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Panelists consider the future of the Gas Plant District
A panel discussion about the Gas Plant District’s future took place Tuesday evening at the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg’s Center for Health Equity.
A diverse selection of panelists spoke about the future of the troubled 86 acres, home to Tropicana Field and its sprawling asphalt parking lots since the early 1990s, and what could or should take the place of the now-dead revitalization project proposed by the Tampa Bay Rays organization and its development partner Hines.
Panelists included Mozell Davis (a 92-year-old former Pinellas County teacher, and widow of the first Black principal of St. Petersburg High School), Peter Kageyama (author of For the Love of Cities), Erica Hall (Member, Board of Directors, Sierra Club), Jillian Bandes (Executive Board Member, Urban Land Institute Tampa Bay) and Dr. Elizabeth Strom (Associate Professor, University of South Florida).
The area has a storied history. Before the iconic stadium was built, it was a bustling African American neighborhood that included a variety of Black-owned businesses. When the City cleared the land to make way for the stadium, residents were forced to relocate. As compensation, they were promised economic returns that never came to fruition.
A general consensus among panelists was that the property should honor its roots while keeping the future in mind. The district should create economic opportunities for the community, as the City had promised decades earlier.
Panelists onstage at Tuesday’s discussion at the Center for Health Equity. Photo by Michael Connor.
Kageyama, the son of a Japanese-American, spoke of the experiences his father’s family faced during World War II when many Japanese-Americans were incarcerated on U.S. soil. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan issued restitution, or a financial compensation, for the government’s actions.
While his father appreciated the money, he was more happy that the country’s actions were finally acknowledged. The apology meant a lot to him. “The hole was just too big,” Kageyama said.
He suggested that the Gas Plant District experience might be similar to local African Americans, and that the new development could be a way to apologize for previous actions.
Kageyama also stated that he believes St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch, a former Gas Plant resident, is the right person at the helm, because he understands how many feel about the Gas Plant District.
“I think Mayor Welch sees that hole in a way many of us don’t,” he explained.
Hall emphasized that any future projects should be reflective of the district’s legacy. “It should have things that mean something to each one of us,” and be a community hub where residents can thrive.
Whatever is created, it needs to be something that “welcomes family,” Davis added.
She also believes that descendants of the African American families who lived in the Gas Plant District should be consulted about the future redevelopment. “I think they should be talked to, to see what they would like to see happen.”
One idea most of the panelists agreed on was that new development should feature a public park. Green space is invaluable, Bandes added.
As to who develops a reimagined Gas Plant District, members of the panel discussed how the City should partner with a master planner while hiring various local, national and statewide organizations to help bring the development to life.
They agreed that the community should be actively involved. However, Bandes spoke of the importance of hiring an expert to oversee the project due to its large undertaking.
Panelists recognized that any project for the Gas Plant District would take decades to complete. Strom mentioned that many developments are designed with today in mind, rather than future generations.
This led to a discussion about how critical it is that a redesigned Gas Plant District is not “rushed.”
“We just do not know” what people will want in the future, she said. The development should be thoughtfully planned and be flexible based on changing needs.
We are “selfish bastards” if “we are making the decision for us, the collective us, and not thinking about our kids and our grandkids,” Kageyama said bluntly.
What will actually happen to the Gas Plant property? Only time will tell.
While the Rays-Hines deal is off, it’s still in official offboarding. Tuesday night’s conversations were just thoughts of what the future could hold.
What was underscored, however, was a sense of optimism and urgency to do right by the local African American community.
Whether the baseball era of St. Pete is over or not – depending on the Rays’ ultimate decision to stay or go – the area needs a renovation, panelists and the audience agreed wholeheartedly.
“Anything is going to be better than a parking lot and ugly stadium,” Kageyama said, receiving a round of applause.
The panel discussion was presented by the Tampa Bay Times and the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg.
JOHN BURGESS
June 8, 2025at5:09 pm
Bill Herrmann, thank you for your input. “Affordable housing” is not available anywhere in Pinellas County without taxpayers’ subsidies. The original housing “projects” (subsidized housing) did not work out so well. Seems like most were eventually demolished due to many unforeseen factors. Housing subsidies are still available, how many qualify for them?
The current cost of land, materials and labor today do not add up to an affordable cost for those who qualify. How would they qualify for a loan to buy the “affordable” housing? How much should taxpayers contribute? CRA is already funded by taxpayers, as is infrastructure.
How many people qualify for this housing? Different politicians come up with different formulas to determine who qualifies. You seem to believe under $100,000/year qualifies. Welch is now offering housing subsidies, down payment subsidies and buses costing taxpayers $200 Million/year to serve 1.5% of Pinellas residents.
Here is an example of how it works: https://stpeterising.com/home/40-unit-affordable-townhome-project-planned-for-south-st-pete-receives-city-funding There will be 40 winners of this lottery.
What % would “qualify” for the affordable housing you are proposing? 1.5% would equal 15,000 homes. Knowing that many could never be built in Pinellas County, the theory of affordable housing becomes a cruel lottery; only a few of those who qualify will ever see their dream come true. Every time a developer contributes or is forced to offer affordable units, they have hopes of being chosen, but the odds are very low and the disappointments are very high.
S. Rose Smith-Hayes
June 5, 2025at5:08 pm
You all keep getting the story All wrong. There was no stadium talk nor plan when the residents were convinced to move from the District. Also, Mayor Ken Welch never ever lived in the Gas Plant District. His grandfather owned a wood yard on 16th Street So. and 5th Avenue. The elder Welch was well compensated for his land. The land had been cleared about 10 years before the talk of a baseball team was mentioned.The Original Plans called for residences, apartments and businesses including light manufacturing. I keep asking about those plans and no one seems to know about them.Residents and business owners were told that they could come back. Mrs. Grayson who owned a two story house that had residences upstairs and a bar downstairs with a patio. for years she held on to the promise that she could go back. She passed never seeing that promise fulfilled. My uncle passed a year after he moved out. Whoever writes these articles need to know the Whole Truth. The Land Was Not Cleared for a Baseball Team.
