{"id":144956,"date":"2026-02-05T17:33:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T17:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/144956\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T17:33:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T17:33:13","slug":"st-pete-council-to-vote-on-pausing-developer-selection-for-gas-plant-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/144956\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete Council to vote on pausing developer selection for Gas Plant District"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Last year, the deal with the City of St. Petersburg and the Tampa Bay Rays to build a new stadium and mixed-use development at the Historic Gas Plant District fell through.<\/p>\n<p>Ever since, there\u2019s been a question mark about what will happen to the property.<\/p>\n<p>WATCH full report by Larissa Scott<\/p>\n<p>St. Pete Council to vote on pausing developer selection for Gas Plant District<\/p>\n<p>One group, ARK Ellison Horus, submitted an unsolicited bid last year to develop the 86-acre site.<\/p>\n<p>The city invited competitors to present alternative proposals. That deadline ended on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stpete.org\/residents\/current_projects\/historic_gas_plant.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Nine developers<\/a> have now submitted proposals.<\/p>\n<p>Not everyone is on board to move forward with developers right now.<\/p>\n<p>City Council member Brandi Gabbard has put an item on Thursday\u2019s\u00a0<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/cms5.revize.com\/revize\/stpete\/2026-02-05%20Agenda%20Packet%20w_AddsDeletes.pdf?t=202601301137190&amp;t=202601301137190\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">agenda<\/a>\u00a0expressing opposition to Mayor Ken Welch\u2019s plan to push ahead with selecting a developer for the Historic Gas Plant District.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s requested to pause any action to select, negotiate with, or advance a developer.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Gabbard&#8217;s asking for more time to create a comprehensive planning framework for the site, which, according to the agenda item, would serve as a strategic road map before moving forward with a developer.<\/p>\n<p>In response on Wednesday, Mayor Ken Welch shared a note addressed to members of City Council reaffirming his position to move ahead.<\/p>\n<p>He argued that the city has done extensive planning of the site over the years in multiple instances.<\/p>\n<p>Welch also stressed that no development agreement would be approved without transparency, public engagement, and City Council action.<\/p>\n<p>City Council members are expected to vote on whether or not to pause the process to plan at Tuesday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n<p>Share Your Story with Larissa<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/LarissaScott.png\"\/><br \/>Larissa Scott stays on top of everything education-related for Tampa Bay 28, but it\u2019s not her only focus. From public health concerns to everyday expenses, Larissa is here for you. If you have a story you want to share, send her a message below.<br \/>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/MICHAEL.PALUSKA.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>How journalists battle the rise of AI fake news<\/p>\n<p>As News Literacy Week kicks off in partnership with Scripps News, Tampa Bay 28 reporter Michael Paluska sat down with fact-checkers at PolitiFact to <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tampabay28.com\/news\/local-news\/ai-is-making-fake-news-harder-to-spot-tampa-bay-28-shows-how-journalists-at-politifact-debunk-it\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">learn how they combat misinformation<\/a> in the age of AI.<\/p>\n<p>AI is making fake news harder to spot: How journalists at PolitiFact debunk it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Last year, the deal with the City of St. Petersburg and the Tampa Bay&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[8122,202,204,203,199,201,200,34689,8125,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-144956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-historic-gas-plant","9":"tag-st-pete","10":"tag-st-pete-headlines","11":"tag-st-pete-news","12":"tag-st-petersburg","13":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","14":"tag-st-petersburg-news","15":"tag-the-trop","16":"tag-tropicana-field","17":"tag-wfts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}