With private-sector developers ready to invest as much as $300 million in downtown Clearwater, the city appears to be on the brink of a revitalization that will increase exponentially the quality of life for which it is already renowned. But it is the public vote on the development referendum in early July that will decide if Clearwater's time has come.

John Schaible (left), president and COO, and Mark Yegge, chairman and CEO, at NexTrade are weighing their options to build a larger headquarters in downtown Clearwater.

"This downtown is what it is today with the greatest economy in the United States," says George de Guardiola, the West Palm Beach developer who plans to build an entertainment, retail and residential complex at Clearwater's bayfront. "We've been chosen for the bluff redevelopment and plan to create a tremendous downtown pedestrian development."

While no one will predict the outcome of the vote, Clearwater executives are giving de Guardiola's plan their support. "Change for Clearwater is positive," says Mark Yegge, chairman and chief executive officer at NexTrade, with corporate headquarters in downtown Clearwater. "There are areas here that have needed revitalization for a long time. Whether we can play a small role in that or de Guardiola or any other investor would be good."

John Schaible, the firm's president and chief operating officer, agrees. "We're interested in the redevelopment efforts," he says. "As our company expands, the quality-of-life factor comes into play. The larger we grow and the more families in our company, the more pressing are the quality-of-life issues in Clearwater."

Operating since 1995 in Clearwater, NexTrade has grown aggressively with annual revenues increasing 800 percent each year. "We started as a two-man operation in my living room," says Yegge. "We bought this building (on Missouri Street) five years ago and opened the first trading floor on the West Coast of Florida."

Although the firm has since moved its trading activities into cyberspace, it has quickly filled to capacity its 10,000-square-foot headquarters while becoming the only electronic communications network not to operate on Wall Street. There are eight other ECNs. "It's a stigma not being on Wall Street," Schaible says. "But we're trying to change that stigma."

"We don't need to be there," Yegge says. "We can run an exchange from anywhere in the world as long as it's regulated properly. Given the choice to live in Clearwater or New Jersey, the answer is pretty obvious."

The firm recently recruited Mark Barracca, former branch chief and special counsel for the Securities and Exchange Commission, to assist as a general counsel in the start up of its own securities exchange. NexTrade currently trades under the umbrella of the NASDAQ. "We'll have a lot of interaction with the SEC," Schaible says. "We've opened ourselves to a microscope. Mark's experience and know-how will serve in our best interest."

The Midland Companies, one of downtown Clearwater's largest private companies, recently merged with Baltimore-based MuniMae and is adding staff.

But they're not certain when the approval will come. "It's up to the Federal Trade Commission to give us the blessing to commence operations," Yegge says. "It's like getting a cancer drug approved through the FDA. You never know until the day it's approved."

Priding themselves in their leading-edge technology, the firm last year developed a new application for their trading software. "Our technology can be adapted to any type of financial services product," says Yegge. "We were talking to somebody about connecting to our ECN and they told us they were experts in foreign currency markets. Within two months we amended our system and now have the world's first Internet-based spot foreign currency business. This is traded by phone today by the largest banks in the world. There's no regulatory structure to trade that type of security."

The 60-employee firm has grown to include an office in New York. Yegge and Schaible are currently considering acquiring a New York City-based technology firm. "They provide other types of products that can be traded over our system," Yegge says.

If that acquisition closes, approximately 500 positions will be relocated to NexTrade's Clearwater headquarters. "We're outgrowing our space very quickly," says Yegge. "It means we'll probably need to build a headquarters or buy an existing structure suitable for what we do. I prefer to stay in downtown Clearwater. It's a nice area. But that doesn't mean we wouldn't be flexible enough to move to another area in the Tampa Bay area. The City of Clearwater is working hard to keep us here and we certainly would love that."

With a pending stock exchange to run at their headquarters, it will mean many more jobs at NexTrade's headquarters in the future. "We'll need to build an incredibly large infrastructure with respect to regulations," says Yegge. "That means a lot of attorneys and legal staff, technical staff, administrative staff and sales staff. The entire gamut of our business will need to grow."

