Today was the deadline for developers to respond to the City of St. Petersburg’s request for proposals (RFP) for the 86-acre Tropicana Field site, the home of the stadium where the Tampa Bay Rays play and a vast parking lot.

Earlier this morning, the City announced that they have received four proposals in response to the RFP from the following groups:

• 50 Plus 1 Sports

• Hines & Tampa Bay Rays

• Restoration Associates

• Sugar Hill Community Partners

"We will review the proposers' plans with a keen eye on their interpretation of affordable and workforce housing; office and meeting space; arts and culture; research, innovation, and education; recreation; open space, healthy and sustainable development; and intentional equity,” said Mayor Welch in a statement to the media.

“We look forward to engaging the community as we determine the future of this historically and economically vital part of St. Petersburg, and the Tampa Bay Region," added Welch.

All proposals will be posted on the City's website next week after a review by City staff to ensure that each proposal is ADA compliant.

The selection process will also include a Community Presentation on January 4, 2023, at the Coliseum. There, the public will be invited to hear each proposer provide an overview of their respective plans. A final decision will be announced by Mayor Welch at his first State of the City address slated for the end of January 2023.

The 86-acre redevelopment site was once a thriving, predominantly Black district known as the Gas Plant neighborhood, and Mayor Ken Welch’s administration, in restarting the RFP process earlier this year, has emphasized the need for any redevelopment to include a sizable amount of affordable and workforce housing in a nod to restoring equity and socioeconomic justice to downtown St. Pete. Welch also revised the name of the project to the Historic Gas Plant District to reflect the site’s history.

Welch also stipulated that bids must include a 17.3-acre carveout for a new Tampa Bay Rays ballpark, which is a departure from the RFP process that began under the administration of former Mayor Rick Kriseman, who asked that each proposer submit plans both with and without a baseball stadium.

Sugar Hill Community Partners (SHCP), a California-based development firm led by former NBA star Kevin Johnson, was the only group from the first RFP who resubmitted a proposal today.

Miami-based Midtown Development, which Kriseman, prior to leaving office, had chosen to be the site’s master developer, said earlier this year that it would not submit a new bid.

After taking office in January, Welch said he would consider the SHCP plan alongside Midtown’s, but his decision in late June to throw out bids from both Midtown and SHCP came as a surprise.

“Our environment has changed in many ways since the initial RFP was issued in July of 2020,” he said at the time, “and we must ensure the RFP meets our current environment and realities and incorporates the most up-to-date information. The world is a much difference place today than it was in 2020 when the original RFP was issued. The pandemic has changed the way we work, the cost of housing has skyrocketed, and supply chain and labor issues impact the cost of capital projects. The overarching goal is to choose a site plan that advances the vision of our community for inclusive progress.”