Among the proposals to redevelop St. Pete’s Historic Gas Plant District, a group with local ties is pitching an option that leaves control of the project in the hands of the city and its citizens. Foundation Vision Partners was one of nine groups to submit a proposal in this latest RFP for the massive swath of land, and theirs stood out for its multi-developer and city-owned approach.
The Foundation Vision Partners plan has three main foundations. First, the focus of its development team will be on creating infrastructure for the nearly 100-acre site to become a thriving neighborhood. Second, it wants to work with locals to create a community-driven master plan with phased public infrastructure. Third, and perhaps most crucially, it wants the City of St. Pete to retain ownership of the entire property, selling parcel-by-parcel to individual developers.
Renderings via Foundation Vision Partners
The stance of the group is that all the efforts over the years to redevelop the site have failed “due to repeated ‘all-or-nothing’ single-developer models.” To their credit, one of the key partners in the group is Alex Schapira, who led the effort by the Hines and Tampa Bay Rays group that was initially selected to redevelop the site before the Rays backed out of the deal and sold to new owners. He has seen up close how difficult it is to get this project moving.
Here’s the core of their plans, via a release sent on behalf of Foundation Vision Partners:
“FVP’s differentiated strategy shifts the focus to building the public foundation first: co-creating a master plan with the community, then designing, permitting, and constructing essential infrastructure (including site remediation, utilities, a connected street grid, greenspaces, and resilience features) in phases.
“This transforms the district into shovel-ready vertical development parcels that the City can sell block-by-block to a diverse array of local, regional, and national developers.
“The result? Organic, adaptive growth that responds to evolving community needs and market realities without premature handoffs or high-risk single developer execution model dependencies.”
Rendering via Foundation Vision Partners
Like the teams behind other proposals officially submitted this week, the Foundation Vision Partners group brings a healthy mix of local ties and industry bonafides to the table. The development advisory firm is led by Schapira, Will Conroy of Backstreets Capital, and Anddrikk Frazier of Best Source Consulting, The trio partnered with the international master planning and design firm Gensler and global sustainable engineering leaders and infrastructure firm Stantec to develop their plan for the 86-acre project.
The group believes its plan can result in hundreds of millions of additional dollars for the City of St. Pete’s coffers compared to other single-developer plans. There plans calls for that gain to be invested back into the city, rather than sending millions in profit to a single developer.
“For decades, single-developer models have stalled this generational opportunity in our City,” Conroy said in a release. “Now is the time for a smarter path. Our master plan and infrastructure-first approach delivers six clear advantages: putting the City in full control, boosting success through diversification, capturing over $510 million in value for public priorities, broadening local participation, accelerating progress, and leveraging world-class expertise to build an inclusive district that truly serves St. Petersburg.”
While the City of St. Pete saw nine proposals come through, only a handful come with the combination of detailed plans, local ties, and the backing of major international firms with proven capabilities for a redevelopment project this large.
Blake Investment Partners yesterday unveiled an arts-and-housing-centered plan highlight by a “Museum Row” to that would create a world-renowned arts destination. The ARK Ellison Horus team, formed by ARK Investment Management, Ellison Development, and Horus Construction, was one of the earliest bidders, with a $6.8 billion proposal to remake the Historic Gas Plant District.
There is no strict timeline for a decision on awarding the project to any of the teams. St. Petersburg City Council will be next to vote on issues related to the redevelopment, with St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch heavily involved in the process.