St. Petersburg Mayor Kenneth Welch has pushed back the deadline for developers to submit proposals for the Historic Gas Plant District redevelopment after complaints the process was moving too fast.<\/p>\n
In a memo sent to St. Petersburg City Council Wednesday, Welch directed staff to delay the publication of a 30-day notice until Jan. 4. The plan originally called for it to be issued in mid-November.<\/p>\n
With the change, proposals for the redevelopment of the 86-acre Gas Plant District will be due Feb. 3 \u2014 105 days after the Oct. 21 announcement notifying developers that the city would accept proposals.<\/p>\n
Welch, in the memo, writes that the decision to push back the date was in \u201cresponse to concerns expressed by some members of council and the development community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Gas Plant District is a historically Black neighborhood torn down to make way for the construction of Tropicana Field and Interstate 175 in the 1980s.<\/p>\n
In the memo, Welch also rejected the idea of reissuing an RFP, writing that it isn\u2019t necessary or beneficial.<\/p>\n
At least twice the city has issued RFPs seeking proposals for the district. The second, which Welch issued in 2022 after discarding a decision made by his predecessor<\/a>, required a carve out for a new ballpark for the Tampa Bay Rays.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Rays and a development partner submitted the winning bid but the deal for the stadium and the redevelopment fell through earlier this year, when the team\u2019s previous owner backed out of the deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the Wednesday memo, Welch writes that the guiding principles behind the 2022 RFP \u201chave not changed, and have been confirmed by subsequent community convenings.\u201d Those principles include jobs, housing, equitable economic development, resilience, green space and recognition of the Gas Plant community.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only material change from those principles is that the inclusion of a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays in partnership with Pinellas County is no longer instrumental in planning the redevelopment,\u201d Welch writes in the memo.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur unified work to include the Tampa Bay Rays in the long-term vision of the Historic Gas Plant and their subsequent abdication have provided more clarity for the future of our city and the property.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The redevelopment of the district has remained a priority for Welch since the Rays\u2019 previous owners reneged on the deal in March.\u00a0<\/p>\n The hopes for the redevelopment got a boost \u2014 and the current process began \u2014 in early October, though, when ARK Ellison Horus LLC submitted an unsolicited $6.8 billion proposal to redevelop 95.5 acres<\/a>, including the 86-acres that make up the district.\u00a0<\/p>\n (The development team is made up of a who\u2019s who of the local business community: high-profile tech investor Cathie Wood, founder and CEO of ARK Investment Management; Casey Ellison, founder and CEO of Ellison Cos.; and Jonathan Graham, president of Horus Construction Services.)<\/p>\n Its plans include 3,701 new homes including 1,776 market rate units; 444 workforce units for those making between 80% and 120% of the area median income; 863 units for those earning 30% to 80% of AMI; and 618 affordable units for seniors.<\/p>\n The plan also calls for the construction of the Woodson African American Museum of Florida and a state-of-the-art theater, a \u201ccultural corridor\u201d connecting several St. Petersburg neighborhoods, a 4,000-seat indoor music hall and a 1,500-seat outdoor amphitheater, and 1,543 new hotel rooms.<\/p>\n A portion of the project will be dedicated to innovation, with plans for 500,000 square feet of innovation hubs and labs and a 200,000-square-foot innovation hall.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n