After initially not pushing a new Tampa Bay Rays ballpark in a new St. Petersburg development, Ellison Development now says it would love to see such a facility in the Historic Gas Plant District development.
The emphasis on wooing the Rays was made clear at a St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership meeting last week, where Dave Bevirt, chief operating officer for Ellison Development, told attendees that his firm had met with Rays officials about a new ballpark in the Historic Gas Plant District redevelopment. Tropicana Field is located on the western end of the Historic Gas Plant District district, and like the Rays’ previous redevelopment plan for the area, Ellison Development foresees building a new ballpark to the east of the Trop. But the previous Rays/Hines redevelopment plan never came to fruition, and Stu Sternberg ended up selling the team to a group led by Patrick Zalupski. In a press conference introducing the group to the public, it was pretty clear that they would consider any viable ballpark site across all of Tampa Bay–though insiders make it clear a Tampa location would be preferred. (We reviewed sites here.) That inclusion of the entire region is leading to optimism from Ellison Development. From St. Pete Catalyst:
“We’ve heard a lot about Hillsborough (County), about moving to Tampa,” Bevirt said. “But we’ve also heard about them staying. That’s why we put in the proposal the option for the Rays to stay, which we hope they will.”…
“We’re not saying the Rays are not coming,” Bevirt said. “We’re just saying if they can stay, we’ve got a plan for it, which is really important. And we do.”
More interesting, perhaps, is the emphasis Ellison Development is placing on new and disruptive technology for the development, complete with a “deconstructed convention center,” concert hall and amphitheater. A later part of the development would include the creation of a 750,000-square-foot academic cluster served by eVTOLS (electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles). The details are or petty interesting; check them out in St. Pete Catalyst.
There is one other potential angle for Ellison Development. While the talk is centered on the Rays, there’s another Tampa Bay pro team seeking a new home: the Tampa Bay Rowdies, also owned by the new Rays owners. The USL Championship team will need to find a new home once St. Pete moves forward on plans to shut down Al Lang Stadium. Right now 12,000-15,000-seat stadiums seem to hit the sweet spot when it comes to new USL Championship facilities (see Detroit and Sacramento for examples), and given what Ellison Development wants to accomplish in the Historic Gas Plant District’s redevelopment, a soccer facility with the potential for larger events may be a better–and safer–fit than a more speculative pursuit of an MLB team that has expressed zero interest in staying in St. Pete.
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