St. Petersburg mayor, bowing to pressure, extends Gas Plant deadline

St. Petersburg Mayor Kenneth Welch has pushed back the deadline for developers to submit proposals for the Historic Gas Plant District redevelopment after complaints the process was moving too fast.

In a memo sent to St. Petersburg City Council Wednesday, Welch directed staff to delay the publication of a 30-day notice until Jan. 4. The plan originally called for it to be issued in mid-November.

With the change, proposals for the redevelopment of the 86-acre Gas Plant District will be due Feb. 3 — 105 days after the Oct. 21 announcement notifying developers that the city would accept proposals.

Welch, in the memo, writes that the decision to push back the date was in “response to concerns expressed by some members of council and the development community.”

The Gas Plant District is a historically Black neighborhood torn down to make way for the construction of Tropicana Field and Interstate 175 in the 1980s.

In the memo, Welch also rejected the idea of reissuing an RFP, writing that it isn’t necessary or beneficial.

At least twice the city has issued RFPs seeking proposals for the district. The second, which Welch issued in 2022 after discarding a decision made by his predecessor, required a carve out for a new ballpark for the Tampa Bay Rays. 

The Rays and a development partner submitted the winning bid but the deal for the stadium and the redevelopment fell through earlier this year, when the team’s previous owner backed out of the deal. 

In the Wednesday memo, Welch writes that the guiding principles behind the 2022 RFP “have not changed, and have been confirmed by subsequent community convenings.” Those principles include jobs, housing, equitable economic development, resilience, green space and recognition of the Gas Plant community.

“The only material change from those principles is that the inclusion of a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays in partnership with Pinellas County is no longer instrumental in planning the redevelopment,” Welch writes in the memo. 

“Our unified work to include the Tampa Bay Rays in the long-term vision of the Historic Gas Plant and their subsequent abdication have provided more clarity for the future of our city and the property.” 

The redevelopment of the district has remained a priority for Welch since the Rays’ previous owners reneged on the deal in March. 

The hopes for the redevelopment got a boost — and the current process began — in early October, though, when ARK Ellison Horus LLC submitted an unsolicited $6.8 billion proposal to redevelop 95.5 acres, including the 86-acres that make up the district. 

(The development team is made up of a who’s who of the local business community: high-profile tech investor Cathie Wood, founder and CEO of ARK Investment Management; Casey Ellison, founder and CEO of Ellison Cos.; and Jonathan Graham, president of Horus Construction Services.)

Its plans include 3,701 new homes including 1,776 market rate units; 444 workforce units for those making between 80% and 120% of the area median income; 863 units for those earning 30% to 80% of AMI; and 618 affordable units for seniors.

The plan also calls for the construction of the Woodson African American Museum of Florida and a state-of-the-art theater, a “cultural corridor” connecting several St. Petersburg neighborhoods, a 4,000-seat indoor music hall and a 1,500-seat outdoor amphitheater, and 1,543 new hotel rooms.

A portion of the project will be dedicated to innovation, with plans for 500,000 square feet of innovation hubs and labs and a 200,000-square-foot innovation hall.

A second unsolicited proposal followed not long after. That one came from The Pinellas County Housing Authority, which submitted an offer to the city of St. Petersburg asking to buy a parking lot at Tropicana Field to build an affordable housing community for seniors.

The housing authority is asking to buy the lot from the city for $1 and other considerations. Its plan is to build a seven-story, 80-unit midrise tower for lower income residents.

Other developers have expressed interest as well.

That includes Red Apple Real Estate, the developer behind the Residences at 400 Central 46-story luxury tower in downtown St. Petersburg. 

Red Apple’s CEO and founder John Catsimatidis sent a letter Nov. 7 asking for Welch to delay the process, writing his group was interested in submitting a proposal 

The letter, while big on superlatives and sycophancy, did not provide details on what Big Apple wants to do with the property, only saying it wants to turn the Gas Plant district into a “wow” development.