ST. PETERSBURG — The Sunshine City will never be the same.
The St. Petersburg City Council narrowly approved a deal Thursday that would build a $1.3 billion stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays and a city-redefining project for the 65 acres around it called the Historic Gas Plant District.
After three hours of presentations and discussion, council members voted 5-3 to approve a dozen legally binding documents between the city, Pinellas County, the Rays and their development partner Hines. They also swiftly approved taking out bonds to help pay for the city’s share of stadium costs, $287.5 million, and for roads and sewers around it, another $142 million.
Council members Deborah Figgs-Sanders, Copley Gerdes, Ed Montanari, Brandi Gabbard and Gina Driscoll voted consistently for the project. Voting against were Richie Floyd, Lisset Hanewicz and John Muhammad.
After a tally of the votes lit up the chamber’s two screens, Terri Lipsey Scott, the executive director of the Woodson African American Museum of Florida, slated to get $10 million in the deal, pumped her fists in celebration. Rays owner Stuart Sternberg stood up to shake hands and hug Mayor Ken Welch. Applause broke out in the chamber while critics stayed silent. Some held up cellphones to record a decision some thought would never come.
Welch, the architect of the deal, is the mayor who pulled off what had eluded five mayors on both sides of Tampa Bay — finding another home for the Rays since the quest for a new stadium began in 2007.
“This has been an exciting day for our community,” Welch said.
“We are St. Pete!” yelled the city’s chief equity officer, Carl Lavender, over claps.
St. Petersburg’s historic decision clears the tallest hurdle for the Rays and their development partner Hines. All that’s left to end the Rays’ 17-year search for a new stadium is a vote by the Pinellas County Commission, which will decide this month on spending $312.5 million of tourist tax revenue on the stadium.
If commissioners approve that in a vote scheduled for July 30, the project is a go, and the Rays are officially here to stay for at least 30 years. Construction would begin next year on the overall project, expected to cost $6.5 billion in public and private investment. The new stadium would be built on the same property just east of Tropicana Field on land that is currently a parking lot.
“Part of it’s on us. It takes a lot to tango, more than two in this case,” Sternberg said outside City Hall about his stadium search coming to an end. “I think, how it was put today, it was just the right time in the right place, and most importantly, the right people.”
Spend your days with Hayes
Subscribe to our free Stephinitely newsletter
Columnist Stephanie Hayes will share thoughts, feelings and funny business with you every Monday.
Loading...
You’re all signedup!
Want more of our free, weekly newslettersinyourinbox? Let’sgetstarted.
Explore all your optionsThe Rays will contribute $700 million to the stadium. They are responsible for all cost overruns on the stadium and infrastructure for the Historic Gas Plant District, as well as all insurance, maintenance and repairs to the stadium. The team will keep all revenue from tickets and concessions, broadcasting and naming rights.
The council also agreed to sell 65 acres of public land for $105 million, below appraised value, and greenlighted a redevelopment plan. The Rays and Hines would build at least 5,000 residential units, including affordable housing, a new Woodson African American Museum of Florida, office and medical space, a grocery store and a day care.
Once built out, the project will have more residents than Pinellas municipalities such as Treasure Island or St. Pete Beach.
The deal also includes a $50 million commitment from the Rays and Hines toward affordable and workforce housing, small-business assistance, diverse hiring, job creation and educational programs, plus $10 million for the Woodson museum. About 11,000 permanent full- and part-time jobs are expected to be created. That benefits package was approved by an advisory committee in a 7-2 vote, however many of their recommendations were not included in final plans.
Welch calls the city’s oft-strained relationship with the Rays a marriage, and announced their “engagement” when he selected the Rays and Hines to undertake the most important project in St. Petersburg history in January 2023. On Thursday, after a year and a half of deliberations, the council tied the knot.
The vote writes the final chapter in the will-they-or-won’t-they story of St. Petersburg’s future as a Major League Baseball city. Thursday’s decision comes three years before the city’s current stadium agreement with the Rays expires.
Welch’s public pitch invoked legacy. His father, David Welch, was a City Council member who voted to redevelop the predominantly Black Gas Plant neighborhood for new housing, jobs and light industry. The site, once razed, was later used to lure Major League Baseball, crowning the city’s decadeslong relationship with spring training. But those promises never came to fruition.
