Clearwater Council Advances $300M Landings Sports District

The Clearwater City Council voted 4-0 on Oct. 14, 2026 to approve an interim agreement and advance negotiations with Porter Development on The Landings Sports & Entertainment District, a mixed-use project at 1875 Airport Drive. Fisher Architects is designing the project. Construction is not yet approved.

The project would redevelop the city-owned Landings golf course, open since 1970, beside Clearwater Executive Airpark. Plans call for 13 multipurpose sports fields, 24 covered pickleball courts, 12 sand volleyball courts, two 18-hole putting courses, golf simulators, and a water park with pools, a lazy river, and slides. A fitness and wellness center would include a 24,000-square-foot gym, yoga, CrossFit, and Pilates studios, and mineral-infused pools. Restaurants are also planned. A proposed 5,000-seat stadium was revised to a 1,500-seat open-air arena.

The initial $179.6 million proposal grew to roughly $300 million with a 220,000-square-foot indoor fieldhouse. Financing includes about $108 million in private debt, $26.9 million in equity, and $45 million sought from Pinellas County tourist development taxes. Porter would lease the site at $20,000 per month, with no rent for the first five years and payments rising over 15 years. The project is projected to generate nearly $3 million in annual property taxes and $566 million in economic impact over its first decade. Construction would take about three years once approved.

Clearwater Golf Associates submitted a competing bid to keep the property as a golf course; an evaluation committee ranked Porter first on Oct. 1, 2026. The city weighed roughly 750,000 square feet of industrial development on the site in 2020, which stalled. Les Porter previously proposed sports complexes in St. Petersburg and Largo that were rejected.