The Clearwater Beach Marina Was Rebuilt Around Its Boats, and the Last Half Is the One You Can't See From Coronado Drive

"On this side of the bridge there's less current and we're kind of blocked by these buildings. So just from a captain's perspective, pulling into this slip is a lot better," Kayla Bennett, a captain with The Tropics Boat Tours, told Bay News 9 in April, after her boat moved back into its rebuilt slip on Coronado Drive.

From the sidewalk, that side of the Clearwater Beach Marina at 25 Causeway Blvd. now looks nearly finished. The marina is in the last weeks of a roughly $46 million rebuild, and how the city sequenced the work explains why this fall's view is lopsided. Clearwater split the project into two halves so the commercial fleet never had to stop running. The west side, where the sightseeing and dolphin boats tie up, came first. The east side came second, and that half holds most of what is still unfinished: permanent slips for the fishing fleet and dinner boats, the fuel dock, and the official ribbon cutting.

Two halves, so the fleet could keep sailing

"We did it in two phases so the commercial fleet can remain operational," Mike MacDonald, director of the City of Clearwater's Marine and Aviation Department, told Bay News 9.

While the west side was being rebuilt, the tour boats moved across the marina and away from Coronado Drive, the street where most foot traffic passes. Trisha Rodriguez, who owns The Tropics and chairs the Clearwater Beach Marina Tenants Association, told the station that tenants lost about half their income over 18 months because "it really made it challenging for people to know where we were and that we were open." Moving back to Coronado Drive before spring break was the turning point she pointed to.

The fishing fleet and dinner boats are now the ones working from borrowed space. The city's project page says the tour boats are in their new slips along Coronado Drive, while the fishing fleet and dinner boats are in temporary spots on the floating docks and still fully running. If you book the Calypso Queen, StarLite Majesty, or Yacht StarShip for a dinner cruise this season, or a half-day trip with Queen Fleet or Double Eagle Deep Sea Fishing, you'll be boarding at a temporary berth.

What the finished west side already shows

The rebuilt half shows what the whole marina will look like when it is done. According to the city's final design summary, the rebuild:

• Keeps the same slip count, about 165 slips, with the same balance of slip types
• Puts commercial boats on fixed docks around the outside edge of the marina
• Gives non-commercial users floating docks built to handle changing water levels
• Raises fixed docks and gangway platforms 15 to 24 inches
• Raises the top of the seawall 15 to 18 inches, along more than 1,300 linear feet of new and raised seawall
• Places ticket kiosks on land near the main dock entrances
• Builds the marina to ADA standards

The raised docks answer a problem tenants knew well. "All of our docks were a lot lower. So, when the water would come in or we would have bad weather, the electricity would go out," Rodriguez told Bay News 9. By April, the west side's seawall had been raised 18 inches.

The project was also built to clear up the crowding on Coronado Drive. The city's stated goals include reducing congestion along that street, adding two slips for a water taxi, and opening up a pedestrian "Marina Walk."

Marina Walk now has a landmark

The most visible new piece for anyone walking the beach is Marina Walk. The city describes it as an extension of Beach Walk, with shade, seating, landscaping and walkways connecting the marina's businesses to the beach attractions.

Its anchor is "Ketch," a mosaic sculpture by Nevada artist Eileen Gay. Clearwater Local reported that it was unveiled at a ceremony on Sept. 24. Gay told the Tampa Bay Beacons that she wanted the piece to include "imagery of Clearwater's iconic dolphin inhabitants as you might see them either from the deck of a boat or as a diver with them underwater."

The sculpture went up before the marina was finished, so you can see it now, a few steps from the boats it depicts, while work continues on the far side.

The east side holds the remaining work

At the Sept. 9 meeting of Clearwater's Marine Advisory Board, Kelly Petrich, the city's engineering division manager, listed what was left. The main items were installing the fuel line and electrical conduit on Dock A, plus "a lot of upland work" and punch-list items. Crews were also extending two catwalks for "the Queen Fleet and the Double Eagle vessels."

Each of those items maps to something the public will notice when it's done:

The schedule has moved several times. Bay News 9 reported that construction started a couple of months late because of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. In April, the project was expected to finish in August 2026. The city's timeline now lists October 2026 for substantial completion and blames the delay on the storms, late material deliveries and fabrication, and the electrical work that followed. At the September meeting, Petrich said the project was on track to finish by the end of that month.

Why "substantial completion" matters

Two things are tied to that milestone: the ribbon cutting and the next rate decision for the commercial boats. A third change, higher rents for recreational slips, did not wait and took effect Oct. 1.

The ribbon cutting is the first. When a board member asked at the September meeting whether there would be a party, the reply recorded in the meeting transcript pointed to the Ketch unveiling, followed by "a ribbon cutting ceremony sometime in late October, early November." As this post goes up, that target window has arrived. Watch the city's announcements for the exact date.

Slip rents come next. On June 4, 2026, City Council approved the second phase of slip-rate increases for recreational boaters across the city's marinas, effective Oct. 1, 2026. Those increases bring rates up to the market levels in a 2025 study by Walter Duke & Partners. The Council item sets these monthly rates per foot of boat length:

The commercial boats at the Beach Marina were left out on purpose. The same item put off any further increases for those tenants because construction had "significantly" affected their business. Once the rebuild reaches substantial completion, which the city expected in late 2026, staff will do a new rate study and bring commercial rates back to Council. That means the next rate decision for the fishing, dinner-cruise and sightseeing operators, who carried the business losses during construction, is set to follow the same milestone as the ribbon cutting.

If you rent a slip, the Council item is the place to check exact figures. This post is general information, not legal or financial advice, so confirm your own lease terms directly with the city's Marine and Aviation Department.

Visiting the marina this winter

The city's business directory for the marina is long, and almost all of it is local. Dolphin and sightseeing trips include Captain Memo's Pirate Cruise, Little Toot I and II, Sea Screamer, Clearwater Schooner, Kai Lani and The Tropics Boat Tours. Food along the docks includes Crabby's Dockside, Marina Cantina, Bar Tiki, Roundabout Pizza, Salt Cracker Fish and Cool Cookie. Chute 'Em Up Parasail, H2O Jet Ski and Paddle Out Adventures are on the water sports list. The directory isn't dated, so call ahead before you plan around any one stop.

Parking is still the main hassle. The marina lot has fewer spaces during construction, and a temporary lot on Memorial Causeway is reserved for construction crews and marina employees. Marina customers can still park in the marina lot or at the city's other beach lots and garages. The Clearwater Ferry, the Jolley Trolley and PSTA all serve the marina if you'd rather not drive.

Paying for the project came from several sources. The city lists grants of $7.85 million in Pinellas County tourist tax money for the commercial area, $4 million from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for resiliency work, and $1.7 million from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Together that's about $13.5 million of the roughly $46 million total. Bay News 9 put the total at about $13 million.

For the latest on boarding locations, the city keeps a current list of charters, cruises, rentals and sightseeing operators, and the Marine and Aviation Department can be reached at (727) 562-4955.

At Team Opulence, we watch changes like the marina rebuild because the Clearwater Beach waterfront shapes daily life for the condo owners and neighbors we work with, from the Coronado Drive slips to Marina Walk. If you have questions about how projects like this one affect your corner of the beach, please Contact Us. We're always glad to talk.