St. Pete mayor highlights redeveloping historic Gas Plant District in State of City address

The Brief

St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch delivered his 2026 State of the City address on Wednesday morning as he reflected on the successes over the past year while also looking ahead to some of the challenges facing the city.

Welch described 2025 as a year of recovery from back-to-back hurricanes but says they are moving forward by investing in climate-resilient infrastructure while also moving forward with the redevelopment of the Historic Gas Plant District.

The mayor also launched his re-election campaign Wednesday night.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch delivered his 2026 State of the City address on Wednesday morning.

Welch covered a lot of ground, including the city’s recovery after Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and redeveloping the Historic Gas Plant District.

“The past year tested our resolve to recover,” Welch said. “Hurricanes Helene and Milton left their mark on our homes, our businesses, our infrastructure and our sense of security. Our families and neighborhoods face disruption and uncertainty, but storms do not define St. Petersburg.”

Welch said the city invested $4.5 million in disaster relief and housing stabilization to help with urgent repairs. It also issued 15,635 permits after the hurricanes, waiving fees for post-disaster emergency permits.

The city is continuing to administer the $160 million from the Sunrise St. Pete program in partnership with the federal government to help people recovering from Hurricanes Idalia and Helene. The first round of assistance is expected to go out to applicants in mid-March.

Stormwater Repairs

Welch was blunt, though, about the city’s infrastructure vulnerabilities, with the “new normal” of record storm surges and rainfall.

“Our infrastructure needs to be substantially improved to meet the weather challenges that we are experiencing, including the storms of 2024. Now, past planning and investments did in fact take place, but the weather impacts that we’re experiencing now simply are much greater than was forecast, and require that we have a more agile and impactful response to meet our current and future challenges,” Welch said.

By the numbers

The mayor said they’ve fast-tracked several projects and more than $545 million in long-term investments through the St. Pete Agile Resilience Plan. Some of those projects include raising electrical equipment, hardening wastewater facilities, installing flood barriers and starting flood mitigation projects in vulnerable areas. In 2025, 89 resilience and infrastructure projects were completed, totaling more than $47.3 million in improvements, coming in almost $6 million under budget, the city said.

Welch also asked voters to approve a bond this election to pay for $600 million in additional infrastructure upgrades.

“It’s similar to the Penny for Pinellas. We’re bonding that money so that we can get the projects done sooner rather than later,” Welch said.

The bond would also mean the city wouldn’t have to raise water and sewer rates even more to pay for this.

The Historic Gas Plant District

Welch highlighted that the repairs to the Trop will be done on time for Opening Day and on budget.

“After the storms, we made the difficult but responsible decision to repair Tropicana Field, protecting a major public asset, leveraging insurance, federal and state support, and meeting our contractual obligations to the Tampa Bay Rays. This was a historic undertaking. Replacing an iconic fixed dome roof, coordinating structural assessments, managing global supply chains, working with the Rays and Major League Baseball on technical requirements and sequencing interior restoration, all while maintaining strict timelines and budget discipline,” Welch said.

He concluded his nearly one-hour speech like he has each of his State of the City addresses, with the Historic Gas Plant District. It was a promise he made as a mayoral candidate to redevelop the site. The Rays backed out of the deal to develop the site last spring.

What they’re saying

“Our team did tremendous work, not only in putting together the 12 agreements a couple years ago [to redevelop the site], but also in the termination of those agreements. That land came back to the city of St. Petersburg. We hadn’t held the development rights for 25 years on that land. Now we have the development rights… we’re in a better place,” Welch said.

READ MORE: St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch on Rays potentially moving to Tampa, focuses for reelection bid

City council recently voted to pause the process of choosing a developer until after a framework plan for the site is created. Several new proposals to develop the site were sent in over the last couple of months. Welch addressed this and his disagreement with the decision in his speech Wednesday.

“Let me speak plainly and directly to the community about moving forward on the Historic Gas Plant District development. Nearly 40 years after the original Gas Plant community was uprooted, we have before us a real opportunity. Not simply to plan or convene yet again, but to act, to move forward, to finally transform vacant lots into assets that will benefit our community for generations to come,” Welch said. “Now is not the time to halt the process. Now, I agree that we should plan first as some are calling for. In my view, other than the initial construction of Tropicana Field, which began 40 years ago in 1986, planning is, in fact, the only thing we’ve done on that site. Over the past decade, this site has been studied, discussed, and planned extensively.”

READ MORE: The race to reshape St. Pete: Nine visions compete for Historic Gas Plant District

Welch says they’ve had several meetings with the community and received their input over the years too. He said whichever proposal is chosen this time around will have to meet the priorities already established.

“Jobs, housing, economic opportunity and honoring the promises made to the community. That’s consistently what the community is asking for,” Welch said. “Developers are not defining the vision. The people of St. Petersburg already have.”

The mayor says he’s willing to work with council, though.

“We’re going to try to incorporate the planning or the additional convening that council had in mind. We won’t understand exactly what that was, but we’re moving forward with that because that was a critical promise,” Welch said. “I believe we can address council’s concerns, be it planning or public safety infrastructure or any other issues mentioned at the recent city council meeting, without stopping a process. It is already well underway. We could easily spend years more debating where the puzzle pieces fit on these 86 acres and still have an asphalt desert instead of any tangible progress. I cannot support that path. The Historic Gas Plant District is not just a redevelopment project. It is a test of whether we keep our promises, or whether we are distracted by election year politics and political agendas.”

Councilmember Brandi Gabbard, who introduced that resolution to press pause on choosing a developer for the Gas Plant District, is planning to run for mayor against Welch later this year. Welch kicked off his re-election campaign with an event Wednesday night.

Welch’s speech Wednesday centered around the city’s five Pillars for Progress, which include Education and Youth Opportunities, Equitable Development, Arts and Business Opportunities, Neighborhood Health and Safety, Housing Opportunities for All and Environment, Infrastructure and Resilience.

By the numbers

In 2025, 434 multifamily affordable/workforce units, 122 accessory dwelling units and 24 affordable homes were completed and 189 affordable townhomes were in development on city-owned land, the city said. St. Pete was also the first to adopt the “Yes in God’s Backyard” provision, allowing faith-based organizations to use their land for affordable housing opportunities.

The mayor also highlighted the reopening of the President Barack Obama Main Library in September 2025 in his speech. He talked about total crime in the city decreasing by 16% in 2025 as well.

The city also invested in local artists, small businesses and nonprofits through various programs too.

What’s next

Welch hopes to pick a proposal for the site by the fall.

The Source

Information for this story was gathered from the St. Pete State of the City Address delivered by Mayor Ken Welch.