Coachman Park's Holiday Season Lands Between Two Parking Plans

Where do you park for a show at The BayCare Sound when the lots you used last year have fences around them? This fall downtown Clearwater has a real answer. The best spot for most events this season is a few blocks east of the lot that used to feel closest.

Coachman Park has a full schedule from now through early December, but the parking setup around it is temporary. Two lots near the park are closed for construction staging. The garage that will replace them is still going up. Osceola Avenue is narrowed beside a hotel site. Until January, the cheapest and easiest way in usually means parking on the east side of downtown and walking toward the water.

What Closed, and What Replaces It

The City of Clearwater's road closures page was updated October 23, 2026. It says the former City Hall parking lot at 112 S. Osceola Ave. and the lot at 301 Pierce St. are closed for construction staging for downtown projects. Ruth Eckerd Hall runs The BayCare Sound, and its directions and parking page puts the warning in plain terms:

"Due to construction, parking at the City Hall lot and the grass lot at Osceola Ave. & Pierce St. is unavailable."

The replacement is the city's Osceola Parking Garage at 155 S. Osceola Ave. A September 24 city update said precast pieces were going in and the frame was rising. The garage is planned for 397 public spaces, and the city expects it to be finished in early 2027. The project page puts the estimate at January 2027. That means every November and December event at the park takes place after the old lots closed and before the new garage opens.

The street out front is tighter, too. Osceola Avenue is down to one lane in each direction next to the Ballad hotel construction site, and the city says that shift will stay until construction ends. The Ballad is a 158-key hotel with a late-2027 opening listed on its city project page. A second lane shift on Osceola, from Pierce Street to south of Cleveland Street, handles deliveries to the garage site. It has no detour and is expected to last until December 15, 2026.

The Nearest Lot Is the One That Charges on Weekends

The city's Getting Here page calls Lot 11 the closest lot to Coachman Park. It sits under the Memorial Causeway Bridge at 224 Pierce St. and has 156 spaces and EV chargers. It costs $2.25 an hour from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, weekends and holidays included.

The garages a few blocks east have different rules:

The city's inventory lists 236 spaces for the Garden Avenue Garage, even though the summary at the top of the same page rounds that up to 250. All three garages say "no charge, except where posted" outside their paid hours.

One caveat applies to everything above. The city's downtown parking map says special event rates "may apply" during BayCare Sound concerts, and it doesn't list an amount. On show nights, the posted sign at the entrance is the price that counts. Where a meter does apply, the city takes payment through ParkMobile or pay-by-text.

Matching the Calendar to the Garages

Almost every big event this season starts in the evening or falls on a weekend, which are the hours the eastern garages don't charge.

The Tree Lighting is the clearest example. The city bulletin lists it for November 29 from 5 to 9 p.m. That is a Sunday, and a 5 p.m. arrival lands in Lot 11's last metered hour while the Garden Avenue Garage carries no posted charge. The Market Marie has more than 100 small business owners at the park on second Saturdays, which puts it inside Lot 11's paid daytime window every month.

The Approach From the East Has Its Own Work Zones

Two street projects affect the drive to those garages. Clearwater Public Utilities' Drew Street lane closure extends to North Myrtle Avenue starting October 26. Intersections between North Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and North Myrtle stay open, but Mariva Avenue North, Orangeview, Hillcrest, North Prescott, North Lincoln, North Jefferson, North Missouri and North Madison remain closed at Drew. The BayCare Sound's own address is 255 Drew St., so if you usually come down Drew from the east, expect posted detours before you reach downtown.

Garden Avenue is closed between Court and Franklin streets through November 8 for subsurface engineering work. Fall-O-Ween falls inside that window. The Garden Avenue Garage is at 28 N. Garden, north of Cleveland, so on that night it's easier to reach the garage from the north than to come up Garden from Court Street.

Parking East Puts Cleveland Street on Your Route

From the Garden Avenue Garage, the walk to the park runs straight down Cleveland Street, and several stops along the way are new or newly reopened this year.

1. Emily's Restaurant, 101 S. Garden Ave. It's at the foot of the garage block. Nicholas "Nick" Pastis took over the diner and has added Sunday hours. The CRA lists its hours as 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., so it fits a daytime visit to the park rather than an evening show.
2. Nubo Café & Bakery, 420 Cleveland St. It held its grand opening in August, according to the Cleveland Street Alliance.
3. The 400 and 500 blocks of Cleveland Street. The Clearwater CRA's mobile vending program invites vendors here Friday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. That covers the Tapesgiving nights, the Tree Lighting and the Dark Star Orchestra Saturday.
4. Coachman Park, 300 Cleveland St. Cleveland Street ends at the park.

Leaving the Car Home

The city's alternative transportation page lists several other ways in.

• Jolley Trolley: The northbound Coastal Route stops at Osceola and Cleveland or at Park Street Terminal.
• PSTA buses: Routes run to Park Street Terminal. That terminal stays in use while PSTA builds its replacement, Clearwater Station, which PSTA expects to open in fall 2027.
• Clearwater Ferry: It links Coachman Park with Clearwater Beach and Dunedin. The city encourages reservations, says walk-ons depend on space, and notes that schedules may change on event and concert nights.
• Rideshare: The general pickup and drop-off point is the Cleveland Street Turnaround at 300 Cleveland St. The city says event nights may use a different location.

Ruth Eckerd Hall's parking page also strongly encourages carpooling, rideshare and public transit for BayCare Sound shows.

January Changes the Math, Then 2028 Changes It Again

When the Osceola garage opens in early 2027, it will add 397 public spaces and about 12,000 square feet of retail at 155 S. Osceola Ave. Across the street, The Bluffs at 100 and 150 S. Osceola Ave. finished its first elevated concrete pour. That 28-story project is planned for 400 rental homes, more than 10,000 square feet of retail and 440 parking spaces, with completion targeted for summer 2028. Downtown parking will change again when those open, but for the rest of 2026, the posted rules favor the Garden Avenue Garage after 6 p.m. and the walk down Cleveland Street.

If you're keeping an eye on how this rebuild is reshaping the blocks around Coachman Park, from new storefronts to the 2027 and 2028 openings, Kirsten Kelley follows those details closely and is glad to talk through what they mean for your part of Clearwater. Schedule a Consultation.