ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The city of St. Petersburg has entered into the next phase of the Historic Gas Plant District redevelopment project, releasing the request for proposals. Developers can now make a bid on the 86-acre project.
The city's 32-page RFP outlines the history of the site, the character of the surrounding area and what leaders expect to see in proposals put forward by developers.
The city sought public input in four "community conversations" earlier this year and said the feedback it received made up a big part of the RFP.
The city is looking for plans that include: affordable housing, a range of small businesses, a major hotel with a conference hall, space for research and higher education, open public gathering space and lots of green space.
The RFP also includes the desire for arts and culture throughout the site, a variety of transportation modes and connectors and "smart city technologies."
St. Pete business owner Muntaz Musabegovic said he loves the city and is excited about its future.
"This is a wonderful town with wonderful people, very polite, and the town is just blooming," he said.
Musabegovic owns the German restaurant German Knodle on Central Avenue, one block from the project site. He said that he believes the project will benefit his business by attracting more people to the area.
"Bringing more new restaurants, more new apartments, more new people will be wonderful," he said.
The RFP also calls for proposals that honor the site's past as a historically black neighborhood. It calls for "intentional equity" and involves the residents of south St. Pete in various ways, including recruiting them for construction jobs for the project.
On page 13, it says "the development will honor the site’s history and provide meaningful and significant opportunities for economic equity and inclusion, in both the construction and ongoing operations of the development."
The RFP also demands the developer to "incorporate the history of the Gas Plant District neighborhood prior to the construction of Tropicana Field, using imagery, plaques, replicas of significant buildings and stories told through interpretive history."
A prominent Black faith leader in south St. Pete, Bishop Manuel Sykes, said this is the city's opportunity to "right a historical wrong," and bring the people who were displaced by the construction of Tropicana Field back to the area.
Skyes said he's looking for the city "to give them not just memorials, plaques and trees, but an opportunity to live, work and own businesses in a place they once did."
Sykes said finding a developer who embraces the site's history is crucial.
"We need someone who is going to care about the city and its residents," he said.
Proposals must be submitted by Nov. 18. Following the submissions, St. Pete Mayor Welch will make his pick.
To read the RFP in full, click here.