Tale of the tape: Comparing Gas Plant Proposals (part two)

Part 2 of 2. 

It is often said that you “can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been.” The phrase carries additional meaning when discussing St. Petersburg’s Historic Gas Plant District.

Fulfilling long-deferred promises of economic revitalization for thousands of Black families who once called the roughly 86-acre community home remains a priority for Mayor Ken Welch. Two redevelopment groups have pledged to aid those efforts. 

Local historian Gwendolyn Reese, who also grew up in the Gas Plant, partnered with the Tampa Bay Rays prior to their redevelopment proposal in December 2022. The team invited several descendants to dinner before announcing their now-withdrawn plans. 

A new group led by ARK Investment has since stepped up to the plate. The latest proposal, unveiled Oct. 3, similarly expressed a commitment to “repair past harm and reinvest in the community that was displaced.”

“While we review this proposal, our primary focus will remain on pursuing impactful outcomes that reflect the needs and aspirations of our residents, and on honoring the promises of inclusive economic opportunity made to the Historic Gas Plant community,” Welch said in a prepared statement. 

Housing and timelines

Ark Ellison Horus outlined a “restorative justice and reconciliation” plan with “community-first phasing.” If approved, the group will break ground on a new Woodson African American Museum of Florida, provide 446 affordable housing units with street-level retail space, enhance the 16th Street South corridor, launch a minority-focused business accelerator and help reconnect neighborhoods within the first 1,000 days. 

In May 2024, the Rays agreed to build 300 affordable units by 2030. However, the team and development firm Hines planned to enhance 16th Street and break ground on the museum that same year. 

The latest proposal includes a total of 3,701 new homes, with 863 designated for people who earn between 30% and 80% of the area median income. Ark Ellison Horus will also build 618 affordable units for seniors.

The developers proposed 444 workforce housing units capped at 120% of the AMI. Another 1,776 – 48% of the total number of homes – would have market-rate rents. 

St. Petersburg would have received a total of 5,400 new homes under the previous proposal, including 600 for seniors. About 67% would have had market-rate rents. 

The city required the Rays and Hines to build at least 600 of the 1,250 total affordable (80% AMI) and workforce housing units (120% AMI) on-site. However, loopholes would have allowed the development team to build fewer income-restricted apartments. 

The Rays and Hines could have satisfied those requirements by paying the city $25,000 per unit, which is exponentially less than the construction cost. The city would have also eliminated one required market-rate home for every additional hotel room or 850 square feet of office space. 

The latest proposal’s vision for 16th Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street South.

Righting past wrongs

Ark Ellison Horus set a small, local and minority-owned business participation goal of 40%. The developers expect the 20-year, $6.8 billion project to create 14,296 “higher wage” jobs and 5,442 temporary positions. 

The Rays said their 20-year, $6.5 billion project would create roughly 30,000 jobs, with 15% dedicated to disadvantaged workers. They set a 30% small and minority-owned business participation goal and a 20% “target threshold.” 

Both development teams included $50 million in community benefits in their sales offer. Each proposal included space for a new Woodson African American Museum of Florida, although the Rays offered $10 million for construction. 

A report released in November 2024 and obtained by the Catalyst in April identified 10 possible graves – some just three feet below ground – underneath Tropicana Field’s parking lots. Ark Ellison Horus pledged to create a “thoughtful memorial” to ensure those buried at the site are “acknowledged with dignity and respect, creating a lasting place of remembrance within the District.”

Return on investment

An independent study found that the Rays and Hines proposal, without the stadium, would generate $1.46 billion in property taxes for local governments and the school district over 30 years. The City of St. Petersburg would have received $475 million for its $142 million investment. 

Victus Advisors also found that the project, including a new ballpark, would have generated an $11.9 billion “total economic output” over 30 years. The latest proposal projects that the Gas Plant, “anchored not in a single-use stadium but in a diverse, innovation-driven ecosystem,” would generate $1.2 billion in annual economic output and $28 million over three decades. 

Ark Ellison Horus also noted that the project would create $1.9 billion in new property tax revenue over 30 years. The developers requested a “modest” $120 million public investment.

Development teams

St. Petersburg-based ARK and its CEO, Cathie Wood, are two of the most recognizable names within the global investment community. The two rose to prominence during the pandemic by focusing on disruptive innovations, including genomics, remote work and digital payments, which aligned with new trends. 

Tampa-based Ellison Development is a rising firm that recently made headlines after announcing The Central, a mixed-use project in St. Petersburg’s EDGE District, would feature a 76-million-year-old Gorgoasaurus skeleton. CEO Casey Ellison told the Catalyst that “it’s very likely” the firm’s subsequent projects would feature prehistoric bones. 

The skeleton is part of co-founder Sidd Pagidipati’s personal collection. He is among the local “limited partners” who have joined the Rays’ new ownership group, and the latest proposal includes a stadium option. 

ARK will anchor The Central’s “trophy class” office building, Halcyon. The development is roughly a block north of Tropicana Field. 

A hotel and “innovation park” in the latest proposal.

Tampa-based Horus Construction is a Black-owned general contractor selected to build the Deuces Rising townhome project in South St. Petersburg. The company will oversee equitable contracting strategies, minority-led community advisory boards, on-site business incubators and “supportive homeownership pathways that build generational wealth.”

The HORUS Academy introduces youth to trades and offers advanced learning for adults. Company leadership will provide 41,600 hours of training and invest $2 million in the community over 10 years. Two dedicated staffers will oversee year-round programming.

However, Ellison and Horus have never led a project of this magnitude. Hines has 68 years of related experience and manages nearly $92 billion in assets throughout 30 countries. 

The Rays, one of 30 Major League Baseball teams, also enlisted prominent firms Gensler, Populous, Kimley-Horn and EDTA to work on the project. Ark Ellison Horus tapped Orlando-based Baker Barrios to provide architectural services. 

The Rays and Hines hired local African American consultants and a Black-owned, St. Petersburg-based firm, Storyn Studio for Architecture, to assist with design work. However, City Council Chair Copley Gerdes said the latest development team to set their sights on the Gas Plant “checked a lot of boxes.” 

“I certainly think that’s something that both the council and administration will take into account,” Gerdes added. “The City of St. Petersburg continues to attract great talent to a site that we know can be something very special.” 

Read Part 1 here. 

Ark Ellison Horus also plans to build a Heritage Park with a “flex lawn.”