Clearwater City Council advances street handover for EVO complex

The Clearwater City Council voted 3-2 on Sept. 18 to begin handing over three downtown streets for a $50 million entertainment complex.

The first-reading vote covers Grove Street, portions of Laura Street and a 15-foot alley on the planned site for an 83,000-square-foot EVO Entertainment center at Cleveland Street and Myrtle Avenue. Council members David Allbritton, Ryan Cotton and Mike Mannino voted yes. Councilwoman Lina Teixeira and Mayor Bruce Rector voted no.

Myrtle Development LLC, a firm tied to the Church of Scientology, requested the vacations. Florida corporate records identify Glen Stilo as the LLC's manager. Stilo is also listed as secretary of the Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization, WTSP reported.

A second reading is required before the vacations take effect.

What the $50 million complex would include

Developers said the complex would feature a seven-screen movie theater, bowling, laser tag, rock climbing, restaurants and an arcade. The centerpiece would be a cinema screen measuring 131 feet wide and 72.5 feet high, which developers said would be the largest in the world.

The entertainment center is the anchor of the Cleveland Street Alliance, a coalition of the Church of Scientology, Scientology parishioners and development professionals. The effort spans nine properties along Cleveland Street between Osceola and Myrtle avenues. The overall private investment has been estimated at roughly $200 million. Developers told the council the center alone could create about 300 jobs and generate an estimated $2 million in annual wages.

Council splits over permanent street closures

Mannino framed the vote as an investment play, not a giveaway. He pointed to Grove Street, which he said has been closed and barricaded since 2017, and a nearby city-owned parcel off the tax rolls for decades.

"I don't view this as the City of Clearwater giving away a street … I view it as Clearwater strategically leveraging a public asset to help unlock a much larger private investment in our downtown," Mannino said at the meeting, as first reported by WUSF.

Teixeira said she supports the entertainment center but opposed the site plan because it eliminates an east-west route through downtown. She proposed keeping Laura Street open or finding an alternative connection. The council did not add those proposals to the plan.

Rector questioned whether permanent closures were necessary. He noted the proposed site plan includes roughly 400 surface parking spaces and said the city's downtown development plan calls for replacement connections when streets are vacated.

Robert Potter, an attorney representing the Church of Scientology, told the council that only Laura Street is currently open to traffic. He said vacating the rights-of-way would support construction on about 5.5 acres of vacant downtown property.

Save the Garden petition heads to verification

The street-vacation vote came the same night the council dealt with a separate challenge to its downtown land decisions.

Save the Garden, a grassroots group, submitted more than 10,000 petition signatures before the Sept. 18 meeting. The petition seeks to repeal the council's June vote transferring a portion of South Garden Avenue to the Church of Scientology for a planned L. Ron Hubbard Hall. The council voted to send those signatures to the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections for verification. Save the Garden will pay 10 cents per signature reviewed.

Under the city charter, the verifying official has 20 days to check the signatures. If enough are certified, the petition goes back to the council. If the council does not repeal the ordinance, the question goes to voters in a referendum, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Brooks Gibbs, Save the Garden's campaign director, urged the council to delay the EVO vote until residents could weigh in. A Church of Scientology spokesperson called the petition "unlawful" and said construction on South Garden Avenue has already begun.

Allbritton, Cotton and Mannino directed City Attorney Owen Kohler to seek an advisory opinion from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on whether the petition violates state law. The council did not take a formal vote on that request. Kohler said outside counsel believes both Save the Garden petitions could conflict with the state's Community Planning Act, which includes a provision barring such petitions against development orders. Teixeira and Rector called the move unnecessary.

Uthmeier has already weighed in on the South Garden Avenue matter twice, once unsolicited and once at a council member's request.

The second reading of the EVO street-vacation ordinance has not been scheduled.