CLEARWATER – A signature Dunkin’ Donuts/Baskin-Robbins store may not seem like economic development progress. But in the steep challenge to turnaround a struggling business sector, the latest tenant in Clearwater’s downtown renewal effort is a hole in the donut and a sign that a strategy to get help from national chains to revive retail interests here is yielding results.
The restaurant will open in the 2,400-square-foot retail space of Clearwater’s old telephone exchange building on Cleveland Street, finalizing a lease with the building’s owner, Jon Heneghan, who has spent $300,000 on the exterior restoration of the three-story, 1914 building since last July.
“It’s design will be sort of retro to go with the building,” said Heneghan, who purchased the building in 2005 for $700,000 with a little help from more than $600,000 in winnings he accumulated in the World Series of Poker tournament that same year.
In with the old
The Dunkin’ Donuts location will be a franchise of Vik Patel through his Cleveland Street Donuts Inc., one of the largest franchisees of Dunkin’ Donuts in Pinellas County.
The company is planning a buildout of at least $500,000 for the space that will include ceramic tile floors, wood paneling and a streetside cafe, said David Kerr, a broker with Highpoint Real Estate in Clearwater who helped seal the deal. It will encompass the entire bottom level of the telephone exchange building and will become a destination, Heneghan said.
What was a more than a mile of empty storefronts on Cleveland Street in downtown Clearwater is quickly changing, and a lot of that has to do with the national chains that have decided to give Clearwater a chance, said Stanton Englander, president of Insite Real Estate Inc., who helped bring both Starbucks and Jamba Juice to downtown Clearwater.
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