Bill Herrmann
June 5, 2025at4:21 pm
The city DESPERATELY needs reasonably priced housing. Someplace where PW and utility workers can afford to buy a home. The solution is very simple:
1- transfer the property to a land trust.
2-place a deed restriction that limits capital appreciation of the homes.
3- price the homes such that a worker can afford them. Not a highly paid employees who make over $100K, and who often get take home cars. but housing for the ‘regular guys’.
4- Use the CRA money to install infrastucture ONLY in the and trust area. Anyone who has ever sold a home knows that if you are selling a home/land/etc, you never get back 100% of the money you use to update it. So let’s use the CRA money for folks who need some help.
This property should not be black, or white, or indigenous American, or any other group. It should be a multi-cultural community where kids can grow up in a home their parents own.
PS- As always I sign this with my real name. Feel free to reach out to discuss how we can move this forward
JOHN BURGESS
June 5, 2025at4:06 pm
Ryan Todd suggests implementing a form-based development code for the the 86 acres. It might be just as applicable for all future developments.
It seem that all we are getting now is what developers want, sometimes with a requirement to include a few “affordable” units in their plans. Other than that, apparently all the leaders and staff want is more apartments and condos without much attention to our fragile infrastructure.
“Form-based codes address the relationship between building facades and the public realm, the form and mass of buildings in relation to one another, and the scale and types of streets and blocks. The regulations and standards in form-based codes are presented in both words and clearly drawn diagrams and other visuals. They are keyed to a regulating plan that designates the appropriate form and scale (and therefore, character) of development, rather than only distinctions in land-use types.”
https://formbasedcodes.org/definition/
JudyToo
June 5, 2025at3:09 pm
Monah,
Maybe, just maybe, If I keep harping on Welch, it will illuminate a sufficient number of voters’ minds and they will know why they should not let him continue his schemes into another four years of corrupt deal making.
Yes, Kriseman was a huge mistake but voters gave him two terms – eight years to make his mark, a big black one.
There is a possibility that these same voters are going to do it again and let Welch continue. After all, they re-elected Welch as a County Commissioner for TWENTY years. He is a career politician, doing what is best for himself.
Ryan Todd
June 5, 2025at11:07 am
The best thing the city can do at this point is adopt a form-based code for the 86-acres to ensure future development can serve various land uses and then sell it off parcel by parcel. I’m at a loss as to why a traditional pedestrian-scaled city like St. Pete doesn’t already have a form-based code. Let’s leave the Euclidean Zoning to the 1980s.
John
June 5, 2025at9:48 am
“Bustling African-American Neighborhood”
David Welch was on the Council and voted to demolish the neighborhood in favor of the stadium. This is a man who lived in that neighborhood and had a business there. The complexes that were demolished were not in good condition (I.E. Laurel Park). Sure there’s some black history here, but to suggest it was this economic neighborhood power is just changing history. One of the nicknames of the neighborhood was literally “Den of Crime”.
Even in ’23 you had numerous former residents suggest that a new stadium was the way to go and a museum to honor the past was a great way to acknowledge the area.
Let’s develop the land for the best use of all of St Pete and not this distorted memory of what used to be there.
monah
June 5, 2025at7:19 am
I don’t know why you keep harping on Welch when he is just more of the same. Kriseman started this whole redevelopment scheme, that I remember, and I hated the plan he chose too. Let’s just agree the city has no business subsidizing a MLB team.
JudyToo
June 4, 2025at5:26 pm
This is another attempt to re-write history. There is not sufficient space to set the record straight.
Would it help to note that David Welch, father of Ken, lived in the neighborhood, was a city councilman and voted in favor of the original, ill-conceived and ill-fated development?
Would it help to finally let go of the past and move forward? How many thousands of promises have been made by hundreds of politicians that were never fulfilled?
Must we right every wrong? That would be illogical and certainly impossible. Every so often, we vote. And we get what we deserve. We wish we had not voted for this one or that we should have voted for that one.
It is too late to turn back the clock, to resurrect the past, to right all the wrongs.
Sometimes we seem to forget to count our blessings for what we have and try to change what cannot be changed. No panel or committee is going to accomplish the impossible. There is a new film, “Razed,” that tells a version of the story, just as we have had many films re-tell stories of the past. It may be intended to shape the future based on one version of the past, that is not what we want or need.
Mr. Todd is correct, we have an opportunity. Let us not try to use that opportunity to change the past, to right the wrongs. Let us go forward and leave a legacy to future generations rather than Welch’s dream/scheme of giving the Rays $700 million of OUR money for their stadium and a developer free will to do what is most profitable for the use of OUR 86 acres. That almost happened and it would have been devastating to St. Petersburg. The people voted for Ken Welch and almost got what they deserved.
Taxpayers paid the owners for this land, it should not be left to biased panels and committees or self-serving politicians to decide its fate.
Ryan Todd
June 4, 2025at3:23 pm
The last thing we should do is wait for a Master Plan for the 86-acres. I’m an urban planner. This site is too large for St. Petersburg to plan and execute. St. Pete’s staff and leadership at too incompetent to pull it off. How long have we been waiting for a library? Government plans have been the persistent problem for the Trop site. Fire the politicians!
Fire Welch and the rest of Council during the next election.