Clearwater redevelopment agency agrees to pay $7.5 million to settle suit over graves on downtown property

The settlement the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Clearwater approved on Oct. 12, 2026 must still be approved by a court and does not provide for the remains buried on the property or for their descendants, WUSF reported on Oct. 19. The agency has said the agreement is not an admission of fault by either side, according to WUSF.¹ The agency’s board agreed to pay $7.5 million to end a lawsuit brought by the owner of 100 S. Missouri Ave., a downtown site that once held the St. Matthews Baptist Church Cemetery, a burial ground for Black residents.²¹

What the agency was asked to approve

The City Attorney’s Sept. 30 agenda item asked the board for authority to settle Crum Properties II, LLC v. Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Clearwater, Florida, Pinellas County case No. 23-008557-CI, for $7,500,000. In return, the agency and the city would receive a full release and the case would be dismissed with prejudice.² WUSF and other outlets refer to the plaintiff as FrankCrum, a Clearwater human resources company.¹

The staff summary says the payment will be charged to account code 1889311-534000 and funded by a later budget amendment moving money from several agency capital projects into its operating fund.² WUSF reported that the money comes from Downtown CRA reserves, that the board is to take up the budget amendment in January 2027, and that the agency separately spent about $382,000 on litigation. WUSF also reported that the board’s vote was unanimous.¹

How the case got here

According to the staff summary, the agency agreed in 1998 to sell the property to Information Management Resources, Inc. under a development agreement. Crum acquired the land in 2004 from CGI Information Services and Management Consultants, Inc., which had acquired it from IMR. Graves were found on the property in 2020. Crum alleged that the agreement falsely warranted that the property held no human remains from a cemetery and that the cemetery and its remains had been moved.² FrankCrum has said it did not know graves were still there, WUSF reported.¹

The staff summary says the church established the cemetery in the early 1900s and it was sold to private parties in 1955. The city later acquired the property and conveyed it to the agency in 1998.²

Crum sued the city and the agency on Sept. 29, 2023, and dropped the city from the case on March 22, 2024. Its June 27, 2024 amended complaint raised five counts: breach of contract, common-law breach of warranty, contractual indemnification, negligent misrepresentation and fraudulent inducement. In March 2025 the circuit court denied the agency’s motion for summary judgment and granted Crum partial summary judgment on the first three counts.² The summary says the contract claims carry no sovereign immunity cap; the tort claims are subject to the limits in Section 768.28, Florida Statutes.²

The agency appealed a nonfinal order to the Second District Court of Appeal, which affirmed without opinion on Jan. 14, 2026, in case No. 2D2025-1042.³ The two sides reached a proposed agreement days before a scheduled trial, Bay News 9 reported on Oct. 1.⁴

Reaction

Mayor Bruce Rector said the vote dealt only with the legal claims, WUSF reported. The Rev. Lee Hall Perkins of Mount Zion United Methodist Church asked the city to bring descendants, residents and FrankCrum together on a process and timeline, and FrankCrum plans to meet with community members in the coming months, according to WUSF.¹

What the records do not show

• The city’s legislative record for the item shows no recorded action or vote; minutes of the Oct. 12 meeting are still in draft.²
• The settlement agreement itself, including any terms beyond those in the staff summary, is not posted with the agenda item.
• The appeals court decision does not say which trial-court order was appealed or why it was affirmed.³
• No record reviewed states how many people remain buried on the property or what will be done with the remains.