Starbucks, Bob Evans, Kauffman Tire coming to Clearwater retail complex

CLEARWATER — A Starbucks, Bob Evans and auto shop are among tenants poised to move into a sprawling retail complex where a Walmart Neighborhood Market already stands, and a Wawa gas station and apartment complex are under construction, on the southwest corner of Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard and Belcher Road.

The city issued permits for the Starbucks and Bob Evans, and crews have broken ground.

The Starbucks, slated for the corner plot at Gulf-to-Bay and Belcher, will feature a drive-through, city development review manager Robert Tefft said. The Bob Evans will go up south of Starbucks and front Belcher.

Kauffman Tire would occupy a plot on the far west side, along Gulf-to-Bay on what's currently a grassy area just north of the Walmart, officials said. City staff approved the project but said the retailer has not applied for permits.

Redstone Investments of Tampa bought the project, dubbed Lakeside at Clearwater, early this year from Nickel Plate Properties. Lyle Fogarty, Redstone's senior vice president of development, said the firm is in talks with multiple entities interested in filling a final 1-acre space off the Belcher entrance with either retail, a bank or office space.

"By the first half of 2015, you should start to see openings," Fogarty said. "We're excited about it. We think it's going to be an exciting new corner for Clearwater."

The retail-residential project is going up on a 30-acre parcel that has lain dormant since the Lakeside Mobile Home Park closed in 2007. Before construction began, Nickel Plate contended with neighbors who said they feared the 11.6-acre commercial component would bring even more congestion to one of Pinellas County's busiest intersections.

Alliance Residential Company officials say Broadstone Clearwater, the adjacent 240-unit apartment complex constructed on 18.4 acres at 2168 Druid Road, is nearly done. They're advertising the one-, two- and three-bedroom units at broadstoneclearwater.com, and an official said they expect their first tenants to move in Sept. 1.

Contact Keyonna Summers at ksummers@tampabay.com or (727) 445-4153. Follow @KeyonnaSummers.