Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays and the city of St. Petersburg, Fla., are joining in apublic-private partnership to build a $1.3-billion ballpark, surrounded by a mini-city, with 8 million sq ft of mixed-use development. The undertaking, in the works for 16 years and announced Sept. 19, is expected to anchor a total of more than $6.5 billion in construction at the 86-acre site, over 20 years.
Hines Historic Gas Plant Partnership, led by Houston-based developer Hines, will spearhead the project. The goal is to revitalize St. Petersburg’s historic Gas Plant District, an African American neighborhood that suffered displacement when the city constructed Tropicana Field in the late 1980s. Plans call for residential, office, meeting, hotel and retail space, a museum and civic and open space.
