CLEARWATER, Fla. — Clearwater’s North Greenwood community is considered one of the most economically challenged neighborhoods in Pinellas County, but city leaders say that’s soon about to change, and it all starts with shipping containers.
Gloria Campbell, executive director of the Clearwater Urban Leadership Coalition, said after more than five years of planning, it’s finally time to start developing The Village at the Grove.
She calls it the biggest development in the community in the last 50 years.
Located on a vacant lot at the corner of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Tangerine Street, The Village at the Grove will consist of 10 large shipping containers designed to house various small businesses ranging from retail to food to entertainment.
Campbell said almost all of them will be owned and operated by entrepreneurs who live in North Pinellas County.
“Our goal is to make sure that at least 95 percent of the businesses that go into the village will succeed and in a lot of cases those businesses will move on to larger types of facilities and we’ll be able to bring in other businesses so it’s kind of like a business incubator for the area,” said Campbell.
The Clearwater Urban Leadership Coalition said this project will change how people view North Greenwood.
“The North Greenwood area has the highest concentration of poverty in the entire county,” said Campbell. “There is nowhere to get food, certainly not healthy food, nowhere for employment, nowhere for economic business development, so this project has all those aims in place. It will be people from the community who are able to come and get a job and be able to walk, transportation won’t be an issue.”
The Clearwater Urban Leadership Coalition is currently in the process of securing these businesses and say they are planning to start installing the shipping containers in October with sights set on a grand opening in the beginning of 2027.
“We now know that we are on the focus, we are on the radar of some other developers who want to come in and do some other projects here, so this is the beginning, this is the catalyst, this will be what will propel the North Greenwood business district back to what it used to be,” said Campbell.
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