This past January, St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch chose the Tampa Bay Rays and their development partner, Hines, to redevelop the 86 acre site that includes Tropicana Field. Their redevelopment plan called for mixed used development phased over a number of years, with a new baseball stadium anchoring the project.
With the Rays use agreement on Tropicana Field expiring at the end of the 2027 season, one would expect there to be some urgency about getting new stadium planning and design phases underway.
A lot needs to happen before anyone turns dirt. Architectural and engineering plans, infrastructure planning and design in coordination with public agencies, and perhaps most contentious, agreements between the public and private partners about how the real estate development will be carried out, and what (if any) public funding will support the project all need to be in place.