Hundreds of Clearwater residents got their first look Tuesday at The Village at the Grove. The shipping-container development will bring 14 small businesses to the North Greenwood neighborhood early next year.

The Taste of the Village event showcased the future tenants of the business incubator near North Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Tangerine Street. The project, first reported by Spectrum Bay News 9, is expected to open in the first quarter of 2027.

Coalition leads six-year push for shipping-container hub

The Clearwater Urban Leadership Coalition is leading the development, which uses repurposed shipping containers to give entrepreneurs lower-cost commercial space. Gloria Campbell, the coalition's executive director, said the project has been in the works for six years.

"There've been so many promises made and so many promises broken ... So people have to believe that it's really going to happen, and they have to see it happening," Campbell said at the event.

City money targets county's poorest neighborhood

North Greenwood has the highest concentration of poverty in Pinellas County, according to Campbell. Three years ago, the city of Clearwater allocated $5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to jump-start programming in the neighborhood. The Village at the Grove is one piece of a broader revitalization effort backed by the Clearwater Community Redevelopment Agency.

Jesus Niño, the redevelopment agency's executive director, said it is reinvesting in an area that experienced a period of disinvestment. The Clearwater Community Development Board unanimously approved the project in May 2026, WUSF reported.

Coffee, tea and IV therapy among planned tenants

The development spans food, fashion and entertainment businesses.

Among the prospective tenants named in June: Boss Lady Fuel, a coffee company owned by Jerida Lane; RemiTea, a tea and herbs business owned by Krystal Campbell; and Hydration & More Lounge, an IV therapy clinic run by nurse practitioner LaWanda Griffin, who already operates a location in New Port Richey.

Marilyn Turman, vice chair of the coalition, said the project's impact will extend beyond storefronts. She said coalition members see themselves as the people who will make change happen, not wait for someone else.

The Village at the Grove is part of a larger push in North Greenwood. The Clearwater City Council is scheduled to vote Friday on the first two steps of a separate overlay plan that would set new development rules for the neighborhood. If that plan passes all stages, the city expects the new land-use rules to take effect in May 2027.

The next North Greenwood Citizens Advisory Committee meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 2, at 5:30 p.m. at the North Greenwood Recreation Center, 900 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave.