Tampa Bay Rays strike deal for $1.3 billion stadium in St. Petersburg
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Sep 19, 2023

The Tampa Bay Rays have reached a deal with St. Petersburg and Pinellas County to build a $1.3 billion stadium in St. Pete’s Historic Gas Plant District, which is currently home to Tropicana Field.

The team, along with Houston-based development firm Hines, joined city and county officials Tuesday to announce that they have agreed upon a term sheet for the development of the 86-acre property. In January, Mayor Ken Welch selected a joint proposal from the team and Hines to redevelop the Trop site into a mixed-use district anchored by a ballpark.

The entire investment in the redevelopment of Tropicana Field is expected to exceed $6 billion. The ballpark is slated to begin construction in the fourth quarter of 2024. The first phase of development would begin in the first quarter of 2025, and both the ballpark and first phase will be complete in the fourth quarter of 2027. Opening day 2028 will be played in the new stadium.

“As your mayor, I’ve never doubted this day would come,” Welch said at the news conference announcing the deal.

Under the development agreement, the city will sell the Trop property, excluding the portion for the new ballpark, to the Rays-Hines team for $105.3 million. Fifteen to 20 acres of the Trop's 86 acres will be set aside for the new ballpark and two event parking garages. That property will be owned by Pinellas County, leased to St. Petersburg and subleased to the Rays on a 30-year lease agreement with options to extend it to 40 years.

The 30,000-seat stadium will be paid for by a mix of city, county and private funding. The breakdown is as follows:

$700 million from the Rays

$300 million from Pinellas County

$300 million from St. Pete “I believe this agreement meets our city’s

collective priorities,” Welch said.

The mixed-use development will total nearly 8 million square feet:

Residential (affordable/workforce housing): 1,200 units on and off-site

Office and medical space: 1.4 million square feet

Retail: 750,000 square feet

Hotel: 750 rooms

Senior living: 600 units

Entertainment/music: 100,000 square feet, including a concert venue with capacity between 3,000 and 4,000

Conference/meeting space: 100,000 square feet

Cultural/community: 50,000 square feet, including the Woodson African American Museum of Florida

Ballpark: 850,000 to 950,000 square feet

Parking: 14,000 spaces

Tuesday’s announcement appears to end the Rays’ 15-plus year search for a new stadium site that spanned Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. The deal is still subject to city council and county commission approval.

Rays owner Stu Sternberg on Tuesday praised Welch’s leadership and thanked the city council as well as Pinellas commissioners.

“Today, I am inspired by the cooperation of a city and county jointly inspired to see this project through,” he said.

Pinellas Commission Chairperson Janet Long called the new stadium the “largest economic development project in county history.” She said the stadium will create 4,500 construction jobs and up to 15,000 annual jobs throughout the county.

“Investing in projects like this new stadium has an impact throughout the county by creating jobs, news sales tax and additional hotel bed taxes,” Long said. “This is an unprecedented opportunity and huge economic success, including workforce and quality of life potential for all of our residents.”

Hines CEO Jeffrey Hines said the project is the largest his company has underway.

The Rays’ lease on the city-owned Tropicana Field ends in 2027. The new stadium will be prioritized in the first phase of redevelopment. As recently as this summer, the team was said to be in negotiations with officials in Tampa and Hillsborough County.

“We’ve said from day one that the ultimate goal was keeping the Tampa Bay Rays in Tampa Bay, and our community can celebrate that outcome,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said in a statement. “A Tampa stadium would be ideal, but the team understood they had to contribute more resources up front to make that happen than building in St. Pete.”

In December 2022, renderings showed a domed stadium on waterfront property in the Ybor Channel that developer Darryl Shaw is under contract to acquire in phases. Ultimately, Tampa and Hillsborough officials were unable to reach a deal with the team.

“The goal has always been to keep baseball in Tampa Bay,” Shaw said in a statement. “I’m thrilled our region will be home to the Rays for the next generation.”

The stadium deal faced heavy competition for Pinellas County funding, but recent forecast models predict the tourism development tax (TDT) will generate enough money to cover the county’s needs. In July, commissioners were weighing the cost of mitigating beach erosion against funding for a stadium.

“Under the model using assumptions, there are sufficient hotel bed tax funds to fund beach nourishment and funding for the other projects based on the assumptions used,” County Administrator Barry Burton told the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

A presentation at a county commissioners’ workshop on Sept. 14 broke down the TDT capital revenues needed to cover the variety of needs coming down the pipeline. A 40-year forecast model shows the total capital revenue will be approximately $1.911 billion.

Beach nourishment is expected to cost roughly $484.65 million, and other capital projects are estimated to run approximately $697.96 million.

The Rays-Hines vision for the 86 acres includes a 7 million-square-foot redevelopment plan that will include 5,700 multifamily units, 1.4 million square feet of office space, 300,000 feet of retail and 700 hotel rooms.

This will be one of the largest development projects in St. Pete’s history — as well as one of the largest urban infill projects in the U.S. — and business and civic leaders expect it to be a catalyst for economic change throughout the city. The majority of the 86-acre site downtown is surface parking lots, and the new mixed-use vision will further solidify St. Pete’s identity as a Sun Belt destination for businesses and tourists.

The neighboring Innovation District is currently undergoing a master plan as it braces for its next evolution. When developed, the Gas Plant property will have the opportunity to activate the Pinellas Trail, expand live-work-play options from downtown and the neighboring Edge district and restore Booker Creek.

Areas like The Deuces — which is one SunRunner stop from Tropicana Field — are on the cusp of transformation as the city finalizes plans for development around SunRunner stops.