The city of St. Petersburg is about to get a brand new baseball stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays, along with a major redevelopment project of the surrounding community. This project will transform the adjacent 86-acre Historic Gas Plant District into a vibrant mixed-use community with new housing, office, retail, and entertainment spaces.
The existing Tropicana Field stadium (more commonly known as the “Trop”) was originally named the Florida Suncoast Dome and was first opened to the public in March 1990. Then in 1996, changes were made to the stadium, and its naming rights were sold to Tropicana Products, famously known for their orange juice, who later renamed it Tropicana Field. The 42,375-seat venue has been the Tampa Bay Rays home for over thirty years but has also hosted Tampa Bay Lightning hockey games, the 1999 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, and many other major sporting and entertainment events.
The development of the current stadium occurred in a historically African-American community known as the Gas Plant District. City leaders paid many existing residents to leave their homes to make way for the stadium. They promised residents of the neighborhood new affordable housing and jobs that the new stadium would generate. However, affordable housing and jobs never came, causing many remaining residents to leave and lose faith in the city’s political leadership.
With the Tampa Bay Rays’ lease for Tropicana field expiring in 2027, St. Pete’s leaders were concerned that they might lose the Rays to another city that could deliver a new, state-of-the-art stadium. Many in the region were hopeful that the Rays would land at Daryl Shaw’s Port Ybor site in Tampa’s Channel District, giving Rays’ fans an authentic waterfront ballpark experience near the bustling Water Street and Wharf area. But the leaders were not willing to let the Rays go. On September 9, 2023, the Rays owner, Stuart Sternberg, announced that the city of St. Petersburg had formed a partnership with Hines, a national real estate development firm, to develop a new 30,000-seat $1.3 Billion stadium to replace the old Tropicana Feild and redevelop the adjacent 86-acre Historic Gas Plant District at an estimated cost of $6.5 Billion. This will be the largest redevelopment project in the Tampa Bay region’s history. The project will span twenty blocks and provide apartment buildings, office spaces, retail spaces, hotels, entertainment venues, and multipurpose outdoor spaces.
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Not only will the development project bring the Tampa Bay Rays an incredible new stadium, but the project will also increase the number of affordable housing units being built in the Historic Gas Plant community, bringing economic and social benefits to the families living there. The development agreement focuses on restoring and delivering community and economic benefits, specifically to honor the legacy of the Historic Gas Plant residents and businesses. Many in the Tampa Bay Region are thrilled about the economic growth this project will bring to the community and how it will leave an everlasting impact on the history of sports in Tampa Bay.
A win for St. Pete is a win for all of Tampa Bay! I’m thrilled to see @RaysBaseball stay in our region – for economic success, for sports history in the making, and for the future generations of Tampanians who will get to enjoy the great game of baseball with our home team.
— Jane Castor (@JaneCastor) September 19, 2023
