Partner Partner Content Clearwater envisions new life for historic North Ward Elementary

The City of Clearwater is looking for a development partner with the vision and ability to transform long-vacant North Ward Elementary School from a relic of the city’s past into a vibrant part of its future. City leaders feel the right mix of historic renovation and new construction will revitalize the shuttered school campus along North Fort Harrison Avenue as a bustling mixed-use development that attracts additional private investment to the surrounding North Marina area and fills a void between downtown and the city’s historically African-American North Greenwood community.     

“We think the opportunity to do a little bit of old, a little bit of new makes it a really attractive site,” Assistant City Manager Al Battle says. “With a lot of vacant property around the site, the development ideas that take shape might be very different from what we have today. The uses someone could bring to that property could be very interesting for what that area will look like in the future. It’s a gateway to downtown if you’re coming from the north, and could be part of a larger redevelopment plan for that area. We want to encourage the most creative ideas possible. Let’s figure out a way to do something cool together.”

Right now, the city is engaged in pre-marketing to spread the word, drum up interest, and provide information about the development opportunity at North Ward. A formal request for development proposals is expected to go out during the summer. 

Building on momentum

The city is exploring development interest in North Ward as the long-sought downtown redevelopment picks up steam with several major projects under construction. 

“It’s always better to put out an RFP (request for proposals) when things are really hopping than when they’re not, and Clearwater is booming right now,” says City Council member David Allbritton. “Things are really moving. Coming over the (Memorial Causeway) bridge every day, I love to see all those construction cranes. They’re everywhere. That’s a really good indication that things are changing. It’s been a long time. I was on the Downtown Development Board from 2009 to 2012, and we just dreamed of this kind of stuff. Now it’s really happening. It’s fun to see.”

On the downtown bluff, The Ballad Hotel, a 10-story, 158-room hotel with ground-floor retail and restaurant space and a bar and dining area on the top floor, is slated to open in late 2027. The Bluffs, an adjacent 400-unit, 28-story apartment tower with 10,000 square feet of retail, is under construction and expected to open in May 2028. 

A 397-space parking garage with 12,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space across four storefronts is under construction at the corner of Pierce Street and Osceola Avenue. After more than a decade of planning, the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) has started construction on Clearwater Station, a state-of-the-art multimodal hub at the corner of Court Street and Myrtle Avenue. When that transit hub opens in late 2026/early 2027, PSTA’s current Park Street terminal property, which the city took ownership of in a land swap, will open up for redevelopment. Pinellas County government is also moving its offices out of downtown Clearwater, freeing up those sites for sale and redevelopment. 

A roadway improvement project on Osceola Avenue from Court to Drew streets is scheduled to run from mid-2026 to early 2027. It will include a smoother road surface, wider sidewalks, drainage upgrades, landscaping, and on-street parking for businesses. The City of Clearwater is also in pre-marketing to find the right partner to repurpose underutilized space in the Clearwater Main Library as an arts and cultural destination.

A piece of local history

In between the downtown redevelopment boom to the south and the revitalization efforts underway through the city’s North Greenwood Community Redevelopment Area to the north, the North Ward Elementary campus opened in 1915 as one of the first public schools in Pinellas County. It has stood vacant since it was shuttered in 2009 because of low enrollment. 

The city purchased the school from Pinellas County Schools in 2019 and got it listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021. The city’s vision is to preserve the school’s history and legacy while reactivating the property as a key site in the revitalization efforts that will carry Clearwater into the future. 

The city intends for the three historic red brick buildings on the property, the original 1915 school building, a two-story addition from 1926, and the 1945 cafeteria building, will be renovated and preserved for adaptive reuse. The open lawn in front of the school, where school children once played at recess, could also be kept as green space. 

Rowe Architects, a Tampa firm the city hired to conduct a building assessment, found the original 1915 building to be in particularly good shape given its close proximity to the Intracoastal Waterway. The wood flooring, built-in storage cabinets, and other historic features remain intact. The firm also noted that the lawn was listed as a significant feature when the property was placed on the Historic Register. 

The northern portion of the property could be used for new construction, such as multi-family residential or mixed-use development.  

Battle notes that successful adaptive reuse of historic buildings has created projects like Armature Works, the upscale food hall and event space in a converted streetcar warehouse in Tampa Heights. Artspace, a national nonprofit that develops affordable housing and studio spaces for artists, has a track record of successful adaptive reuse projects.  He thinks the North Ward property has the potential for a unique adaptive reuse project that attracts additional development and investment to the area.

“Sometimes, historic properties allow you to think much differently than you would if it were something new coming out of the ground,” he says. “The creative types will come up with very original ideas.”

Allbritton, who attended North Ward in the first grade, remembers the school’s maypole and the large windows that were opened to let in the breeze before the school had air conditioning. Clearwater was a much smaller community then, he says. Now, the historic school may be poised to find new life as the revitalization and redevelopment happening downtown spreads to the north. 

“I really think that that whole North Fort Harrison area is going to be prime for redevelopment soon,” Allbritton says. “You can see the whole thing is starting to turn. In the next few years, you’re going to see a big change. Because it’s on the way. It’s happening.” 

For more information, go to North Ward School