The approved agreement has a commitment that 10% of all construction goes toward minority-owned and small businesses, with a goal of 30% by using “good faith efforts” that are required to be documented.
The contract also has a “voluntary agreement” that 15% of all construction hours worked are performed by apprentices and disadvantaged workers. A disadvantaged worker can be a person with a criminal record, a veteran, a resident of the neighborhoods around the Trop, someone who is unhoused or receiving public assistance.
There were also last-minute additions of contract language on how environmentally sustainable and resilient the stadium and redevelopment would be. At the behest of the Suncoast Sierra Club, the council voted unanimously to add stronger language to the Historic Gas Plant Agreement. The contract now reads that developers will design and implement market-appropriate sustainability standards in the development.
“While we were dismayed by the final outcome as we felt that the finalized agreements did not go far enough to make contractual obligations that are aligned with our city’s existing sustainability goals, we will do our part to hold both our elected officials, the Rays, and Hines accountable to what they have verbally committed to,” said Sierra Club Florida lead organizer Michael McGrath in a texted statement.
The city is leveraging about $683 million in future increased property values to pay off debt service through 2055. That forecast depends on 7% annual growth and does not account for inflation.
The narrow vote on the council reflects the lines drawn from the beginning.
City Council member Floyd did not attend the announcement of a tentative deal in September because he objected to public subsidizing of private corporations. He attempted to discuss surveying voters on the deal via a nonbinding straw poll but didn’t get enough votes. Hanewicz, a former federal prosecutor, called out loopholes in the contracts that were never entirely buttoned up and expressed skepticism over the city’s financial capacity. Muhammad has been against the sale of public land and said that minimum requirements do not reflect several verbal promises and that the deal is “heavily weighted to private side.”
“I hope it works out,” Floyd said after the deal. “I do expect it to but it’s the opportunity cost. There are things and needs in our city that will go underfunded because of this. It’s not ideal.”
Staunch supporters from the beginning include Copley Gerdes, whose uncle is City Administrator Rob Gerdes, also the chief negotiator on the deal. Chairperson Figgs-Sanders, who helped vet the project for sufficient community benefits, has also been consistent in her votes. Ed Montanari, a proclaimed fiscal conservative, has remained comfortable with the amount of public dollars committed. Gabbard, who had expressed that the documents were not perfect, was also consistent in voting against any proposal that would slow down the process for approval.
Driscoll positioned herself as a swing vote. She led the charge to attempt to get the Rays to change their name to the St. Petersburg Rays, an idea introduced by former Mayor Rick Baker, and expressed frustration at the lack of council workshops and the rushed schedule of meetings. She later became more optimistic as she commissioned a poll on the issue through her political action committee.
Sides were also taken in the community. The Rays rallied support from the business and nonprofit community, creating a book compiling the 87 letters of support for their plan, including from U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, and the St. Petersburg branch of the NAACP. The St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce, an early endorser of the Rays and Hines’ plans, encouraged its members to speak in support of the deal at council meetings, write letters of support and pen opinion pieces in favor. The Rays held a news conference with those groups, along with a pop-up party, on Wednesday ahead of the vote to “generate positivity.”
But there was also an organized effort against the deal. No Home Run, a group organized by retired Raymond James executives Ron Diner and Tom Mullins, wrote several opinion pieces criticizing the math of the deal, held rallies, created yard signs and commissioned a poll on the issue. Other groups in opposition include the League of Women Voters, the St. Petersburg Tenants Union, Faith in Florida and the Suncoast Sierra Club, whose members showed up to Thursday’s meeting wearing “Fix the Deal” stickers.
Members of those groups shared the same concerns as some council members who voted no. They referred to the deal as a corporate giveaway, as the land was appraised last year at $279 million, a misplacement of city priorities as the city grapples with routine flooding and a lack of legally enforceable commitments on affordable housing and environmental standards. Some pointed to decades of research that shows how public investment into sports stadiums does not result in positive returns.
After the meeting, Welch held a news conference flanked by his top officials who were negotiators in the deal and the five council members who voted in favor.
“It was a great day in St. Pete,” he said.
