If you live downtown, you already noticed the clock. On the Saturday evening of July 25, the four-faced timepiece at the corner of Cleveland Street and Fort Harrison Avenue lit back up over a crowd the Cleveland Street Alliance counted at more than 3,000 people. That's an unusual density for that intersection on any night, let alone a July one. The clock is the visible part. The less visible part is that the same corner is now the anchor of a coordinated redevelopment that has, in the span of a summer, given Cleveland Street three new restaurants, a cleared 1.6-acre entertainment site, and a functional center of gravity it hasn't had in a long time.
This is a walking guide to what has actually shifted on the street between April and August 2026, and where it's headed by the end of the year. If you live in one of the residences off Cleveland or in the towers near Coachman Park, the next block you walk will look different than the one you walked last spring.
The corner that anchors everything
The Peoples Bank Building at 432 Cleveland Street was originally built in 1910 and rebuilt in the 1920s into the Mediterranean Revival landmark that most longtime residents still picture when they think of that intersection. Its terra-cotta façade, historic storefront, and four-faced clock have all been meticulously restored, and the Mediterranean tile facade was recreated from historic documentation with attention to proportion, texture, and color rather than surface decoration. Architects Halflants + Pichette led the design work.
The clock itself was the harder job. Master horologist David Boyd restored the McClintock-Loomis mechanism over five months and roughly 700 hours, and installed a new power conduit through the exterior wall so the clock could run reliably without cutting into the restored façade. Boyd put the sentiment plainly:
"To me, this clock is much more than a timepiece. It is a jewel of Clearwater."
If you cut through Cleveland and Fort Harrison on your way to Coachman Park, that corner is now readable at a glance again. The clock face is doing the same job it did in the 1930s: telling you whether you're late.
Three restaurants, one block, mostly one hospitality group
The Peoples Bank reopening set off the second story of the summer. Within days of the clock unveiling, the Cleveland Street Alliance announced its first ground-floor tenant, and a second operator confirmed a block over. Then a third, from a different group entirely. Three restaurants, one quarter-mile stretch, all landing in the same window.
Streetlight Taco — 432 Cleveland Street
The ground floor of the restored Peoples Bank Building will house Streetlight Taco's first location outside Tampa. The concept, created by Tastes Pretty Good Hospitality, received Michelin Guide recognition within months of opening its South Tampa location in January 2024. The kitchen mills heirloom corn in-house for its masa and centers the menu on tacos, tostadas, and mercado-style sides rather than a formal tasting format. The Clearwater build is planned as a street-facing Mexican bodega with a central bar and warm wood finishes, and it's aiming to open before the end of 2026.
For a resident, the practical read is this: the corner where you used to look up at scaffolding is going to be a Bib Gourmand taqueria with the lights on late.
Rippers — 534 Cleveland Street
One block east, in the restored Telephone Building, the same hospitality group is opening Rippers. The Telephone Building was constructed in 1914 and is the first historic landmark completed as part of the Cleveland Street Alliance's coordinated restoration initiative. Rippers will serve American classics centered on deep-fried "ripper" hot dogs, alongside burgers, chicken wings, sandwiches, fries, and handcrafted milkshakes. It's the casual, walk-in counterpart to Streetlight Taco.
Hanami Japanese Izakaya — 635 Cleveland Street
The third arrival is from outside the Tastes Pretty Good family, which matters. Hanami Japanese Izakaya will open at 635 Cleveland Street beside the future $50 million EVO Family Entertainment Center. The concept is a modern Japanese izakaya designed as a social dining format, with a contemporary street-facing layout intended to support pedestrian traffic and nightlife along Cleveland Street. Restaurateur Sheng Long Yu picked the block specifically for what's happening around it.
The three openings tell you something a single announcement wouldn't: independent operators are now underwriting Cleveland Street on the strength of the redevelopment, not just responding to it.
The 700 block: what's actually happening on the cleared lot
Walk past Myrtle Avenue and you'll see the second visible change of the summer. Five buildings that were standing in April are gone.
The future site of the $50 million EVO Family Entertainment Center has been fully cleared on the 700 block of Cleveland Street along the Pinellas Trail, with the 1.6-acre property prepared after the demolition of five existing structures. Demolition finished in June, a month ahead of the July 2026 public target and only 60 days after the City of Clearwater issued demolition permits, removing more than 21,000 square feet of existing structures and more than 1,400 tons of concrete, steel, asphalt, and building debris.
What's coming to that lot is not a standard multiplex. The development represents an approximately $50 million private investment, with a seven-screen multiplex anchored by what will be the largest cinema screen in the world at more than 130 feet wide, paired with Dolby Vision projection and Dolby Atmos sound, and the first multiplex where every auditorium features both technologies. Beyond the seven screens, the venue will include bowling, arcade gaming, laser tag, a scratch-kitchen restaurant, and interactive attractions.
A caveat worth stating clearly: the City of Clearwater has confirmed it has not yet received a formal development application for the EVO project, though right-of-way vacation applications have been submitted, and developers have not announced a construction start date. The cleared lot is a real, dateable milestone. The opening night is not.
If you walk the Pinellas Trail through downtown, this is the stretch to watch. It's now the largest visible construction site on the corridor and the one that will most reshape evening foot traffic once it moves vertical.
The other reason the block feels busier
None of this is happening in isolation. Cleveland Street sits three blocks from The BayCare Sound at Coachman Park, and the concert calendar has been dense all summer. The BayCare Sound features covered seating for 4,000 guests with lawn seating for some events, set in a 19-acre park along the water with walking trails and community events. Shows this summer and fall include The Black Keys on July 28, Deep Purple on August 8, Blues Traveler with Gin Blossoms and Spin Doctors on September 1, John Fogerty and Steve Winwood on September 19, and Freedom Rocks with 38 Special, The Marshall Tucker Band, and Don Felder on October 11, per public event listings.
If you've noticed more pre-show foot traffic on Cleveland in the last couple months, you're not imagining it. The Coachman Park calendar and the restored corner at Fort Harrison are starting to function as bookends of the same walk.
What actually changes for a resident this fall
Strip out the developer language and the visible changes for someone who lives here look like this:
- The Peoples Bank clock at Cleveland and Fort Harrison is running again. Use it. It replaces the phone glance.
- By late 2026, three restaurants that were not on the street in the spring will be open or close to it: Streetlight Taco at 432 Cleveland, Rippers at 534 Cleveland, and Hanami at 635 Cleveland.
- The 700 block of Cleveland along the Pinellas Trail is now a graded lot. It will be the EVO site. It is not a construction site yet.
- Pre-concert foot traffic on Cleveland has thickened as the BayCare Sound schedule has run. Expect that pattern to continue through Turnpike Troubadours on October 25.
- The Good Life Showroom at 331 Cleveland Street is a 1,400-square-foot immersive space with a 56-foot LED ribbon installation that walks visitors through the corridor's redevelopment plans. It's the easiest way to see what's actually planned block-by-block without piecing it together from press releases.
The story the summer tells, quietly, is that Cleveland Street is being rebuilt around one intersection rather than spread thinly across the corridor. The clock's return isn't decorative. It's the marker for where the district's foot traffic is being aimed.
When the block affects the property
If you own a residence downtown or are watching a specific building, the pace of change on Cleveland is worth tracking closely. Restaurant clusters, entertainment anchors, and restored civic landmarks tend to reprice the blocks immediately around them, and the timing of that repricing is rarely obvious from the outside. That's the kind of read our team provides for owners in the buildings closest to this corridor.
When you want a private conversation about what the Cleveland Street changes mean for a specific address, Chenault Group is a phone call away. Request a Private Market Consultation.
