Four firms make St. Petersburg’s shortlist for Tropicana Field site development
St. Petersburg’s vision for the future of Tropicana Field is coming into a little more focus.
Weeks after unveiling the seven developers vying to reimagine the sprawling, 86-acre Trop site, the city has trimmed its shortlist to four.
“We received many quality submissions to redevelop the Tropicana Field site, and I am thankful for the time, money and energy that each team expended,” Mayor Rick Kriseman said in a statement. “Four submissions clearly stood out as truly exceptional, and I am excited for our residents to learn more about each one. The future of that site, with or without baseball, has never been brighter.”
The four developers still in contention are:
Midtown Development out of Miami, which proposed a community called Creekside built around an expanded Booker Creek, with at least 1,000 units of affordable housing. The company proposed purchasing the site for $60 million and investing more than $90 million, including $30 million for parks, but would require $75 million in tax-increment financing.","type":"text
Atlanta’s Portman Holdings and St. Petersburg investment firm Third Lake Partners, which teamed on a proposal that would cost between $2.3 billion and $2.6 billion. It would include expanded recreational areas, including a “garden bridge” linking Brooker Creek to Campbell Park and millions of feet of commercial, retail, residential and hotel space.","type":"text
Unicorp National Development, an Orlando-area firm with several billion-dollar projects in the works, which would build a district dubbed “Petersburg Park,” an array of homes, offices and retail around Booker Creek. About 20 percent of the land would be made up of linked parks and greenspaces surrounding an expanded Booker Creek. The project would cost at least $643 million and potentially more than $1 billion, depending on whether a stadium is part of the mix.","type":"text
These four proposals best met the city’s request for proposal criteria, the city said in a statement and “have a proven track record of executing large, mixed-use developments.”
These four proposals best met the city’s request for proposal criteria, the city said in a statement and “have a proven track record of executing large, mixed-use developments.”
The three proposals trimmed from the shortlist had slightly different focuses. One from Altamonte Springs developer Wendover Housing Partners made affordable housing a centerpiece of its plan. A coalition of firms led by local group TRS Development Services submitted a $475 million plan that did not include potential pricing for a new baseball stadium. Another group that included West Palm Beach storage company Storage Rentals of America (SROA) had pitched a plan without a price tag; its primary points of reference were storage and campus-style developments, including billion-dollar facilities built for the U.S. Army and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Two other proposals were previously nixed from consideration because they did not meet the submission criteria.
Redevelopment of the Tropicana Field site has been a contentious topic for years. The Tampa Bay Rays’ lease of the stadium land runs through the 2027 season. The city and team have engaged in discussions about what might happen on the land, but so far, the team has declined to participate in this site proposal process.
Redevelopment of the Trop site has been on the table for years, though a lot must happen before it can begin. The city and Tampa Bay Rays are still engaged in discussions about the land, although Kriseman said Tuesday that the team declined to be part of any one proposal, and the sides remain far apart on a deal. The city must also balance a desire to grow its downtown economy with a push to restore historic connections to the city’s Black community, which was disrupted when the stadium was built in the 1980s.
The city said Monday that the public will soon have an opportunity to weigh in on the shortlisted finalists. There will be a virtual meeting to discuss the plans on April 5, along with in-person meetings on April 7 and 8. The city will collect feedback there and online throughout the months to come, with Kriseman expected to throw his support behind one plan later this year.
This is a developing story. Check back with Tampabay.com for details.
