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Cleveland Street Streetscape Phase III and Mercado

Mercado Overview

Construction is now underway on the Mercado, a new public gathering space coming to the intersection of Cleveland Street and Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard.
Contractor name: Biltmore Construction
Project funded by: Clearwater Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA)
Completion date: Fall 2024

Questions

For questions and to learn more about the Mercado contact:

City Engineer: Tara Kivett at 727-444-8202.

Clearwater Community Redevelopment Agency: Vickie Shire at 727-444-7127.

Biltmore Construction: Ron Cupler at 727-585-2084

Renderings

Mercado aerial

Mercado diagram

Cleveland Streetscape Phase III Overview

In December 2023, construction of the Cleveland Streetscape Phase III project was completed bringing highly anticipated safety and beautification features to Cleveland Street and Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard.

Contractor name: Gibbs & Register, Inc.
Completion date: December 4, 2023

Reverse-Angled Parking

You may see some new signs along Cleveland Street as you approach downtown, indicating that you should back into your parking space. This style of parking – reverse-angled parking – may be new to Clearwater, but it’s been in use in cities all over the country. You will now find reverse-angle parking spots along Cleveland Street from Missouri Avenue to Lady Mary Avenue and also some at Crest Lake Park.

Reverse-angle parking is a safer type of angled parking. Instead of pulling head-first into the parking spot, cars back into their spots along the same side of the road. This allows them to make eye contact with oncoming traffic when leaving a parking space, and it allows for easier loading and unloading, keeping people closer to the sidewalk when getting in and out of the vehicle. Parking headfirst in these spots is incorrect and is significantly more dangerous when leaving the space.

(Note: The city’s parking enforcement team uses license plate readers to enforce parking in Clearwater. Therefore, back-in parking is not allowed in most parking spaces in Clearwater. Back into your space only when reverse-angle parking is specifically marked.)

Reverse-angled parking comes to the Downtown Gateway

Improvements for Pedestrians and Cyclists

A number of pedestrian improvements have been made within the Downtown Gateway corridor.

You will now notice many separate, designated bicycle and pedestrian paths on both side of Cleveland Street and Gulf to Bay Boulevard. These are marked with bright green paint.

In many areas, these paths are separated from the street and from one another with plantings for maximum safety and user comfort.