Downtown Gateway Plan Would Add 138 Apartments, Restaurants and Retail

After years of stalling, builders are looking for city officials to give some direction on a mixed-use retail and apartment center on a long vacant Main Street parcel on Thursday.

The apartments and businesses, across from at Milwaukee Avenue, would attract a younger demographic to downtown, according to city documents. Pizzuti Builders will officially propose its conceptual plan to the commission on Aug. 23.

Right now, Dunedin's "multi-family rental stock can be characterized as older and not as attractive as newer products in surrounding areas such as Tampa, Clearwater, Palm Harbor and St. Petersburg," according to the city documents.

Pizzuti Builders, the owners of the site, want to construct 138 upscale, one- and two-bedroom, multi-family units, along with two restaurants and retail stores on the bottom level on what's become known as the 4.1-acre Gateway tract. 

It would serve to attract "early to mid-singles, couples and marrieds from 25 to 39 years with a household income of $40,000 to $100,000," Pizzuti says, and would offer them "'walk-to' shopping, dining, entertainment and transit."

Design plans have changed since Pizzuti Builders purchased the first of two parcels in 2006 for $1.2 million. Original plans included mixed medical offices and retail space, but the economic downturn delayed the sale of the second parcel of land and, thus, the project. 

The city commission granted a nine-month extension for Pizzuti to close the sale of the second parcel in March. 

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