Thrive
St. Pete forges ahead with Gas Plant’s redevelopment
Mayor Ken Welch has frequently noted that former Gas Plant residents and their descendants have waited 40 years for the site to provide economic revitalization. The wait will soon end.
The City of St. Petersburg is exploring redevelopment opportunities around the Historic Gas Plant site’s outer perimeter to help fulfill long-deferred promises to the predominantly Black community that once called the neighborhood home. Welch has also signaled a newfound willingness to, under the right conditions, discuss extending the Tampa Bay Rays’ remaining three-year lease at Tropicana Field.
The Rays exited an arduously negotiated $6.5 billion deal with the city and Pinellas County in March. Administrators met with the team and their development partner, Hines, to “check some legal boxes” Monday before advancing previously established plans.
“That process would be near-term,” Welch told the Catalyst. “Staff understands the priority there – how we want to move forward. We’ve got all the development rights again, and that is a key piece.”
Welch has prioritized aspects of the redevelopment’s first phase, once expected to commence in January. Those include 100 affordable senior housing units and a new Woodson African American Museum of Florida.
The cultural institution operates from a former community center in Jordan Park, the state’s oldest public housing development. A vastly expanded, state-of-the-art facility accounted for $10 million of the Rays and Hines development team’s $50 million community benefits package.
Welch believes redeveloping some of Tropicana Field’s sprawling surface parking lots could help provide some of the long-awaited community benefits. He said there are “some other things we can put in place” once the city officially terminates its agreement with Hines.
The Rays will play at Tropicana Field through the 2028 season. While that will hinder construction, Welch said the city could commence a planning and design phase for eastern parcels near I-275. “We’ve got some ideas that we’re sharing with the (city) council,” he added.
Officials have discussed building a meeting space in a new Center for the Arts along the downtown waterfront. Welch and some council members would prefer the Gas Plant to house a full-fledged conference center. “The two do kind of work together,” he said of the projects.
The Rays have floated the idea of a 10-year extension at the Trop, with the team, city and county splitting $600 million in stadium upgrades. Welch said a $400 million public investment is “not happening.”
However, he would consider a “more reasonable” request that would keep the Rays in St. Petersburg for five or 10 additional years. He also believes the city potentially could redevelop parts of the 86-acre site while the Trop continues hosting Major League Baseball.
“Obviously, parking is going to be an issue,” Welch said.
Mayor Ken Welch addresses supporters during a recent private event at the Moxy St. Petersburg Hotel. Photo by Mark Parker.
The Rays would have built two parking garages to accommodate a redeveloped Gas Plant and a new ballpark. That would likely be a sticking point in any lease negotiations.
Welch will not agree to an extension that includes keeping nearly 50 acres of surface parking lots. “It’s been underutilized for 40 years already,” he reiterated. “So, that’s going to be an issue we need to solve … if the stadium is going to have an extended life.”
Creating a workforce development ecosystem is another priority. While the city’s near-term plans would not create 30,000 jobs like the previous project, it would still foster myriad employment opportunities.
Welch has discussed creating a workforce pipeline to facilitate that process with Dr. Tonjua Williams, president of St. Petersburg College. The city will soon convene other local stakeholders to discuss the initiative.
Welch has partnered with Pinellas Technical College on the Mayor’s Future Ready Academy program, which has already graduated two classes. “So, we’ve got a model that works; it’s just how do we expand that going forward. I’m excited about that.”
City officials must decide if they want to sell the land by parcel, provided parking at Tropicana Field remains unaffected for three years. Welch said they could also request development proposals that only encompass the site’s easternmost areas.
The city could also hire a consultant to master plan the entire 86 acres. Welch said administrators and council members are evaluating the various paths forward.
“If we do it ourselves, we need to have a master plan of where pieces are going, where they make the most sense,” he explained. “There can be some select parcels we sell along the way to help fund priorities, like affordable housing.”
Welch called Hines a “good player” in the previous deal. He also noted that “their relationship with the Rays is not something I would embrace going forward,” and any future partnerships would require a “fresh start.”
Bobby
May 15, 2025at2:47 pm
This mayor seems to screw up everything he is involved in. Clearly has no clue how to negotiate a deal that is good for all the community. Hopefully this mayor is not our mayor for much longer.
