Rays-Hines will prioritize affordable housing in Tropicana Field redevelopment
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Sep 19, 2023

Affordable housing is a pillar of St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch’s administration — and the Tropicana Field redevelopment now includes more of it than the development initially proposed.

The Tampa Bay Rays and Houston-based development firm Hines announced Tuesday that their redevelopment plan for the 86-acre Trop property would include roughly 40% more workforce and affordable housing units — both on- and off-site — than they originally proposed in January. While the team’s original proposal called for 859 workforce and affordable housing units, they have agreed to increase that to 1,200 units.

Michael Harrison, Hines senior managing partner, said while the bidding process was “highly efficient,” one of its shortcomings was that the team was not able to sit down with city officials and ask them to prioritize different aspects of the development.

Welch selected the Rays-Hines proposal in January. Harrison said that at their first meeting with the mayor and staff, the development team asked the city to rank their priorities among the 23 items presented for the property.

“It was clear from Mayor Welch that affordable housing, if it wasn’t the top priority, was really up there in the top two,” Harrison said. “So, we sat down with him and the team, and we talked about, ‘What can we do here?’ Our affordable housing component has gone up 40%. Part of that is discussion, part of that was negotiation.”

When Welch threw out the existing redevelopment proposals for Tropicana Field in June 2022 and started a new search, he said his decision was based more on the community than on economic growth.

Equitable development was the mayor’s top priority, and he wanted to ensure the new plans for the site included a ballpark for the Rays and reflect a post-pandemic world. On-site workforce and affordable housing were items that Welch repeatedly mentioned as priorities.

Harrison said working with the city also gave the group the opportunity to “identify additional affordable housing opportunities” that were not initially considered. He said one of the first affordable housing complexes on the property, a senior affordable housing facility, was born from those conversations.

“Going back to the promises made and following through on them, here’s a great opportunity to do an affordable housing project that, when it’s complete, can actually offer opportunities for some of the Gas Plant residents that once lived there to come back if they so choose,” Harrison said.

He said they also have increased the number of off-site affordable housing opportunities. The agreement states there must be a minimum of 600 affordable or workforce units on the 86-acre property. There will be 99-year rent restriction covenants for on-site affordable housing buildings. A minimum of 100 units on-site must be reserved for independent senior living.