Tampa Bay Rays stadium, development deal wins city approval

The Tampa Bay Rays took a major step toward making a new stadium a reality Thursday when the St. Petersburg City Council voted to approve several measures that clear the way for the team to move forward with its plans.

While it was a big step, it was just that, a step. Pinellas County commissioners still need to vote on the final funding piece for the project July 30.

Despite having to wait for that one final vote, Thursday’s 5-3 decision was a historic step in a year-long process to move the team from its current home in Tropicana Field into a new stadium within the next several years.

“It literally has taken a village and a city to get to this point right now,” Rays owner Stuart Sternberg said at the meeting. “Without getting into all the details, we've been at this, and I've been at this personally, now for 20 years plus.”

But what makes this plan historic is not just the ballpark, it’s that an entire development that will be built on the 67-acre site of the Historic Gas Plant neighborhood which was razed to make way for Tropicana Field in the late 1980 as the city looked to attract a Major League Baseball team.

The key vote Thursday, one of several, was on a package that included 12 agreements between the team, its development partner Hines and the city allowing the administration to execute the contracts and move forward. The agreements included the funding and details for the redevelopment of the Gas Plant district and a stadium operating agreement.

While the vote wasn’t unanimous, all eight council members agreed that the hard work begins now that a deal is in place. (Commissioners Richie Floyd, Lisset Hanewicz and John Muhammad voted against it.)

That was sentiment echoed by St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch after the council passed the agreements.

“The promises mean nothing if we don't get, at the end of the day, those community benefits and all of those other promises moved from concept into implementation,” he says. “And that will be our focus going forward.”

What the project will bring to the city is a massive 8 million-square-foot multi-use development that is expected to deliver more than 5,400 residential units; 1,250 workforce and attainable housing units; 1.4 million square feet of office and medical space; 750,000 square feet of retail space; 750 hotel rooms; and 14 acres of parks and open space. This along with the Woodson African American Museum of Florida and an amphitheater.

The cornerstone of the project, though, is a new $1.3 billion stadium for the team that will be built with about $600 million in funds from the city and Pinellas County and at least that much from the team. The team will also be responsible for all cost overruns.

With the city approving its part, the final piece to make the project a reality is the Pinellas commission voting to dedicate $312.5 million in bed tax money to the project.

The Rays have long looked to move from Tropicana Field which many observers say was antiquated by modern stadium standards before it even opened. Over the years the team has tried to work out deals in Tampa, announcing in 2018, a deal to move to Ybor City and coming up with a plan to split its season between the Tampa Bay market and Montreal.

“It's always been my intention, and our intention, to have the team remain in Tampa Bay and specifically in St. Petersburg,” Sternberg said at the meeting.

“We have tried some cockamamie schemes, whether it was sail roofs and splitting seasons, looking around the area, but it was always my direct intention to keep the team in Tampa Bay.”

And now, assuming Pinellas commissioners approve the funding July 30, that is what will happen.

The lease for the new stadium is for 30 years, with an option to extend that for an additional 10 years.

The team's current lease at Tropicana Field expires at the end of the 2027 season.