The Mayor of St. Petersburg has made a decision, and it’s the Rays.
Ken Welch, in his State of the City address Monday, announced that he had picked the proposal put forth by the Tampa Bay Rays and Hines for the redevelopment of the Tropicana Field site in St. Petersburg.
You can watch the announcement from the city’s Facebook page below.
The team along with Hines, a multi-national real estate and property managemtn company, has proposed along with a new fixed-roof baseball stadium on the 86-acre site, a number of residential and retail spaces, plus a new smaller-capacity venue for concerts and performances.
Rays president Brian Auld and Hines executive Michael Harrison were in attendance for the speech.
#Rays president Brian Auld as the news is announced pic.twitter.com/qWPzzZWhGi
— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) January 30, 2023
“It feels great,” Auld told Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. “A huge step forward.”
With the mayor now on board, it comes down to negotiation between the team and city council, who controls the budgeting for the city. A term sheet must be created and much like they did with Tropicana Field, a use agreement will have to be bargained before construction would begin.
Steve Carney is the founder and publisher of St. Pete Nine. One of the people most associated with baseball coverage in Tampa Bay, he spent 13 seasons covering the Rays for flagship radio station WDAE, first as producer of Rays Radio broadcasts, then as beat reporter beginning in 2011. He likes new analytics and aged bourbon, and is the owner of one of the ugliest knuckleballs ever witnessed by baseball scouts.
