True to his word, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman has narrowed the candidates for redevelopment of Tropicana Field to the two proposals from Midtown Development and Sugar Hill Community Partners.
The mayor—who was firm in his desire to move forward with finding the right fit for the former Gas Plant site despite St. Pete City Council’s desire to pump the brakes—said he was impressed by the four finalists’ “impressive visions,” but added that the two remaining proposals “best reflect the community’s desires…”
Of course, listening to the entire community’s desires, especially in the context of the context of the Black neighborhoods bulldozed to make room for the Trop, is a tricky matter, and a press release from the mayor’s office added that, “Additional public engagement is forthcoming and will focus on these two proposals.”
In a text message to Creative Loafing Tampa, Benjamin Kirby, spokesperson for Mayor Kriseman said, dates and formats for public engagement are to be announced.
In his extended look at proposals for redeveloping the Trop site, City Wilds columnist Dr. Thomas Hallock agreed that Sugar Hill and Midtown were the best of the four proposals (and offered his own fifth option, waiting, which the mayor clearly has no interest in doing as he enters the last six months of his term).
“Clearly this team has mapped out the spatial heritage, though it bears noting, St. Petersburg has a bad history of falling for Big Promises,” Hallock wrote of the Sugar Hill proposal. “Behind Sugar Hill’s veneer of the local (as with the other groups) lies a formidable operating team, one that seems to specialize in high-developments flanking stadiums and ‘revitalized’ urban core.”
Hallock added that the Midtown group, “by contrast, does the best job keeping its eye on the prize. Avoiding the more complicated financials and social engineering…”
All of his news unfolds after a week where the Bay area learned that Tampa Bay Rays owner Stu Sternberg is being sued by minority-stake co-owners of the team and after Kriseman said he can’t negotiate with Sternberg. All the while, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor all but totally re-opened the possibility of the Rays moving to Ybor City.
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This article appears in Jun 3-9, 2021.
