Mayor chooses two finalists for multibillion-dollar urban redevelopment project

ST. PETERSBURG —St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman on Friday, May 28, narrowed the field of potential redevelopers for the city-owned, 86-acre Tropicana Field site to two, part of a larger plan to select a team for the multibillion- dollar reimagining by the end of next month.

Kriseman selected Midtown Development, of Miami, and a team comprised of Sugar Hill Community Partners/JMA Ventures as finalists for the project, expected to take more than a decade to complete.

In choosing Midtown and Sugar Hill, Kriseman eliminated the bids of Portman Holdings and Third Lake Partners and Unicorp National Developments, based in Orlando.

“All four finalists have impressive visions for the site and the experience to execute this generational project, but I believe the Midtown and Sugar Hill proposals best reflect the community’s desires and that these firms are well-positioned to provide additional details and ultimately transform this site,” Kriseman says in a statement.

The short listing comes as the city is again trying to determine the fate of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball franchise, which is obligated to play its home games in Tropicana Field through the 2027 Major League Baseball season.

Sugar Hill Community Partners’ team is made up of JMA Ventures, the Machete Group, local offices of design and engineering giant Stantec, St. Petersburg-based Backstreets Capital and J Square Development and master-planning architect Henning Larsen.

Midtown Development’s previous projects include the redevelopment of the 22-acre Orlando Sentinel site in Orlando and Midtown Miami, a $2 billion project developed beginning in 2004 on 18 city blocks.