One of the groups vying to redevelop Tropicana Field plans to launch two investment funds to raise billions of dollars for that project and others across Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n
Last month, Cathie Wood\u2019s Ark Invest and St. Petersburg-based Ellison Development submitted an unsolicited bid to turn the Tropicana Field site into a mixed-use development with housing, green space, hotels, offices, a museum and more.<\/p>\n
On Nov. 3, the group announced a new investment initiative aimed in part at giving locals the opportunity to profit off that $6.8 billion redevelopment.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody in this community is going to be a stakeholder in this project,\u201d said Tom Staudt, president of ARK Invest. \u201cWe would like them to also be able to be a shareholder if they\u2019d like.\u201d<\/p>\n
One fund \u2014 The ARK Ellison Community Growth Fund \u2014 would expand access to real estate investment allowing anyone to participate, whether or not they are accredited investors. Investment minimums will be as low as $500 and participation will be offered through app-based, tokenized and blockchain-enabled platforms.<\/p>\n
This fund will focus solely on the 95-acre Gas Plant District, where the Trop is located.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re talking about an opportunity for a community defining project, that you want to have the ability for the community to participate in that and have ownership,\u201d Paul Wilson, CFO of ARK, said.<\/p>\n
The fund will have a $75 million limit. \u201cIf the community wants to invest more … we\u2019ll certain find a way to accommodate above that $75 million level,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n
The other fund \u2014 the ARK Ellison Urban Innovation Fund \u2014 will be for accredited, institutional investors and will focus on \u201copportunity zones.\u201d These are distressed areas where developers and investors can receive federal tax breaks for making improvements.<\/p>\n
The Tropicana Field site is in an opportunity zone. But the money raised through this fund will go toward a $9 billion pipeline of various developments across the region. This includes The Central \u2014 a development being built in St. Petersburg\u2019s Grand Central district that will include a hotel, apartments, offices and retail.<\/p>\n
Staudt said he hopes this fund will attract a significant number of local and regional backers, not just large, more-established investors.<\/p>\n
ARK and Ellison\u2019s pitch for Tropicana Field isn\u2019t a done deal. At least two other groups have made bids for the site. The Pinellas County Housing Authority said this month that it wants to build affordable housing there. After the deal with the Tampa Bay Rays fell through in March, local investor Thompson Whitney Blake offered $260 million cash to buy the whole property. He wants to divide up the land and have different companies develop each piece.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the city of St. Petersburg announced that it would open a 30-day window for new proposals sometime in November.<\/p>\n
Staudt said ARK and Ellison will respect the process, but that if they are chosen, they will move to launch the two funds as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
Even if their bid is not chosen, Wilson said ARK will continue to look for opportunities to invest in Tampa Bay real estate.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur proposal stems primarily from our belief in the potential of this area,\u201d he said. \u201cWe care deeply about what happens here. \u2026 I would expect us to be involved in one way or another.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the groups vying to redevelop Tropicana Field plans to launch two investment funds to raise billions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[25135,25136,110,202,204,203,199,201,200,1526,8125],"class_list":["post-36380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-ark-invest","tag-ellison-development","tag-sports","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tropicana-field"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36380","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=36380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}