Mayor says Gas Plant redevelopment to continue despite Rays rejecting stadium deal

St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch says the city will continue to pursue the redevelopment of the Historic Gas Plant District despite the Tampa Bay Rays walking away from an agreement to build a new stadium and to redevelop the property.

In a statement issued shortly after the team announced its decision to abandon its stadium plans Thursday, Welch says that the end of the ballpark is “not end of the Historic Gas Plant District story.” Despite the setback, he says, the administration will look at “all avenues that will help us deliver on our ultimate goal.”

That goal: “utilizing the HGPD property to benefit the community and fulfilling the 40-year-old promises of economic development and opportunity made to the African-American community in St. Petersburg, as well as the community priorities identified through the current development process, which began in 2022.”

The Gas Plant District was a historic Black community displaced by the construction of Interstate 175 and Tropicana Field in the 1980s. As part of an agreement to build a new stadium in St. Petersburg, the Rays had agreed to build a $6 billion 8 million-square-foot multi-use development that would have included residences and commercial space as well as hotels, parks, open space and the Woodson African American Museum of Florida and an amphitheater.

Welch says the city will consider a phased approach to the redevelopment honoring its obligations under the current agreement.

“After decades of waiting, this sacred land will again bear the fruit of housing, jobs and beneficial community development,” he says.

Rays owner Stuart Sternberg issued a statement Thursday announcing the team has backed out of a deal to build a new ballpark in St. Petersburg and move forward with the redevelopment.

“After careful deliberation, we have concluded we cannot move forward with the new ballpark and development project at this moment,” Sternberg says.

“A series of events beginning in October that no one could have anticipated led to this difficult decision.”

The announcement comes days before a March 31 deadline for the team to provide proof it could pay for its portion of the project.

For those who have followed the stadium deal for the past several months, the team backing out of the agreement should not come as a surprise.

Rays officials have said since late October that the cost of building the stadium was getting to high given the deals brought about in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton. The storm tore the roof off of Tropicana Field, where the team now plays, forcing the Rays to move to the New York Yankee’s spring training stadium for this season and possibly longer.

This hurt the team’s revenue and also pushed back the scheduled start of construction, a situation team officials say made it unfeasible for the team to meet its share of the $1.3 billion stadium — $600 million plus the cost overruns.

Sternberg in his statement says the team will “continue to focus on finding a ballpark solution that serves the best interests of our region, Major League Baseball and our organization” and that it expects to play in Tropicana Field next year.

But the future of the team staying in the Tampa Bay market is more uncertain now than in any time in its past.

Its lease on Tropicana Field is set to expire at the end of the 2027 season — though the repairs could push that back a year — and it has once again failed to get a new stadium built in the market.

There have been reports that Major League Baseball is pushing Sternberg to sell the Rays, which the team isn't commenting on. The thinking is that new ownership would find a way to make a new stadium work in St. Petersburg, Tampa or, possibly Orlando.

Welch says that it will work with a potential new team owner who “demonstrates a commitment to honoring their agreements and our community priorities” and will consider working on a partnership to keep baseball in the city.

But,” he says, “we will not put our city’s progress on hold as we await a collaborative and community-focused baseball partner.”