Tampa council approves Rays stadium deal; county votes today

One vote down, one to go. Tampa City Council approved the deal to build a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium Thursday, leaving Hillsborough County commissioners to make the final decision Friday on the $2.36 billion project.

The 4-3 vote came near the end of an eight-hour meeting. Chair Alan Clendenin, Bill Carlson, Louis Viera and Naya Young voted yes. Charles Miranda, Linda Hurtak and Guido Maniscalco voted no. The council also approved associated agreements that prevent relocation and guarantee the team’s obligations.

The financing contract covers stadium construction on a 115-acre parcel now used by Hillsborough College’s Dale Mabry campus. A privately funded multi-use development would go up around the ballpark over the 35-year lease.

Tampa’s end of the deal is significantly different than a memorandum of understanding approved 4-3 in May. The city agreed to provide four annual installments of $20 million to use only on infrastructure in the stadium district. The city would be paid back with interest from property tax growth collected from the multi-use development.

Those annual payments would not be up front and would not go to the team. City attorney Scott Steady explained the money would be released on a reimbursement basis and only for completed improvements, a term recently added to the documents.

In the old deal, Tampa was to pay $80 million from the Community Investment Tax, plus $100 million from Tampa’s Community Redevelopment Agency.

The amendments were mostly negotiated by Carlson with the Rays over the past four weeks. Before his ideas were included, he was planning to vote no after approving the MOU.

“I didn’t change my mind – the deal changed,” Carlson said.

One late hurdle involved CRAs, designated blighted areas that pump future property tax growth back into public projects within the boundaries. A CRA board, made up of council members, oversees them. Extending the CRAs in East Tampa, Drew Park and West Tampa were among the items Carlson got the Rays to agree on.

However, council members learned an hour before the meeting that while the county agreed to an extension to the East Tampa CRA, it would not continue contributing its tax-increment revenue after the original sunset in 2034. The city will continue with its 100% contribution.

County Attorney Julia Mandell said that contribution could still be negotiated later. All CRA changes will require approval by the CRA board, which will meet later on revisions, including “carving out” the Drew Park CRA from the stadium district.

Meantime, the Rays have pledged to honor a Community Benefits Agreement and released a framework this week that included affordable housing, local hiring, minority- and women-owned business enterprises, small-business and workforce development and youth programs.

However, the team has not said how much it plans to spend on those programs.

The county will receive 65% of the community benefits commitments and the city 35%. Each municipality can determine what benefits they would request at a later date.

Councilors had also expressed a concern that there is no penalty against the Rays for not following through on plans for the multi-use development, which would include space for businesses, residences, retail, a major hotel and a “reimagined” Hillsborough College.

The county commission, which will own the stadium, will hold a special meeting this morning to vote on the project.

Approval would allow the Rays to move ahead on bond validation and prepare the college with temporary classrooms and lot grading to ease the inconvenience during construction.

The county contribution will be capped at $796 million, including $360 million from the Community Investment Tax, $263 million in Tourist Development Tax-backed funding, $103 million from other county funds and $30 million in federal disaster-recovery money.

Per the agreement, the city and county would contribute no more than $876 million toward the stadium project, while the Rays will cover more than $1.3 billion and all cost overruns.

“The Tampa Bay Rays are grateful for the leadership and support of the city council members to approve an investment that, when accompanied by the private funding guaranteed by the Rays, will secure the future of Major League Baseball in Tampa Bay while creating a landmark destination neighborhood that will serve our region for generations,” Rays CEO Ken Babby said in a prepared statement.