Rick Three
May 12, 2025at5:08 pm
Why not bring a big attraction, like the Sphere?
Craig Sages
May 10, 2025at8:32 am
Funny people are still holding on this narrative. “Welch tried everything in his power to hand over the biggest giftwrapped wealth transfer in city history” – Yet the Rays simply said no thanks to this amazing gift? Why?
Because if you take a second to dig even an inch deeper you’ll quickly see it was a break even deal at best for the Rays. The per acre rate for the land was less than market value….but market value is highest and best use. That means 70 acres of luxury condo towers if you want top dollar..anyone vote for that?
The Trop deal included acres of park land, a museum, a pedestrian promenades, and plenty of other elements that not only don’t command top dollar, but generate zero dollars in revenue. The Rays were paying for dozens of acres, and paying to develop those acres, when they would never earn a dime. There were less than 15 acres of decently profitable development in the deal that had to cover for the rest of the losses. This is why they exercised their contractual right to walk away from ‘the most amazing deal in history.’
The stadium piece of the deal is a different thread, and that’s an age old debate that ultimately ends up in the realm of intangible benefit to a city. But at the end of the day, the Rays are in a far worse position with the community and the team’s valuation now than had they moved forward with the deal…yet they were willing to endure this pain to NOT have to take the greatest deal in history.
Layne B
May 9, 2025at10:18 pm
Hysterical to see Welch talk about “community” when he just tried everything in his power to hand over the biggest giftwrapped wealth transfer in city history to a billion dollar team and its billionaire Wall Street owner.
Welch and the “community leaders” are just as rotten and corrupt as the crooks who bulldozed the original gasplant area. All of the local community leaders got paid by the team to push this robbery off again. What an absolute betrayal.
And can we stop lying that an empty stadium would “create 30,000 jobs”? The only guaranteed job was the one going to Welch’s unqualified relative.
Layne B
May 9, 2025at10:06 pm
So the mayor who just tried to scam taxpayers for a nearly $2 billion payout to his billionaire campaign donor pals ( sorry, “valued community partners, who are “here to stay”) now wants us to forget about his attempted ripoff and move on to the next pointless, wasteful, graft-laden boondoggle.
What a complete and utter failure of ethics and leadership. Welch ends up being just another mediocre, corrupt, incompetent politician.
Time for the council to stop getting dragged into supporting his schemes, and for the people to start shouting down his graft-soaked fiascos.
This city and The Public desperately need responsible leadership.
The mayor and his toadies on council aren’t capable of providing it.
S. Rose Smith-Hayes
May 9, 2025at7:39 pm
If planning a convention center, consider at least one of the parking garages in the Hines plan. This would allow for parking while the Rays stay and free up other parking areas for development.
Donna Kostreva
May 8, 2025at5:03 pm
S. Spot on comments. D’accord!
Mike C
May 8, 2025at9:51 am
Everything Welch touches turns to dust… now he’s pushing the panic button.
His preoccupation of spending, more spending, and spending more tax dollars on feel good vanity projects at taxpayer expense is dangerous. And, the counsel is filled with loyal soldiers willing to support the waste. His term cant end soon enough and hopefully he will take the next Sun Crawler (empty of course) out of St Pete.
tont
May 8, 2025at9:26 am
obviously somebody owes some leaders at the Woodson Museum – funding and building that seems to be a prority
S. Rose Smith-Hayes
May 8, 2025at9:14 am
No mercy here and things do Not change, people rarely change. I never saw this as reparations, I saw it as doing something good for the community. Had the Rays deal gone through, I believe that this area would have become a tourist attraction by itself. The designs are beautiful. The stadium would have been used year round for conventions,sports events, concerts etc. Folk would have wanted to just walk through and see the area with restaurants and shops. I guess I am a dreamer. Oh well…….
John
May 8, 2025at8:25 am
Welch can’t end his term soon enough.
S
May 8, 2025at8:06 am
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The Great Gas Plant Grift
Taxpayers and residents can’t stand this guy—and for good reason. His fixation on imaginary promises supposedly made by long-dead politicians to long-departed residents is a transparent con. It’s a scheme to funnel today’s tax dollars to people who never even owned property in the so-called historic Gas Plant district.
