Clearwater staffing agency wants city to relocate graves to make way for corporate campus expansion
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jul 6, 2023

FrankCrum Group Cos. wants to expand its downtown Clearwater headquarters — and to make way for the growth, the human resources consulting firm is asking the city to remove human remains from the property.

The company’s campus sits on the site of the former St. Matthews Baptist Church Cemetery, which was in operation until the 1940s. In 1998, the Clearwater community redevelopment agency sold the property to IMR Global and created a development agreement for the site with the understanding the cemetery had been moved decades prior — but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

In 2004, FrankCrum purchased the property and corresponding buildings from IMR Global for $13.9 million. In the past two years, a series of surveys and archeological reports have found 328 possible burials at the site.

In a June 28 letter obtained by the Tampa Bay Business Journal, FrankCrum has asked the city for written confirmation that Clearwater and the CRA will “honor the representations” in the development agreement and relocate the burials.

“The existence of the burials on the property that the CRA previously represented had been removed negatively impacts FrankCrum’s use and enjoyment of the property, and casts doubt on FrankCrum’s plans to expand its corporate campus,” Jenea Reed, FrankCrum’s legal counsel and a partner at Stearns Weaver Miller in Tampa, wrote in the letter.

The letter said the property at 100 South Missouri Ave. must be free of human remains as “specifically contemplated by the development agreement” and that FrankCrum intends to pursue “all legal remedies that will effectuate that intent.”

The property is currently the “corporate campus for FrankCrum’s family of companies,” and when the company purchased the site, it was not aware of the burials. The letter says the cemetery’s existence was “well known” to the city and the CRA when they entered an interlocal agreement and a development agreement for the site in 1998.

A spokesman for the city was not available for comment Thursday.

The development agreement from 1998 said the site did not presently include any human remains from the cemetery but did point out a cemetery had once been on the property. The agreement states, “such cemetery has been previously transferred from the Global Center Site and all human remains associated therewith have also been so transferred.”

Matt Crum, co-president of FrankCrum, told the Business Journal the city "knew about the cemetery, and even provided a warranty that the graves had been moved."

"Now, as all the stakeholders in this matter move in unison toward a remedy of establishing a centralized memorial at another location, we now look back once again to the City of Clearwater," Crum said. "We ask the City to honor their word and ensure the individuals buried here are finally and respectfully relocated."

A survey in March 2021 aimed to “confirm whether human remains were present.” A later expanded report from August 2022 identified “328 possible burials and 21 areas of interest within the current project area.” The archaeologists said they found no “obvious evidence of past grave removal.”

“Although much has been done to erase the St. Matthews Baptist Church Cemetery from the landscape of Clearwater Heights, archaeological work at the site confirms that the cemetery still endures beneath the surface,” the report read.

The letter says the city and the CRA are accountable for “failing to transfer the remains of these Clearwater residents, as promised long ago.” The responsibility, according to the letter, falls on the city and the Clearwater CRA to relocate the burials “at their own expense.”

The company has asked for a written response from the city by July 14.