Reporting via Kailey Tracy
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. —The Mayor and Leaders of the City of St. Petersburg is reconsidering proposals from 4 teams to rebuild the 86-acre Tropicana Field site.
Over the summer, Mayor Ken Welch abandoned the plans of two developers selected in the past. He said the plans were superseded and did not reflect existing economic conditions, new workforce trends after the COVID-19 pandemic and the city’s wishes.
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St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch threw a curveball when he announced the city would restart the Tropicana Field redevelopment procedure and cancel the existing RFP procedure. Instead of opting for two developers, the procedure will start again.
Welch issued a new request for proposals that was scheduled to arrive Friday at 10 a. m. m. The 4 teams that submitted proposals included Sugar Hill Community Partners, 50 Plus 1 Sports, Restoration Associates and Hines.
“Congratulations to 50 Plus 1 Sports, Hines
The Rays submitted their proposal with the Hines real estate corporation. Hines has two projects in the Tampa Bay area. Lately he is building a mixed-use network in Pasco County, and has developed and sold a luxury multifamily residential complex on St. Pete.
“We will review the proponents’ plans by paying attention to their interpretation of affordable housing and labor, workplaces and gathering spaces, arts and culture, research, innovation and education, leisure, open spaces, healthy and sustainable development, and intentional justice,” Welch said. “We look forward to engaging the network as we move forward over the long term on this traditional and economically important component of St. Petersburg and the Tampa Bay Area. “
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Welch called for the proposals to come with affordable housing, 17. 3 acres for a ballpark and honor the district’s history of the fuel plant.
St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch grew up at Gas Plant. He has fond memories of learning the price of hard paints and being considered responsible as a child. It was a tight-knit network of paintings that promised an economic return when the city voted to demolish netpaintings to build a baseball stadium. Those promises had not yet been fulfilled, but, he said, it was not too late.
The Gas Plant District was a black network that was moved 40 years ago to make way for Tropicana Field. In the 1980s, local officials began bringing an MLB team into the domain and made the decision to locate it in the Gas Plant District.
FOX 13 News spoke with 3 of the 4 teams that submitted proposals. The fourth group, Restoration Associates, responded to our request for comment.
The mayor will submit a proposal by the end of January. A city spokesman said it would publish the main points of the four proposals next week. They will also host an event on January 4, 2023 at the Colosseum where citizens can hear from everyone. organization and get more data about each of your plans.
READ: MLB commissioner prefers Tampa stadium site for new Rays baseball stadium, but there are other deciding factors
Hines and the Rays proposed a mixed-use network consisting of 5,700 multifamily units, 1. 4 million square feet of space, 300,000 square feet of retail space, 700 hotel rooms, six hundred senior apartments and an entertainment venue for 2,500 people.
Gensler, a global architecture and blueprint firm, is your masterplan architect. Gensler is running with St. Mark-based Storyn Studio for Architecture. Petersburg, and Washington, D. C. -based Dantes Partners will be the housing partner, according to a Hines news release.
The site, if selected, would come with more than 850 units of on-site work. Hines and the Rays would also create roughly six hundred off-site apartments through asset grants and rental assistance systems in St. Pete, according to Hines.
The Rays and Hines are also pledging $50 million for intentional equity projects that will “support and improve traditionally disadvantaged populations through a number of restorative strategies,” Hines said.
READ: St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch Stockpiles His for Tropicana Field Redevelopment
“With the Rays, we have the opportunity to create a diverse and inclusive place-building town that defines the city, with their new baseball stadium downtown,” said Michael Harrison, senior general manager of Hines. “We have coordinated very well with the Rays on the planned vision, design and infrastructure needed for the stadium, which are critical to the long-term energy and economic viability of the entire project. We look to the future to bring our extensive experience and lessons learned from Hines’ projects around the world. world, as well as our track record of seamless integration with the network and surrounding neighborhoods of St. Petersburg. »
Matt Silverman, president of the Rays, said Hines has proven his knowledge and reliability to deliver complex projects for decades.
