The lot at 968 Douglas Avenue was a concrete plant for most of its life. Later the city leased it to an art incubator. For years after that, by the city's own account, it mostly stored cars, boats and RVs. Today a crane works inside its fence, setting precast concrete for the four-story Douglas Parking Center. The 1.07-acre site sits between Kafe Racer at the Skinner Boulevard corner and The Artisan apartments, with the Pinellas Trail along its western edge.
The schedule for this garage was written around downtown's calendar. The crew works no weekends. The craft festival weekend gets no construction activity at all. The only full road closure falls on a Monday and Tuesday. Those rules have held steady. The dates themselves have not, and the closure dates printed in August are already out of date.
The Dates Moved, and the Festival Weekend Stayed Clear
On August 19, Tampa Bay Beacons quoted the developer's schedule: one lane closed starting October 12, then a full closure October 26 and 27. The City of Dunedin's August 13 bulletin gave the same early dates. The Douglas Parking Center construction page, updated weekly and current as of September 18, now shows each milestone about a week or more later. It works from a Hawkins Construction precast schedule dated September 3.
| Milestone | Schedule reported in August | Developer schedule as of Sept. 18 |
|---|---|---|
| Single-lane flagging on Douglas | Mon. Oct. 12 to Fri. Oct. 23, 10 working days | Tue. Oct. 20 to Thu. Nov. 5, about 13 working days |
| Full closure for crane removal | Mon. Oct. 26 and Tue. Oct. 27 | Mon. Nov. 9 and Tue. Nov. 10 |
| All lanes restored | Wed. Oct. 28 | Wed. Nov. 11 |
Even with the new dates, the anchors stayed in place. Lane work still starts the week after the Art & Craft festival. The full closure still lands on Monday and Tuesday, which the developer calls "the quietest downtown days." The traffic control plans by Spartan Safety Services are still drafts pending City of Dunedin approval. The developer says the signed detour posted in the field governs if it differs from the published map. The page also commits to updating its dates and notifying the city before any closure begins if weather or logistics shift the plan.
Festival Weekend Comes First, October 10 and 11
The City of Dunedin lists the event as the Arts & Craft Festival, presented by American Craft Endeavors. The organizer calls it the 33rd Annual Downtown Dunedin Craft Festival. It runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, with booths along Main Street to Douglas Avenue, and admission is free.
According to the city's event listing, Main Street closes from 4 a.m. Saturday through 7 p.m. Sunday. Douglas Avenue is limited to local traffic. It reopens at 6 p.m. Saturday, then closes again from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. The garage site will be quiet the whole weekend, with no deliveries and no lane closure.
The organizer's parking guide is dated 2025, so treat its lots as starting points and not guarantees:
- Monroe Street garage, 356 Monroe St., under The Artisan apartments. The city counts 195 spaces, normally free, with a $5 per car charge during special events when streets are closed.
- The public lot at Douglas and Scotland.
- Edgewater Park parking, 51 Main St.
Thirteen Weekdays of One Lane
Starting Tuesday, October 20, the crane moves to the final bay along the Douglas frontage, and it needs the near lane to do that work. Barricades will close one lane at the site. Traffic will take turns through the remaining 11-foot lane under certified flaggers, so the road stays open in both directions. The developer's terms for that window:
- Work hours run 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday only, and never on weekends.
- Deliveries end by 3 p.m. each day.
- The work zone speed limit is 15 mph.
- Expect brief waits during crane picks, deliveries and concrete pours.
- The sidewalk on the project side closes, and signed crossings send walkers to the east sidewalk.
- Access to nearby homes and businesses stays open throughout.
That window runs through Thursday, November 5. Douglas is scheduled to be fully open, with no lane limits, on the Friday and weekend before the crane comes down. City business keeps moving during the flagging period too. Commissioners approved the site's rezoning from Downtown Industrial to Downtown Core on first reading, and the second reading and final vote are set for October 22.
The Block Stays Open for Business
This short stretch of Douglas holds a dense run of local businesses. All of them are scheduled to stay reachable through every phase of the work, including the two full-closure days. From the Skinner end heading south:
- Kafe Racer, 998 Douglas Ave., a coffee and wine café with bicycle sales, service and rentals, at the corner where the closure begins.
- Woodwright Brewing Company, 985 Douglas Ave., open Thursday through Sunday, with The Duneatery serving food in its beer garden.
- The Ivory Palm, Suite 102, and Iberian Import Co., which sells European foods, gifts and home goods, both at The Artisan, 966 Douglas Ave.
- Dunedin Brewery, 937 Douglas Ave., with its pub, kitchen and the Moon Tower live-music stage.
- Jensen Brother's Seafood, 907 and 911 Douglas Ave., and next door, Carvor's Fish House for lunch and prepared food at 907.
Since crews never work weekends, the one-lane weeks will be felt mostly by weekday traffic, such as a lunch run to Carvor's or a midweek coffee at Kafe Racer. Weekend brewery visits fall outside the work hours entirely.
Monday and Tuesday, November 9 and 10
Taking the crane down needs the full width of the road. On those two days, Douglas closes at the project site just south of Skinner Boulevard. Through traffic follows a signed detour via Skinner Boulevard, Broadway and Main Street in both directions. Virginia, Monroe and Grant Streets stay open. Local access continues on Douglas from both directions right up to the barricades, including resident access to The Artisan. The Pinellas Trail stays open, with protective fencing along the site, and no crane picks happen over the trail while it is open to the public. Precast work is scheduled to finish on November 10, with both lanes open by Wednesday morning, November 11.
Parking Arrives Before the Crowds It Serves
The construction order follows the same logic as the calendar. The developer describes the garage as:
"built first, on purpose, so the parking arrives before everything else does."
Phase 2 is the Main Street Exchange, just down the block at 830 Douglas Ave. Plans call for an 89-room boutique hotel with a rooftop terrace and bar, a food hall and marketplace featuring local operators, a 280-seat theater and event venue, a speakeasy, a signature restaurant, small-format retail and public green space. The target opening is 2029.
The garage, by Mazas Development, will hold 318 spaces according to the September report, up from roughly 309 in August. It will mainly serve Main Street Exchange but will also be open to the public. The rezoning would allow 25,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. No tenants have been named. At Pinellas County's request, the building will have no connection to the Pinellas Trail and no retail on its trail side.
City economic development director Bob Ironsmith told the Local Planning Agency that the goal "always was not to be just very long and linear, east and west, we wanted to go north and south." Mayor Maureen Freaney said the project would help link downtown to Skinner Boulevard. After this rezoning, only one downtown parcel is still zoned industrial, the lot immediately to the north at the Skinner corner.
If you live near Douglas Avenue or own property along the corridor and want to know how the garage and the Main Street Exchange could affect your block over the next few years, Maria Azuaje follows these projects closely and can walk you through what has been approved, what is still pending and when each phase is due. Schedule a Consultation with Maria.
