Comparing four visions for the Historic Gas Plant District

The City of St. Petersburg hosted a town hall Thursday, giving the public a chance to hear pitches from the four final developers competing to redevelop the Historic Gas Plant District: Pinellas County Housing Authority, Foundation Vision Partners, The Burg Bid and ARK–Ellison–Horus.

All four proposals take a fundamentally different approach, ranging from affordable housing–first development,  flexible city-controlled phasing,  community investment models and an innovation-driven hub.

A Q&A session followed, where each team addressed key public concerns. Here’s how their responses and proposals compare.

How many workforce and affordable housing projects have you delivered in St. Pete? Is your team guaranteeing affordable and workforce housing, or is there an opt out clause? What percentage is affordable versus workforce?

Pinellas County Housing Authority: “We do not build anything except quality affordable housing, so there is no opt out for us, there’s just success.” Indeed, Pinellas County Housing Authority’s entire project emphasizes mixed-income neighborhoods, integrating affordable, workforce and market-rate housing to avoid concentration and promote inclusivity. Affordable units are prioritized early in the development phases.

Foundation Vision Partners: “The number of affordable houses set aside, and the opt out clauses will be determined by the people sitting in this room.” Foundation Vision Partners’ proposal is a “master plan and infrastructure first strategy,” which differs from the other developers in that it doesn’t have a singular vision for the entire 86-acre parcel, allowing the city to keep control of parcels and, in cahoots with Foundation Vision Partners, sell off the parcels in phases. The argument being that the city can adapt to changing economic and infrastructure needs, rather than be stuck with one development type.

The Burg Bid: The Burg Bid struggled to directly answer this question in the context of the Gas Plant. Instead, the group drew attention to its track record in St. Pete, referencing itsother affordable housing projects, like Rio Vista, 300 units of affordable housing, and reiterated its generational commitment to creating affordable housing.

ARK Ellison Horus: 3,701 units, of that, 863 are affordable housing units between 30–40% area median income, 618 are senior affordable, 444 are workforce units, and the remaining are market-rate units. “What that means in percentage terms is that all these units, number one, are going to be on the district itself. Almost 50%, 40% of all homes will be strictly affordable units,” a representative said. Adding that, “We own 40 affordable and workforce housing projects around the Tampa Bay area, so we have significant experience building, managing, owning and investing in affordable and workforce housing.”

How does your plan ensure that local small businesses will have real access to the development, both during construction and as long-term tenants, and what structural supports are built into your development to make that viable?

Foundation Vision Partners: Since this development is not buying the property, the first procurement has to go through the city’s CBA process, “one of the most inclusive processes you can find from a legislative standpoint,” which requires a development proposal to go through four meetings for consideration and public input, ensuring equity. “So it absolutely has to include small, local and minority-owned businesses.” Since the city retains control of the land, it can decide how big or small a parcel to sell. “This allows for scalability, and for anyone who has the opportunity, for anyone who can raise capital, even if it’s just a laundromat, or a high rise.”

Pinellas County Housing Authority: Framing the issue around workforce economics and opportunity, the Housing Authority pitched its project as an opportunity for small businesses. “The question is if local businesses are going to be involved in our project. Has anyone tried to hire a contractor lately? Not only are they going to be involved, we need more people to show up and work on our projects. If you are local and want to work, we are accepting applications today and we are happy to have them.”

The Burg Bid: The most notable differentiator of this project is the community investment fund. Through that program, individuals would be able to invest in portions of the project, subject to standard regulatory requirements, aligning community participation with the project’s capital structure. The intent is to lower traditional barriers to investment and allow residents to share in the long-term economic returns generated by the development. Adding that the Burg Bid has a “massive first phase” of their project: housing, office, retail, parking. “All things that support job growth,” a rep said.

ARK Ellison Horus: Speaking on its small business encouragement and minority participation section, ARK Ellison Horus’s proposal focuses on making sure local and historically underrepresented businesses are not just included, but positioned to grow and compete at scale, requiring roughly 40% of contracting opportunities to go to small, local and minority-owned businesses. “Beyond just helping and giving the opportunity to small businesses and minority businesses, we’ve already teamed up with institutions like Job Core [a free education and technical training program] that are facilitating their people,” the company added. Besides activating locally, ARK Ellison Horus’ project stands out because its underlying purpose is to attract businesses from outside St. Pete to move here, positioning itself as a hub for start-ups, research and major companies.

What percentage of the development square footage will be dedicated to office space and describe your teams’ pathway to providing high-pay, $100,000+ jobs?

The Burg Bid: “We have 1.4 million square feet of office space of a total of about 11.7. We include office space in every single phase of our development … that allows us to prepare long term for companies that want to enter this market and provide access to space to meet them where they are,”

ARK Ellison Horus: “Innovation creates jobs — in the last nine months at SparkLabs, we brought in over 45 company startups translating to over 75 jobs. There is a direct correlation between innovation as a long-term flywheel to create high-paying jobs,” a company rep said. To put this quote in context of its development, the ARK–Ellison proposal includes dedicated incubators, research space and startup pipelines designed to continuously generate new companies and employment opportunities.

Foundation Vision Partners: Centering its proposal as the best initial choice, FVP reps argued that all three of the other development ideas could still be included under its hood, at least in part, since the plan allows the city to sell parcels incrementally. “We de-risk the vertical development component for all three of the developers standing up here. Once we do our work, all the great ideas you’re hearing here from the others tonight would in fact be incorporated,” a rep said. “Job creation from all the others can be implemented.”

How does your proposal connect to adjacent neighborhoods, and promote safe, healthy and active connectivity?

Pinellas County Housing Authority: “We didn’t pick that six-tenths of an acre by just throwing a dart at a map,” a spokesperson said. “We picked it because it’s about to be connected to the Pinellas Trail. It’s got access to downtown, access to the trail and transportation.” They added that there will be a health clinic on site; “Health and activity is put on the top of our list.” The development proposal also includes ground-level and rooftop community spaces designed to support social interaction and active living. It also provides direct access to the Pinellas Trail, encouraging walking, biking and overall health-focused lifestyles.

Foundation Vision Partners: “You aren’t seeing renderings with big, massive buildings or parks [in our proposal], because you have to be part of the process,” a FVP rep said, reiterating the underlying premise of their proposal, that parcels will slowly be sold and developed, and for each development, the community will have the opportunity to weigh in. “We can conceive of vibrant, mixed-use experiences that are flexible over time, remember this is a 20-, 30-, 50-year project over time,” adding that “we don’t know what we’ll need in the future.”

ARK Horus Ellison: Focusing on how their proposal connects the north, east and west sections of the city, the team said the project connects Campbell Park to the south, the Rails and Trails program to the north, the Warehouse Arts District to the west, and the Edge District to the east. Their pitch, essentially, reinforces that their project connects the Historic Gas Plant District to everything else, centralizing it as a confluence point.

The Burg Bid: Referencing the site’s history as a thriving Black community and business center before it was razed for Tropicana Field, Burg Bid asked, “what’s at the heart of the site?” Their plan reconnects the district to the Deuces Corridor and emphasizes restoring historic connections, noting that where nine bridges once linked the neighborhood, “we are bringing back nine bridges over Booker Creek” to rebuild access, visibility and belonging.

Following the town hall is a 30-day response period for the public to weigh in on their preferred proposal. Mayor Ken Welch is expected to make a final decision on development by June.

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