Across the street from the NexTrade headquarters the newly completed corporate campus for IMRglobal is a welcome addition to the Clearwater landscape. This development project was the first Brownfield program in Florida.

"This was the conversion of land polluted with arsenic to this attractive campus," says Al Justice of Justice Corporation, whose firm developed and manages the corporate headquarters. "The second 80,000-square-foot building is completed and 400 employees are in place. They're adding another 100 employees who are coming from out of state. They have invested $28 million to date."

Additional improvements are planned across Cleveland Street as "part of ongoing activities," Justice says.

And "tremendous activity" is occurring downtown, says Mark Klein with commercial real estate firm Klein & Heuchan. That activity is converting vacancy rates that were 30 percent last year to "below 20 percent now," says Bob Keller, Clearwater's assistant city manager. "The vacancy rate is continuing to go down with new tenants."

NexTrade's 10,000-square-foot headquarters in Clearwater has quickly filled to capacity as the Internet-based securities trading firm continues to grow.

One of those new tenants is Wakely & Associates, a back-office operation for insurance and actuarial firms that recently consolidated its three offices in Largo into a 21,000-square-foot office in the Clearwater Tower. "They're growing like crazy," Keller says. "They are now over 32,000 square feet and 180 employees."

Another major tenant in the building bearing its name is the Midland Companies, a real estate financial firm headquartered in Clearwater with offices in Dallas, San Francisco, Detroit and Baltimore. The 130-employee firm has been operating in Clearwater since 1977 and merged last year with Baltimore-based Municipal Mortgage & Equity LLC, which had annual revenues of $35.46 million in 1998.

"We said we were going to stay private forever," says Robert Banks, Midland's chief executive officer, who founded the company with partners Keith Glockl and Ray Mathis. "MuniMae was a one-trick pony and they were looking to diversify. They are a financially strong firm as a public company (NYSE: MMA) and strong ties on Wall Street."

MuniMae was attracted to Midland's strong ties to pension fund and equity investors for financing multi-family real estate projects. "We're running the company just as we did before, with the exception that all of their production people became part of Midland's Baltimore office," Banks says. "All the changes have been positive. We retained our name and we've been able to do more deals by meshing together. Rather than cut back, we've added 10 people since the sale."

IMRglobal recently occupied its second 80,000-square-foot office building at the downtown Clearwater corporate headquarters and will soon have 400 employees at that location.

Banks says the headquarters will remain in Clearwater. "We're over 30,000 square feet and negotiating for more space," he says. "This is a very pleasant place to work. In my opinion, I wouldn't be anywhere but downtown Clearwater. It's very impressive to people who come to visit. This is one of the prettiest places in the country."

Concerning the proposed changes to Clearwater's bluff, "if they can attract capital to develop in downtown Clearwater, I think it's great," Banks says.

The changes proposed by developers George de Guardiola and David Frisbie include a 15-screen theater movie complex in the Harborview Center, a downtown parking garage, hotels, 300,000 to 400,000 square feet of retail space, boat docks, waterfront boardwalks and a pier. The master plan for the bayfront quadruples the green space along Clearwater Bay, with a botanical garden, amphitheater, plazas and fountains. Twelve hundred residential units are also planned throughout the downtown district, which encompasses Highland Avenue to Clearwater Beach. Osceola Avenue and Garden Street will be realigned to improve traffic to the new bridge providing access to the beach.

The planning for this vast project by de Guardiola and Frisbie has come as a result of sessions held with members of the community. "de Guardiola is working this thing hard," Keller says. "He has been meeting with anybody anywhere. These are good guys with a proven record and the architect (St. Louis-based Cooper Carry Architects) is among the best in the country."

A major step in this direction has been taken by the city with de Guardiola's redevelopment plan for the bayfront. The question remains as to whether the community is willing to back this effort. The answer will be known July 11th.