The St. Petersburg City Council gave the green light Feb. 19 to buy a 0.86-mile spur of railroad tracks to create a recreational trail connecting the Historic Gas Plant District, home to Tropicana Field, to Fifth Avenue North.
The council voted unanimously to support buying the line from CSX Transportation Inc. for $7 million with help from the track’s neighbors, Ferg’s Sports Bar & Grill and Ellison Development. The city will pay $1.2 million toward the purchase and costs related to the sale.
The council’s vote marks a big step in a yearslong process fraught with litigation to create a recreational trail that would connect to the Pinellas Trail. The city imagined taking over the tracks as far back as 2003.
The city began working toward acquiring the abandoned rail line in 2019. Around that time, CSX filed to convert the tracks into a trail, which functioned as an easement on privately owned property. But when the federal government OK’d CSX’s request, it took the land through eminent domain and property owners were not notified.
Ferg’s owner Mark Ferguson sued, along with other landowners who have parts of the spur running through their property. The case ended with the federal government awarding $12.9 million to Ferguson, the largest ever for a landowner in a rails-to-trails case. Warehouse owners Carlos and Colleen Lopez won $2 million and the owners of the Moxy St. Petersburg hotel won $2.9 million.
The city sued CSX in 2020 to take over control of the trail. The two parties entered into negotiations for a sale in 2023. The following year, CSX obtained an appraisal for the property for $87.9 million. The price was negotiated down to $7 million.
The city negotiated 99-year leases with the trail’s neighbors. Ellison Development, which is building The Central, agreed to contribute $2 million. Ferg’s agreed to pay $4 million. They would be allowed to operate commercially off the trail.
The city will pay its portion with parking revenue and by leveraging future increases in property tax revenues.
The council will have to vote on final agreements with Ferg’s and Ellison. The city also has the right of first refusal to purchase more of the rail line that continues north to the city limits at 38th Avenue North. It will seek grant funding to build the trail.
The tracks begin at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street and First Avenue South. They run west, parallel to the Tropicana U-Haul Moving and Storage center and Tropicana Field. Evidence of the rails disappears as the line jumps north across the street past the Moxy St. Petersburg Downtown Hotel and resurfaces at the southeast corner of Ferg’s.
Concealed under pavers and tables on Ferg’s party deck, the tracks reappear across Central Avenue between parking curbs in a gravel lot also owned by Ferg’s, alongside a picturesque portion of hidden Booker Creek. The abandoned segment continues diagonally through warehouses.
On the Ferg’s portion, the city’s recreational trail would be aligned to continue through an existing path that transitions into an underpass of First Avenue South.