St. Pete EDC CEO on the Importance of Ensuring the Rays are ‘Here to Stay’

At the St. Petersburg Economic Development Corporation 7th Annual Meeting, “Bullish on St. Pete,” the EDC’s president & CEO Mike Swesey discussed the importance of the Rays/Hines development of the Historic Gas Plant District to the future of the Sunshine City:

We’ve talked a fair amount today about how our city is transforming into the next—and we think and hope—best version of St. Petersburg. Part of that involves one of the largest business retention projects the Sunshine City has ever seen—keeping the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays alone today represent about 750 jobs, and about 2,000 on game days. We couldn’t have been happier when the City of St. Petersburg, Pinellas County, and the Tampa Bay Rays announced that the Rays are “Here to Stay.”

The Hines/Rays Historic Gas Plant Development proposal ensures that St. Petersburg will remain the home of the Tampa Bay Rays for generations to come with an intimate new ballpark and a transformational development that both honors the legacy of the neighborhood that once thrived there and looks toward the future by creating new opportunities for everyone.

This project will be the largest mixed-use development ever in the Tampa Bay region, with more than $6 billion in private investment. Hines, the Rays’ global development partner, has a proven track record around the world, extensive contacts, and resources—and is the best partner the City of St Peterburg could imagine.

The development addresses some of our city’s biggest challenges. For example, it includes 1,200 workforce and affordable housing units – including 600 units on the site. Our teachers, law enforcement officers, and hospitality workers should be able to afford to live in the community where they work.

The proposal also helps St. Peterburg address another critical need: quality office space. A quality office building has not been built downtown in more than 30 years, and this plan calls for 1.4 million square feet of office space.

There are plenty of other features of the Hines/Rays proposal that will benefit the city economically, create thousands of jobs and provide opportunities for both local small businesses and new businesses coming to the city. In addition to the new office space, the development will add 750 hotel rooms and 320,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.

The community benefits are remarkable. The Hines/Rays proposal includes $50 million in intentional equity initiatives, a new Woodson African American Museum, a new enclosed performance venue of several thousand seats, a reconnected street grid, and 14 acres of green space.

This is a model public/private partnership. For example, the city will pay less than a quarter of the cost of the new $1.3 billion ballpark, which will be a community asset and host plenty of events besides baseball games. The Rays will pay for more than half of the cost – and cover any cost overruns. The county will cover the remainder of the cost with money from the resort tax that is primarily paid by tourists. Hines/Rays and the city also will share the infrastructure costs for the Historic Gas Plant Development.

This development will generate hundreds of millions in new property tax revenue. How much property tax revenue does the publicly owned 86-acre Tropicana Field site generate now? Zero.

We don’t want to imagine what would happen if we fail to seize the moment and lose this unique opportunity. St. Petersburg would lose the MLB franchise our public and private leaders worked for decades to get—and we would never get another one. The 86 acres could sit idle for years—a sea of empty parking lots and an empty old stadium. If we send away remarkable partners like Hines and the Rays, the damage to our reputation as a welcoming city for business would be significant.

The Hines/Rays Historic Gas Plant Development will have a positive ripple effect that stretches far beyond the footprint of the Historic Gas Plant site. It will bring new affordable housing, new job training opportunities and new educational programs to underserved neighborhoods. And it will generate new investment, new businesses, and more good jobs throughout the downtown area. We know business leaders want their businesses to be in accessible, welcoming communities where their employees and their families want to live and work as well enjoy cultural arts, local businesses and restaurants, and well-planned open spaces. St. Petersburg already has those qualities – and the Hines/Rays Historic Gas Plant Development will raise our game and ensure that we can continue to compete in the 21st century with any city, anywhere.