Development deal agreed for Rays stadium

Image: Tampa Bay Rays

Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays new stadium plans have been given another boost after St. Petersburg City Council voted to approve a development deal with the Rays/Hines partnership.

Drays Bay said approval by the St. Petersburg City Council was the major hurdle the Rays needed to clear to build a new stadium in the city of St Petersburg, Florida.

The Council controls the team’s lease and the approximately 80 acre site, and their significant financial contribution will underwrite a good part of stadium construction.

The project, which is being designed by Populous and is expected to be completed by Opening Day in 2028, passed its first hurdle earlier this month with council members voting 5 to 3 to advance the plan.

As well as the ballpark, the project plans include 5,000 residential units, 600 affordable/workforce housing units, 1.4 million square feet of office/medical space, and 750 hotel rooms.

The Rays have selected Minneapolis-based company Mortenson Construction to carry out the stadium work as part of plans to redevelop the Historic Gas Plant District.

The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in the Tampa Bay area. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League East Division. They currently play at Tropicana Field.

The Council meeting included presentations from Mayor Ken Welch, Stuart Sternberg, and historian Gwendolyn Reese, as well as several city staff members. There were also extensive comments from the public (anyone who lives or works in St. Petersburg could sign up to share their views) and comments from the eight City Council members.

Drays Bay further stated that opponents largely noted the very large public commitment to the project, which is a subsidy to two private entities (the Rays and Hines).

Several noted the many pressing needs faced by the city — protection against flooding, building affordable housing — and believed that the money going to the stadium could be better and more fairly spent.

Supporters of the deal included representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), as well as other speakers who wanted to ensure that the Rays stayed in the city, who were optimistic about the impacts of the development, and who believed it was a way to fulfill promises made to Gas Plant district residents back in the 1980s.

The stadium financing plan also assumes $312.5 million from the Pinellas County Commission, which still needs to approve their contribution.

In total the city will be contributing $429.5 million toward the $1.3 billion dollar project in cash, a commitment that grows to $683 million once factoring in interest expenses through 2055.
 
The Historic Gas Plant District Development plan’s commitments include:

• 5,400 residential units
• 1,250 affordable/workforce housing units
• 750 hotel rooms
• 1.4 million square feet of Class A office/medical/medical office space
• 750,000 square feet of retail space, including opportunities for small businesses and a grocery store
• 90,000 square feet of conference, ballroom and meeting space
• 4,000-6,000 seat concert/entertainment venue
• 14 acres of green/open space

 
The name of the district is an intentional call back to the historically Black neighborhood that was demolished for the construction of Interstate 175 in 1977.

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