‘We cannot rely on just promises’: Despite opposition, St. Pete City Council OKs Rays-Hines redevelopment deal

Last week, City Council approved the historic Gas Plant District Redevelopment and Rays-Hines stadium proposal, confirming that baseball is “here to stay,” in St. Petersburg.

“This is a day that has been more than 40 years in the making,” St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch, who was raised in the Gas Plant, said at last week's meeting. “History matters.”

In the 5-3 vote, Council members Richie Floyd, Lisset Hanewicz, and Brother John Muhammad opposed. All three voiced concerns about a lack of contractual obligations for Rays-Hines, as the city enters into the largest deal in its history.

“The deal is not what people hope, intend, or believe will happen,” Hanewicz said before her vote. “It is not what is said at a meeting or what someone tells you, but what is in writing.”

Hanewicz, an attorney, noted that the city is forecast to borrow upwards of $684 million for the project. The land, last appraised in 2023 for over $200 million, will be sold for just $105 million. Hanewicz says Rays-Hines is only obligated to pay $50 million of that amount, in the first 12 years. She also stated that the deal shows Rays-Hines giving $50 million in community benefits over 30 years, but is receiving another $50 million discount on the land in return.

“They [Rays-Hines] are not really paying $50 million in community benefits, we are,” Hanewicz said. “If you’re saying you’re giving $50 million in community benefits, don’t take a discount [$50 million] on the land, just pay the community benefits up front.”

For some descendants of the historic Gas Plant District, a Black community demolished and paved over for the Interstate, Thursday’s stadium deal is a kind of closure. Gwendolyn Reese, historian and president of the African American Heritage Association of St. Petersburg, grew up in the Gas Plant, near Sugar Hill. “We don’t know any other way to solve the issues heard in the room today without some economic opportunity like this one,” Reese said at the meeting.

“A promise was made in the ‘80s under urban renewal that this community will enjoy greater economic prosperity,” Trenia Cox, with the St. Petersburg NAACP, said at the meeting. “That has not occurred. It’s time to deliver on the promise. This deal will provide opportunities for that promise to be delivered.”

Councilmember Floyd, who’s been critical of the deal’s lack of affordable housing requirements among other things, voiced his concerns before voting against the project.

“We cannot rely on just promises,” Floyd said. “That’s what happened last time, and they were empty.”

One of those promises is $10 million towards construction of a new Woodson African American Museum of Florida. The museum signed a letter of intent with Rays-Hines on May 30. Woodson’s executive director, Terri Lipsey Scott, spoke in favor of the project last week and recalled the groundbreaking of the first stadium project 38 years ago.

“In 1986, I was among thousands of people digging with a small shovel that said, ‘I dig the stadium,” Scott said. “Thirty-eight years later, I still dig the stadium.”

WTSP reported in February that Scott resigned from the Florida Museum of Black History task force after concerns over a conflict of interest were raised at a meeting on Dec. 15,2023. Scott, who has a stake in the Woodson Museum, reportedly made a presentation using images of the Woodson from the Rays-Hines renderings, suggesting that the task force make the Woodson the site of the proposed museum. Lipsey Scott even touted the Rays-Hines deal in the meeting.

“You will not be able to come to Tropicana Field without coming past the museum itself,” Scott said at the task force meeting.

Last December, Republican State Rep. Berny Jacques asked Scott how she planned to ease accusations of a conflict of interest.

“This is a specific pitch of a specific organization that Task Force Member Scott runs,”Jacques said . “That is the concern that arises with me and maybe some others.”

Scott resigned shortly after.

Council chair Deborah Figgs-Sanders, who’s up for re-election next year, supported the deal and likened it to a mortgage. “How many of you really agreed with everything that was in your mortgage?” Figgs-Sanders said.

Last week, Lakewood Estate resident Bradley McCoy filed an ethics complaint against Figgs-Sanders , alleging she took $3,000 in campaign donations from the Sugar Hill Group, the developers that Council chose for the Tangerine Plaza project.

The Rays’ political contributions have also come under scrutiny throughout the stadium debate. According to public campaign finance records , the team was one of Mayor Ken Welch’s largest campaign donors to his Pelican PAC during his mayoral campaign in 2021 , giving $50,000 on Sept. 21, 2021. By June of 2022, Welch had scrapped Kriseman’s redevelopment deal for a new RPF process.

“The right people are in the right seats,” Copley Gerdes, who’s father Charlie Gerdes, served on City Council and who’s uncle, Rob Gerdes, works for the Welch administration, said Thursday before casting his “yes,” vote on the Rays-Hines deal. “It took 17 years to have the right people in the right seats, but damn if we don’t have them now.”

In April, Florida TaxWatch released a comprehensive report on the Rays-Hines proposal, projecting $11.9 billion in total output over 30 years. The result would be an estimated total of 17,782 jobs and $185 million in incremental county revenue. The report also stated, “Nearly all the empirical studies find “little to no tangible impacts,” of sports teams and facilities on local economic activities, and the level of stadium subsidies typically provided far exceeds any observed economic activity.”

Last month, Berbeth Foster of Miami’s Community Justice Project and Kiersten Anderson, of the Southern Poverty Law Center, sent a 28-page letter to St. Petersburg’s attorney , Jackie Kovilaritch. The letter outlines federal civil rights obligations required for the Gas Plant sale, and illustrates what Foster and Anderson believe are possible legal violations. Muhammed asked the city’s legal department if the letter posed a risk to the city legally, should Council approve the deal.

“By and large it was a letter expressing policy opinions and statements,” Michael Dema, assistant city attorney, said at the meeting. “We looked at it with an eye toward risk and see no legally recognizable issue at this time.”

According to the city’s legal department, if the County makes any “substantive change,” to the agreement, those changes would come back to the City Council for approval. Administrator Rob Gerdes noted that any changes to the agreement would also require Major League Baseball’s approval. In May, Hines halted a similar $4 billion project in San Diego, after the city pledged millions in public funds.

“We’re not opposed to development of the site in a way that’s responsible,” Council member Brother John Muhammad said before casting a “no,” vote. “We know documentation beats conversation.”

The deal now heads to the Pinellas County Commission, where Welch served for 20 years as County Commissioner before being elected Mayor. The County Commission vote is scheduled for July 30 and is expected to be a rubber stamp.

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