“Hines has known this for fifteen years, and we know that Hines will be here fifteen years from now, delivering on his promises and his vision for the historic fuel plant district,” Silverman said. in leading projects through the inevitable economic cycles we will face. With Hines leading this effort, we gain greater certainty of quality and timely completion. Together, we can create a vibrant and equitable community environment that will be a glorious home for the Rays of baseball for generations to come. “
Dawn Gunter, director of Gensler, added that the mayors of the fuel plant’s district are “visionaries. “
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“More than a portion of the allocated site is intended for public interest uses, adding the reclaim of Booker Creek as an active herbal greenway and a new linear park connecting the site from east to west,” Gunter said. “All Hines-Rays team is excited to work hand in hand with the City of St. Petersburg and surrounding communities to co-create a transformative district that is a global example of equity, resilience, healing and joy. “
The Rays’ lease with Tropicana is in 2027.
Sugar Hill Community Partners, an organization run through California-based JMA Ventures, also submitted a proposal. He was one of two finalists in the last RFP.
The other finalist, Midtown Development, submitted a proposal this time and responded to a request for comment.
MORE: Gas Plant District in St. Pete: One of the oldest black neighborhoods razed by baseball
“The explanation I was concerned about in this assignment is that I read the history of the fuel plant historic district and thought, this is just a parody, and the community I grew up in Sacramento is called Old Park Sacramento. , there were a lot of parallels between the two,” said Kevin Johnson, JMA lead developer and director of Sugar Hill.
Johnson served as mayor of Sacramento.
“It’s the ability to be inclusive and equitable where other people can own and live, perform, worship and attend shows,” Johnson said. “We’re looking to recreate a whole new neighborhood, but where we’re leveling the playing field, it means there will be African Americans who can genuinely participate. “
Johnson said his team includes more than 20 varied and national experts, adding the chairman of the St. Petersburg Housing Authority, a network advocate, historian, design consultant and architect and diversity coordinator, among others.
Johnson said more than 50 percent of the sets will be affordable and housing, and said they are proud of their involvement in the community.
“To be part of a team that can deliver on promises that have been damaged and not kept, what a situation can it be for our team to have started this adventure two years ago,” Johnson said. “We had more than 80 network meetings. We wanted to make sure the net had a t-seat. “
Johnson said he believes the diversity of the Sugar Hill team and in the network sets them apart from other teams that submitted proposals. He estimates the cost of the allocation ranges from $3 billion to $5 billion, but said they are still conducting analysis.
READ: St. Pete and baseball: a relationship spanning more than a century
David Carlock, project progression manager and founder and CEO of Machete Group Inc. , said he became interested in St. Pete as a city almost six years ago.
Carlock said Machete Group has completed many mixed-use projects and evolved stadiums. He said Sugar Hill has his team and his vision, and he has “perfected and improved” his concepts since submitting his last proposal in January 2021.
“When you expand a block, it’s a genuine ownership expansion. When you expand 86 acres, you expand neighborhoods, and we believe that to be successful, you must have meaningful representation of the community,” Carlock said. “There is vital and still relatively crude ancient context related to what happened to the historic fuel plant district 40 years ago. That makes it even more vital. “
Carlock said the allocation will come with arts and culture, development, affordable housing for the old context and cargo. According to the depictions, they plan to make Booker Creek the green center of the assignment and load pedestrian and bicycle bridges over Booker Creek. .
The allocation will be planned in 4 stages over seven to ten years. It contains 5200 residential units, 325 of which will be developed off-site. It will also include two boutique hotels, up to 2. 7 million square feet of work area, 409,000 square feet of retail area adding network centers, day care centers, senior care centers, devotion centers and more, 174,000 square feet for a convention center, 39,000 square feet for a functional location, 96,000 square feet for a museum, and 22,000 square feet for a transportation center.
50 Plus 1 Sports in Coral Gables also submitted a proposal.
“We call it 50 Plus 1 because we require that there be 50% minority and veteran-owned women who care only in the structure phase, but also in the professional service phase, engineers, architects,” Monti Valrie, a managing spouse at 50 Plus 1 Sports, Said.
According to Valrie, 50 Plus 1 Sports contributes one hundred percent of its own funds, and is already subsidized through investment teams for this assignment. He said he had an idea that they were also responding to the mayor’s requests related to the proposed cession.
“I think we’re setting the bar on network benefits, whether it’s housing, task creation, task creation cash and our partnerships,” he said.
Valrie didn’t need to reveal too many details, but said the plan for a mixed-use domain with a hotel, shops, condos and affordable housing.
“Our purpose is to provide the fan with the most productive fan experience,” Valrie said. “It’s an environment to live, restore, execute and bet on each and every task we participate in. “
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