ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — After weeks of scrutinizing items included in preliminary agreements for the proposed redevelopment of the Historic Gas Plant District and building of a new stadium for the Rays, council members wrapped up their final workshop session Tuesday.
“This is a very important day for our city,” said Mayor Ken Welch, kicking off the Committee of the Whole meeting, as council members weigh whether to approve what would be the biggest redevelopment project in city history.
“The city's never done anything of this scope, and that require collaboration, innovation, and a focus on getting feedback and recommendations from you,” Welch said.
The meeting marked the fifth and final workshop for council members to scrutinize final details in agreements made between the city and the Rays/Hines Development Group as part of a proposed $6.5 billion redevelopment in St. Pete.
The project, which would include upgrading infrastructure, building parking garages, hotels, business space, an African American museum and a state-of-the-art home for the Rays, would take upwards of $700 million in public funding between the city and Pinellas County to get done.
“This the right path for our organization, our hometown, for our children and collective future,” Rays President Brian Auld said.
It will take five of eight city council members to approve the plan moving forward. Some critics on the council and in the community are still raising concerns over the public cost.
“It still represents one of the largest stadium subsidies in MLB history and that's sort of where the core of like my frustration comes from,” said Council Member Richie Floyd.
Others expressed frustration with the price the city will have to sell the land for under the development agreement.
“We have discounted the land by $50 million and they're giving us $50 million in community benefits, who's actually paying for that? And that's a rhetorical question,” Lisset Hanewicz said.
Supporters like the Mayor and other council members who support the project say it will be an economic driver for the region, making good on promises that were made when the Gas Plant District was razed for the existing Tropicana Field decades ago.
“I mean, you look at what we currently have, we've got a stadium with 60 acres of surface parking lot, and it doesn't generate any sort of revenue to the city. And by redeveloping that property, we're going to put all that property on the on the tax rolls,” Council Member Ed Montanari said.
No decisions were made at the meeting on Tuesday, but the council is now poised to vote at their meeting on Thursday, where public comment will be allowed.
If the council approves the plans, the project moves to Pinellas County Commissioners who will vote on whether to spend +$300 million in money generated on the hotel-bed tax to fully fund the project.
Hours after the meeting, a group of more than a dozen people gathered outside City Hall and marched through Central Avenue, arguing the deal prioritizes the stadium, not the people. Some who attended said they planned to protest again the night of the vote.
"This is is money going into the pockets of some billionaire sports franchise," William Kilgore with the St. Pete Tenants Union said. "Meanwhile, we're working two to three jobs trying to scrape by."
10 Tampa Bay's Miguel Octavio contributed to this report.