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Area Main Streets Map Out Success

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By STEVEN GIRARDI The Tampa Tribune

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 17, 2008

Here is a look at how Main Street programs such as Clearwater's have fared in neighboring Pinellas County communities:

Dunedin

Seen by many as the model for small Main Street redevelopment, downtown Dunedin blended a collection of specialty shops and restaurants with a nostalgic makeover of streets and storefronts.

The key was capitalizing on the downtown's assets and seizing control of Main Street from the state, said Economic Development Director Robert Ironsmith, who was part of the plan 14 years ago.

The city added gateways to each end of Main Street. The Pinellas Trail recreational path bisects downtown; an old railway car and museum straddle the railroad tracks, and the Intracoastal Waterway is a few blocks west. The quaint, human-scale development entices pedestrians, as well as residents who have moved into new town houses.

"We identify where downtown is," Ironsmith said. "You know you're in downtown. That's pretty critical."

Dunedin has become known for its annual street celebrations, from wine festivals to Mardis Gras, attracting as many as 100,000 people.

"You have to be a little bit of a promoter," Ironsmith said.

Safety Harbor

With the internationally known Safety Harbor Spa anchored on Old Tampa Bay at the eastern end of Main Street, Safety Harbor already had a downtown attraction.

But it was the recent completion of the two-story brick Harbor Point retail and restaurant complex at Main Street and Bayshore Boulevard that tied it all together, Community Development Director Matt McLachlan said.

The plan began about 10 years ago with a streetscape project that "really set things off," McLachlan said.

The city helped restore building facades along Main Street to recapture a historical feel. Gradually, the street attracted more merchants, and the district branched to the side streets along the 10-block district, McLachlan said.

"We and Dunedin are very lucky because we have an identifiable downtown," McLachlan said. "We were able to enhance that feel."

Safety Harbor also jumped on the festival bandwagon with annual and monthly street events. "It's one piece of the overall strategy," McLachlan said.

Palm Harbor

With no local government to call its own, unincorporated Palm Harbor hooked up with the national Main Street program to resurrect its historical downtown.

The plan looked a lot like what Dunedin and Safety Harbor had done, said Robin Husbands-Cauchi, executive director of Old Palm Harbor Main Street.

"They give you a blueprint on how the street should look - to keep your identity. It keeps everything symmetrical," Husbands-Cauchi said.

Planning began about nine years ago. The streetscape started a year later, with most of the work coming in between 2002 and 2004, she said.

It can seem at times as if nothing is getting done, she said.

"The planning sometimes takes the longest," Husbands-Cauchi said. "But once things get going, they just kind of take off on their own. It just kind of starts happening."

Now, on a typical weekend night, the three blocks along Florida Avenue are busy with people eating and drinking at sidewalk tables, in courtyards and in restaurants.

Husbands-Cauchi said old-fashioned downtowns have a lure.

"People are getting more community-minded, and it's such a wonderful trend," she said. "It has opened the doors for small entrepreneurs and small businesses."

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