Tampa City Council will hold a special workshop May 5 to review the Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 proposed stadium and surrounding development.<\/p>\n
The 5 p.m. meeting at City Hall comes as Hillsborough County continues to evaluate a proposed $2.3 billion deal that includes a new ballpark and a mixed-use district. County officials said last week that no agreement is in place and that several major issues remain unsettled.<\/p>\n
The session will include presentations from the Rays and city staff, followed by questions, stakeholder input and public comment. The meeting will not have a set end time.<\/p>\n
The Rays are expected to present for about 30 minutes, followed by the city and its Community Redevelopment Agency. Additional stakeholders will have limited time before council discussion.<\/p>\n
Read the latest Tampa news and updates<\/a><\/p>\n Representatives from the Rays organization, including CEO Ken Babby<\/a>, along with consultants involved in the project\u2019s design and economic analysis, are expected to attend. No representatives from Hillsborough County or the Tampa Sports Authority are currently scheduled to participate.<\/p>\n That absence leaves council without the officials leading negotiations on more than $1 billion in proposed public funding and shifts the focus to the team\u2019s presentation and the city\u2019s review.<\/p>\n During an April 16 City Council meeting, members said they are still gathering information ahead of the workshop and raised concerns about how the proposal\u2019s details have been shared.<\/p>\n Councilman Bill Carlson said he has met with county officials but has not received briefings from the city.<\/p>\n \u201cI met with three or four county commissioners, and nobody from the city ever briefed me on anything,\u201d Carlson said during the meeting.<\/p>\n Council Chair Alan Clendenin said he also was not included in formal negotiations and instead sought out information on his own.<\/p>\n \u201cI was not looped into any kind of briefings or negotiations\u2026 that was all me reaching out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Councilwoman Lynn Hurtak said the proposal remains in flux and that the focus should be on financing, including bonding and the use of community investment tax revenues.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, it is really a money question,\u201d Hurtak said.<\/p>\n She said the draft framework lacks specificity and that the memorandum of understanding remains incomplete and subject to change.<\/p>\n Councilman Charlie Miranda questioned the long-term financial<\/a> impact on the city, citing concerns about debt and tax commitments.<\/p>\n \u201cI am not going to support this, no matter what happens,\u201d Miranda said.<\/p>\n The May 5 workshop will not include a vote, but it marks the city\u2019s first public review of the proposal ahead of a future vote.<\/p>\n Read More Tampa Bay Business News<\/p>\n \n Explore the latest Tampa Bay business<\/a> news<\/a>, real estate<\/a> deals, development projects, executive moves and company updates shaping the region.\n <\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa City Council will hold a special workshop May 5 to review the Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 proposed stadium…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-248379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248379","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=248379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}