Foundation Vision Partners is doubling down on its pitch for the Historic Gas Plant District, inviting the public to a May 28 information session centered on what the group calls a “city led, phased path” for redevelopment.
The event will take place from noon to 1 p.m. at the Sunshine Center in downtown St. Petersburg and comes as Mayor Ken Welch moves closer to selecting one of four finalist proposals for the 86-acre site.
Unlike the competing bids, Foundation Vision Partners’ proposal does not revolve around a singular master developer taking control of the entire district upfront. Instead, the proposal emphasizes infrastructure first development, phased parcel sales and continued city ownership of the land.
“Ours is the only idea in which the City of St. Petersburg retains ownership of the land,” the group said in an announcement for the event. “Every other shortlisted proposal asks the City to hand over the keys to 86 acres of our shared history to a single developer. Ours keeps the land in the City’s hands where it belongs.”
That distinction has increasingly become the core of Foundation Vision Partners’ argument.
During the city’s April 30 public town hall, the group framed its proposal less as a finished vision and more as a flexible framework that could evolve over decades alongside community input and economic conditions.
Rather than immediately locking the site into one comprehensive buildout, the proposal would allow the city to maintain control over individual parcels and release them incrementally.
Foundation Vision Partners argues that approach reduces financial risk while preserving flexibility for future development needs.
“We de risk the vertical development component,” a representative said during the April town hall, arguing that other shortlisted concepts could theoretically still emerge within its broader framework over time.
The upcoming session appears designed to expand on those arguments after what the group described as limited time during the city hosted presentations.
The May 28 event will focus on how the proposal could deliver earlier infrastructure improvements, job creation and development opportunities while avoiding what the group calls an “all eggs in one basket” model.
Foundation Vision Partners is competing against proposals from ARK Ellison Horus, The Burg Bid and the Pinellas County Housing Authority, each of which takes a fundamentally different approach to the Gas Plant’s future.
ARK Ellison Horus has centered its proposal around innovation, startups and large scale mixed income housing. The Burg Bid has emphasized reconnecting the site to its historic Black community roots through community investment mechanisms and public space. The Pinellas County Housing Authority’s proposal prioritizes affordable housing and mixed income neighborhood development.