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St. Pete Begins Planning For a Post-Rays World

Tampa Bay RaysWith the Tampa Bay Rays on the search for a new-ballpark site, St. Petersburg is moving forward with planning for what comes next at the Tropicana Field location — with or without a new ballpark at the site.

Despite all the noise about keeping the Rays over the past few years, it’s clear St. Petersburg city officials are now reconciled to the fact that the Trop isn’t the long-term home of the Rays. On the plus side, the Trop site is a pretty good one, a location that could serve as the gateway to downtown St. Trop while serving as an above-average development site, given the location and freeway access. And, after the Rays search for a new-ballpark site in the region, they could easily determine the current Trop site would be the best (and more affordable) site for a new ballpark.

So some planning is in order. St. Petersburg issued a request for qualifications for master planning services for the Trop site, specifying that there were two potential paths a master plan could take: one with a new ballpark and one without. At 86 acres, the site is large enough to generate some interesting development possibilities, even if 10+ acres is devoted to a new ballpark.

Here are the groups responding to the RFQ:

  • HR&A Advisors, New York
  • CallisonRTKL, Los Angeles
  • Gensler, Tampa
  • RM Plus Design & Development, Orlando
  • MEIS Architects, New York
  • Community Solutions Group, New York
  • Stantec Consulting Services Inc., Tampa
  • Renker Eich Parks Architects Inc., St. Petersburg
  • Littlejohn Engineering Associates Inc., Orlando
  • Madison Marquette and RGA Planning & Design LLC and EDSA Planning, Tampa
  • Kevin Sloan Studio LLC and WDG Architecture Dallas PLLC, Dallas
  • TY Lin International, Temple Terrace
  • Torti Gallas and Partners Inc., Silver Spring, Maryland
  • HKS Architects, Tampa
  • Raymond Clark, Bradenton

RELATED STORIES: Tampa Bay Rays: We want urban ballpark; Talking new Rays ballpark: roof, tech and more; Tampa mayor pitches downtown Rays ballpark; St. Pete to allow Rays to search in region for new ballpark site; St. Pete: Rays could leave by 2020 for $33 million; Sternberg: Rays still believe in Tampa Bay; Sternberg: Rays ballpark search will proceed; Rays, St. Pete continue ballpark relocation talks; Most county-board candidates indicate support for new Rays ballpark in Tampa; Time running out on key Rays funding component; New year, new day for new Rays ballpark?; Foster: MLB looking for reason to flee Tampa Bay; Residents: Let Rays buy out Trop lease, move to Tampa; Selig: No updates on Rays ballpark situation; Rays: We won’t buy out Trop lease on St. Pete’s terms; St. Pete mayor: Talks with Rays going poorly; Poll: little support for public funding of new Rays ballpark

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