract high-tech businesses and their employees.
A suggestion to enhance the Clearwater Downtown Partnership's (CDP's) yearly awards received
positive comments, and members suggested the CDP Momentum Awards could become part of
the campaign.
Member Teixeira noted that representation of the arts was growing in downtown, and a liaison with
the CDP would be beneficial to identify areas of mutual cooperation. Member Teixeira and CRA
Director Thompson are working with the Dali Museum on a virtual reality presentation (potentially
for January–June 2019). Several items of discussion were raised: building a calendar of events
around the exhibition to properly take advantage of the expenditure, fees to train staff and
purchase the software and cost of promotions via social media, paper brochures and ads.
While the consensus was that many tasks in these items would fall to the PR and marketing plans,
Members Devineni and Sjouwerman agreed to champion 3.3, and Members Jammo and
Sjouwerman would champion 3.4.
Members suggested adding subsections 3.5 and 3.6 for creating a high-tech CEO Council and
creating a liaison to the CDP with Members Sjouwerman and Teixeira being the champions.
Policy & Project 1-Year Tact1caI Plan
One-stop shop for downtown permitting. Members discussed the permitting process and the need
for a 'fast track' permit process for potential downtown tenants. While the DDB is not involved the
city permitting process, Ex-officio Councilmember Hamilton suggested the DDB "stay involved and
stay vocal'.
Combining the four items was proposed, and re-wording was approved as follows:
1.1. Identify key complaints and advise on recommendations on how to correct and increase
customer satisfaction. Member Teixeira agreed to be champion on this item.
1.2. Create budget for implementation. Members Teixeira and Jammo agreed to be champions.
1.3. Review the existing ordinance and make recommendations. Member Devineni agreed to be
champion of this item.
1.4 Create campaign to educate public. Member Teixeira agreed to be champion.
Member Sjouwerman left the meeting at 7:00.
Strategy 2. Update the Downtown Development Board ordinances. Chairman Morfopoulos will be
champion of this section.
4. Final Comments
Member Cassano said he feels a plan is so close, and it can all happen. It was re-stated that The
Nolen is 80% occupied.
Member Teixeira was more comfortable with the definitions of terms and felt things were clearer
now.
Downtown Development Board Meeting—June 25, 2018
Chairman Morfopoulos felt the board had accomplished it's objective and thanked everyone for
their commitment,
Member Wright requested the city set a date to see the Harborview Center gone.
Member Jammo also asked about a target date for the Harborview Center.
Ex-officio Councilmember Hamilton stated he felt they'd done a good job and thanked everyone
for keeping the agenda moving.
Ex-officio Councilmember Allbritton re-stated Mr. Hamilton's comments and offered his confidence
in the plans discussed.
5. The meeting was adjourned at 7:05 p.m.
Downtown Development Board Meeting—June 25, 2018 4