Clearwater Beach May Land For Garage

The city is in negotiations with the owners of land along BeachWalk where it would like to build a parking garage. Surf Style Retail Management proposes building a 6 floor, 500 space garage on Gulfview Boulevard just south of the Hyatt Aqualea condo hotel. The city would buy the 300 spaces on the bottom 4 floors for nearly $13-million and agree to buy the other 200 spaces for $5 million in 2014. The City Council voted 4-1 to approve the idea, with council member Carlen Petersen opposed it, objecting to having 500 parking spots next to where the Hyatt Aqualea's garage will include another 400 public spaces. Negotiations will continue.