This is just reparations in disguise—handouts to people who never lost anything, funded by taxpayers who never did anything wrong. Even if past harms had occurred, paying cash today would still be illegal and unconstitutional.
And here’s the kicker: anyone who did own property in the area at the time was already fully compensated under eminent domain law, which applied then just as it does now. By law, they received fair market value for their property plus attorney’s fees. That’s how the system works—and worked. No one was left uncompensated. No one was promised some open-ended, never-ending stream of taxpayer dollars decades into the future.
But politicians are playing their oldest trick: weaponizing guilt to buy votes.
As for those alleged “promises”? They were never promises at all. They were political puffery—vague, feel-good statements about how everything would improve if only we built a new stadium.
The benefits never came. They never do. Politicians make ridiculous promises all the time. Including right now.
And now, this same clown wants to build another stadium substitute—except he can’t afford it anymore because he quietly dropped $75 million in insurance coverage at the very moment the Gulf of Mexico hit the hottest temperatures ever recorded. A reckless, idiotic move designed to save money. The $250,000 saved on the premium for the baseball stadium didn’t just vanish—it became the seed money for his pet charity, We Are St. Pete. It may not have been a direct handoff, but the money sure ended up there.
Imagine that. Taxpayer money, originally meant to protect public assets and infrastructure, now diverted into the mayor’s personal vanity project disguised as a charity. You can’t make this stuff up.
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Why Handouts Don’t Work
Groups that consistently underperform economically, educationally, and vocationally have never advanced through government handouts. Decades of welfare, subsidies, and reparations programs have only deepened dependency and reduced incentives to achieve. These policies strip away the very behaviors that lead to success—personal responsibility, delayed gratification, and the pursuit of skills and education.
As Thomas Sowell observed:
“The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best. The welfare state is not really about the welfare of the masses. It is about the egos of the elites.”
And elsewhere:
“If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago, and a racist today.”
Success does not come from government checks. It comes from education, hard work, stable families, and cultural values that prize self-reliance—not political pandering and grievance-mongering.
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Bubba Wallace
May 8, 2025at4:09 am
Mayor Ken Welch has failed in every way.
Oscar Bouie
May 7, 2025at10:04 pm
He is not making any mistakes reparations are due it’s built on top of Native American Cemeteries so first of all respect is due because Native blood is in what today most call African Americans let’s be clear on that. He knows exactly what he’s doing he’s negotiating we have the ball in our court for a change and I like it!
Oscar Bouie
May 7, 2025at9:58 pm
Welch is doing an excellent job and screw anyone who thinks otherwise he’s right! The Ray haven’t drop a damn dime on involving crap they drain the city and rresources. We the people from St. Petersburg born raised no better.
S. Stevens
May 7, 2025at9:22 pm
The city should go back to Moffitt and invest in something that will benefit the community, a state of the art cancer center.
Hugh Hazeltine
May 7, 2025at8:56 pm
I would encourage everyone to visit the Woodson African American Museum in Jorden Park, it is an eye opener. They have a beautiful bronze statue of Harriet Tubman in the court yard.
Judy Too
May 7, 2025at5:21 pm
Welch should go on vacation until the end of his term. This all started back in the 70s, came to fruition in the late 80s-early 90s and has been a cost to taxpayers EVERY YEAR since day 1. David Welch, his father, was one of the city council members who voted for the original development. The Welch family lived in the Gas Plant district.
Ken Welch is still looking for reparations and making a lot of mistakes every time he comes up with a new scheme that results in more costs to taxpayers. “Affordable housing” is not free; one way or another, our tax dollars are used to subsidize housing.
PSTA is another favorite black hole Welch continues to burden us with, year after year. He was behind the failed Greenlight Pinellas debacle in 2014 and now the often empty SunRunner, which took away street lanes for how many riders to ride a bus every 15 minutes? There are much less costly ways to solve the transportation problem for those in need.
Ryan Todd
May 7, 2025at3:42 pm
Does anyone trust the city government to plan and execute anything? Sell the 86-acres by parcel and let the market build what the market will bear.
Alan DeLisle
May 7, 2025at7:03 am
In other words, Welch doesn’t have a clue.