4 developers make their pitch to redevelop St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field

crowd of 400 took in big numbers, eye-popping renderings and passionate pledges to do right by the Black community displaced to build Tropicana Field.

The four development teams hoping to win the bid to redevelop the Historic Gas Plant District made their pitches to the public for why they should lead the generational project on Wednesday night at a packed Coliseum. Another 350 people registered to watch the presentations online.

Sugar Hill Community Partners, Restoration Associates, Hines and the Tampa Bay Rays and 50 Plus 1 Sports each responded to the city’s request for proposals by the December deadline. Each group gave 20-minute presentations in reverse alphabetical order.

Mayor Ken Welch will announce his pick for a developer at his State of the City address during the week of Jan. 30. The public can submit feedback online and in writing at six city facilities until Jan. 23.

Welch sat front and center taking pages of notes. He said “two or three” of the developers were “very responsive” to the priorities laid out in the city’s request for proposals, but wouldn’t name them.

“The other was more broad,” he said. “So I think they all were responsive, some are more detailed.”

It’s really more of a Shelbyville idea.