Mayor Welch selects team to redevelop Historic Gas Plant District in downtown St. Pete

St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch has selected The Burg Show physique of workers, led by St. Pete-based fully Blake Funding Partners, to redevelop the Historical Gasoline Plant District.

The proposal envisions an estimated $8.1 billion mixed-utilize redevelopment that comprises bigger than 3,600 cheap and physique of workers housing objects, a fresh Woodson African American Museum of Florida, parks, accommodations, space of enterprise home, retail and physique of workers model services across the 58-acre location.

The announcement marks the metropolis’s first foremost redevelopment decision since the collapse of the old redevelopment agreement between the Tampa Bay Rays and Hines in early 2025.

Welch announced the desire Wednesday following a months-lengthy aggressive project that drew nine unsolicited proposals from model teams across the country.

He also selected the Pinellas County Housing Authority to form a seven-myth, 94-unit cheap housing neighborhood on a 0.58-acre metropolis-owned parcel at 1659 Third Avenue South.

The proposal targets decrease-earnings seniors, with an emphasis on very-low earnings and with desire given to seniors who previously resided in the Historical Gasoline Plant District.

The Historical Gasoline Plant neighborhood became as soon as a thriving, predominantly Dim neighborhood correct west of downtown that became home to hundreds of households, companies, church buildings and civic organizations.

Worthy of the neighborhood became demolished foundation in the gradual Seventies to compose attain for Interstate 175 and the improvement of Tropicana Field, displacing residents and leaving decades of unfulfilled redevelopment promises that admire formed discussions surrounding the placement ever since.

“The historic Gasoline Plant District has held the promise of growth for St. Pete for decades,” Welch said. “Today, we take hold of a necessary step forward in turning that potential into precise and tangible growth.”

The announcement doesn’t finalize a redevelopment agreement. As a replace, it begins what metropolis officials ask will most likely be roughly a 365 days of negotiations earlier than detailed agreements return to the St. Petersburg City Council for approval.

Welch said commitments connected to cheap housing, physique of workers model, minority industry participation, the Woodson African American Museum of Florida and other neighborhood advantages must all be incorporated into binding agreements earlier than constructing can begin up.

Welch said the desire became guided by what he has referred to as the metropolis’s J-HOP priorities: jobs, housing, ownership and financial opportunity.

Sooner than asserting the winning teams, Welch reflected on the historical past of the neighborhood that after occupied the placement and the households displaced by the improvement of Interstate 175 and Tropicana Field.

“We undergo in mind,” Welch said. “And as of late we begin as much as acknowledge to the demand growth.”

The Burg Show proposal stood apart in both its financial provide and model commitments.

The physique of workers valued the property at $405 million, including a $275 million provide to aquire 58 acres of metropolis-owned land and a $20 million deposit upon execution of a aquire repeat agreement.

The proposal estimates the redevelopment will generate bigger than $8.1 billion in total funding and would rely totally on non-public capital, with Community Redevelopment Notify funding reserved for public infrastructure and park enhancements.

The proposal also involves the metropolis’s perfect cheap and physique of workers housing commitment to this level, calling for bigger than 3,600 earnings-restricted housing objects over a 15-365 days buildout.

Approximately 1,800 objects could presumably well be constructed within the Historical Gasoline Plant District, with one other 1,800 developed at sites all by St. Petersburg.

At the coronary heart of the proposal is a 13-acre park besides to space of enterprise home, accommodations, neighborhood retail, cultural institutions and physique of workers training services.

The scheme preserves the footprint of the distinctive fuel tanks within Samuel Davis Park while introducing the Legacy Link, a pedestrian corridor connecting City Hall with the Deuces and the Ny On line casino by the Woodson African American Museum of Florida.

Developer Thompson Whitney Blake described the project as an opportunity to switch beyond decades of planning.

“The positioning has been studied, evaluated, revisited for decades,” Blake said. “Lets admire 10 extra mayors, 10 extra RFPs and 10 extra processes, and likewise you aren’t going to salvage a physique of workers that loves St. Pete bigger than the of us standing correct right here.”

Blake said the improvement physique of workers intentionally paired local leadership with nationwide partners capable of turning in a project of this scale.

The physique of workers involves Linked Community as co-developer, Elliott Funding Administration as its institutional capital associate, alongside with Blue Sky Communities, Greystar, KAST Construction, Driftwood Hospitality, Gilbane, Skanska, and St. Pete-based fully Wannemacher Jensen Architects, among many others.

The proposal also establishes a Historical Gasoline Plant Visionary Panel, an honest advisory physique of workers made up of neighborhood organizations that will meet at the least every 90 days all by model.

Blake said the panel is meant to offer lengthy-interval of time accountability while giving residents an ongoing characteristic in shaping the project as it strikes forward.

Supporting Welch’s emphasis on financial opportunity, the proposal also involves a physique of workers training and entrepreneurship hub identified as the Collaboratorium.

The skill would assemble physique of workers model organizations, industry incubators, CareerSource and financial model partners.

The proposal also objects a aim of awarding 41% of project contracts to females-, minority- and miniature industry enterprises, representing roughly $3.3 billion in contracting alternatives over the lifestyles of the improvement.

For the length of a quiz-and-acknowledge session following the announcement, Welch also addressed the model forward for Tropicana Field.

He reiterated that the metropolis intends to honor its commitment to offer the Tampa Bay Rays with a playable stadium by 2028.

If the Rays in a roundabout diagram require a one- or two-365 days rent extension ensuing from of delays in other locations, Welch said the metropolis could presumably well be willing to talk about it if it aligns with redevelopment phasing.

“The routine model of a fresh stadium additional to the east is gone,” Welch said. “We must begin up the metropolis of St. Pete.”

Welch also defended the metropolis’s decision to repair Tropicana Field following hurricane hurt, noting that principal of the cost is anticipated to be reimbursed by FEMA and insurance protection.

He said the stadium remains a necessary neighborhood asset that hosts graduations, neighborhood events and other gatherings beyond Predominant League Baseball.

The lengthy-interval of time notion remains demolition of Tropicana Field after the placement isn’t any longer wanted, permitting redevelopment to proceed in phases.

Blake said constructing of the Woodson African American Museum of Florida is anticipated to be among the many earliest parts of the project, with broader vertical model foundation as land becomes on hand.

The need marks the muse of what is anticipated to be roughly a 365 days of negotiations between the metropolis and The Burg Show physique of workers.

The Community Advantages Advisory Council (CBAC) will protect two conferences in July. The first will enable residents to offer public observation on the proposal, while the second will encompass deliberations among CBAC contributors.

Following that project, detailed model agreements covering financing, project phasing, cheap housing commitments, neighborhood advantages and land sales will return to City Council for approval earlier than redevelopment can switch forward.

The Pinellas County Housing Authority’s proposal isn’t going to fight by the CBAC project ensuing from it consists entirely of cheap and physique of workers housing. Nonetheless, the final agreement with the housing authority will calm require City Council approval.

“After I ran in 2021, my promise became that I would bring support a notion to switch this forward,” Welch said. “I became in highschool at Lakewood when this began. There could be not any attain that you can name this rushed. It be been four decades, and or not it’s time to switch forward.”