St. Petersburg mayor: City Council members’ concerns on Rays deal ‘valid’

St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch, the architect of a plan that would keep the Tampa Bay Rays in town and let the club develop the land around a new stadium, said this week that City Council members have raised valid, legitimate and important concerns about the deal’s terms.

On May 9, during their second workshop on the proposed deal, council members called for firmer guarantees that the team and development partner Hines would build the affordable homes promised. They also criticized the agreements for failing to incorporate other suggestions from a community panel, including that trainees get more work in the project. Some members said they were alarmed that the city can’t terminate the contract even if the developer defaults.

Lisset Hanewicz, the only attorney on the eight-member council, pointed out that the partners in the development contract are not named, so the city can’t assess their financial strength. She asserted that the Rays and Hines can sell of parts of the land it bought at a discount without city approval or without vetting the new owners.

Welch said he welcomed the council’s input, some of which reinforced priorities his administration has emphasized in months of closed-door negotiations with the Rays, Hines, their lawyers and outside counsel. He said some of Hanewicz’s points “had been anticipated, and some hadn’t.”

“With the agreements in hand, it was appropriate to hear what their major issues were,” Welch said, referring to council members’ comments. “In some cases that bolstered what our team had already conveyed and it was good to have that come from council.”

The City Council has authorized spending over $1 million on outside attorneys to work with the city’s in-house legal team to negotiate with the Rays and Hines and draft agreements.

Welch said the council plays a role in negotiations and this is all part of the process. He said city staff have analyzed each council members’ comments and have met with the Rays and Hines to address their concerns and make adjustments.

Welch would not give specifics because those negotiations are ongoing, except to say that the City Council should have approval over changing the number of affordable housing units built on site. He also referenced the need to detail who the partners are in the agreement, plus more clarity on building at least one daycare, childcare, preschool or similar facility by the end of 2035.

“Those kinds of things make perfect sense,” he said. “I think it’s a good basis for us to move forward.”

Rays President Matt Silverman said he also welcomed the council’s critique and suggestions.

“We are grateful for the City Council’s feedback and look forward to presenting an updated and final agreement to them in the coming weeks,” he said.

As part of the broader development plan, which would be called the Historic Gas Plant District, the city would sell 65 acres of public land to the Rays and Hines at a significant discount from its appraised value. The city would spend $142 million on roads and sewers for that land. The development partnership would build market-rate residences, affordable housing, a new home for the Woodson African American Museum of Florida, shops and office space.

During the workshop, Hanewicz took issue with the development’s touted benefits and latest renderings, which are based on a target development goal rather than the legally required minimum developments. She summarized the critique in a guest column in the Tampa Bay Times.

“I’m happy to hear that we’re going to get agreements that will tighten up a lot of these issues, and I look forward to reviewing them,” she said.

Council member Gina Driscoll said concerns raised by Hanewicz and others, including how the developer can extend deadlines with no limit based on “excusable development delays,” need to be addressed. Five votes are needed to approve the deal.

”If that had been for us to vote on that day, I would have been a hard no. But it’s not finished yet,” Driscoll said. “I don’t have huge concerns because I know that the administration and our legal team can and will get these things worked out.”

Asked if she believes the Rays and Hines will agree, Driscoll said: “I am quite certain that they heard us loud and clear.”

Before a council meeting Thursday, about 40 critics of the city’s stadium deal gathered on the steps of City Hall with flyers that read: “Rays to Stay, But Fix the Deal.” St. Petersburg resident Hal Freedman read some points Hanewicz raised into a microphone.

“The council’s fiduciary duty is to stop the process now until the city can renegotiate a fairer deal,” he said. “At the very least, clean up the obvious flaws.”

Council members now have more time to review. A workshop focusing specifically on the stadium, including a dozen agreements, was postponed from May 23 to June 13. A final vote on the stadium and Gas Plant development agreements is scheduled for July 11.

“We want to get this right,” Welch said. “Because the documents are so complex, and we want to make sure that our team is comfortable with what they bring forward, that we’ve done the legal review that we need to do. And so I think that’s a perfect example of we’re not rushing this.”

But those dates might change. At the end of a City Council meeting Thursday, council member Ed Montanari voiced concern about what he called “a very aggressive schedule” planned for June 13. The day would start with a 9 a.m. stadium workshop that would end at 4 p.m. — an hour before a meeting to have a first reading and first public hearing on the rezoning of the Gas Plant site and a regulatory document for the development.

The council has an annual summer break scheduled from June 14 through July 7.

The discussion got heated. Council members Brandi Gabbard questioned the workshop’s hard stop time. Council members Richie Floyd and Driscoll said the process felt rushed.

“I’m starting to get really worried about this deal,” Driscoll said. “I don’t want it to go the other way but I’m not going to be a fool either.”

Hanewicz spoke quickly, her voice beginning to crack: “I think this is completely rushed. I’m the only attorney here in City Council and even for me, it was a ton of work.”

Gabbard, who said the council has received drafts of documents since January, raised her voice in response to Hanewicz.

“I didn’t go to law school but I can tell you that I can read these documents,” Gabbard said. “Are they perfect? Hell no. ... But do not sit here and insult the intelligence of this council and say that we are not able to understand these documents.”

Council members left open the possibility of rescheduling the stadium workshop for June 11.