After decades of unmet promises, the city now has another sweeping plan for the Historic Gas Plant District to consider.
A new civic park, a permanent home for The Woodson African American Museum of Florida, and thousands of income-restricted housing units sit at the center of The Burg Bid’s vision for redeveloping Tropicana Field and the surrounding Historic Gas Plant District.
The proposal, selected by St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch as the city’s preferred path forward for the site, lays out an $8.1 billion plan to transform acres of stadium parking and public land into a mixed-use district with housing, hotels, offices, retail, cultural institutions, workforce training, public art and entertainment space.
Led by Blake Investment Partners and Related Group, The Burg Bid calls for purchasing 58 acres of city-owned land for $275 million. The team values the full land package at $405 million when factoring in $130 million in land the city would retain, and proposes a $20 million deposit when a purchase and sale agreement is executed.
But unlike the previous redevelopment deal that would have been built around a new stadium, The Burg Bid proposal would be organized around Samuel Davis Park, a 13-acre central park meant to become a civic and cultural space for the district.
The park would be part of 18.5 acres of public park space on site and would include The Woodson, a planned Museum of Public Art (MOPA), a Discovery Center, event lawns, a playground, a splash pad, café areas, public art and a concert lawn. The proposal also includes plans for a surf wave attraction, recreation deck, multimodal hub, workforce and small-business center, and Resilience Event Center.
The Woodson itself would serve as “an anchor and a civic landmark for the Gas Plant District,” per the plan. The proposal places the museum within Samuel Davis Park along a diagonal pedestrian corridor called the Legacy Link.
“WJArchitects has spent long days and late nights creating an evocative, architecturally jaw dropping permanent home for the Woodson African American Museum of Florida, and in collaboration with Zyscovich, designed a Legacy Link that connects City Hall with the Manhattan Casino and the Deuces District,” CEO Thompson Whitney Blake wrote in the proposal, signed by him and his team.
“Our plan rests on respect for the community that once existed here, informing and educating the future generations.”
The museum would anchor the district at a time when the institution is already entering a new chapter.
The Woodson’s newly renovated museum is set to reopen July 11 as part of its 20th anniversary celebration, coinciding with the opening of a Smithsonian-linked America 250 exhibition. The Woodson was selected as one of only three Florida organizations to present the “Many Voices … One Nation — Our Community” exhibition.
The Burg Bid proposal itself also leans heavily into the history of the former Gas Plant neighborhood, a predominantly Black community that was razed decades ago to make way for Tropicana Field.
The team proposes preserving the original gas tank footprint within Samuel Davis Park, weaving historic references throughout the Legacy Link and creating cultural amenities that tell the story of the community that once stood there.
The team also highlighted nine bridges planned over Booker Creek, a callback to nine bridges that once stood in the Historic Gas Plant area, indicating that they would help restore physical connections across the site and the neighborhood.
The plan also calls for restoring Booker Creek itself, which the proposal describes as “a central natural feature to the Gas Plant neighborhood” before it was reduced “to a drainage ditch” between parking lots and Tropicana Field. A reimagined Pinellas Trail would also integrate with wide pedestrian paths and a community park along the creek.
The proposal also has major plans for housing on and off the site. The Burg Bid calls for 3,600 income-restricted housing units over a 15-year buildout, with 1,800 units planned within the Historic Gas Plant District and another 1,800 on complementary sites elsewhere in St. Petersburg.
The plan also includes homeownership opportunities “at a discount to market value.” Blue Sky Communities, a Florida-based affordable housing developer, is listed as the team’s affordable and workforce housing partner.
Overall, the district would be built in three main phases that are each expected to take about five years. The proposal says early development could begin outside the Tropicana Field footprint, allowing work to start before stadium demolition. The team’s lease with the city ends after the 2028 season.
Phase 1 would establish the district’s cultural and workforce anchors, including the Woodson, the Collaboratorium workforce training and small-business center, the Legacy Link and a multimodal transportation hub.
The Collaboratorium is the proposal’s main workforce and small-business development piece. The Burg Bid describes it as “as St. Petersburg’s Capital Factory: a dedicated, physical hub within the Historic Gas Plant District where entrepreneurs, investors, innovators, workforce partners, and civic leaders converge.”
The proposal envisions partners working through the center such as CareerSource Tampa Bay, the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce, The Greenhouse, the city’s economic development network, Boys & Girls Clubs and Skanska.
Phase 2 would develop a new mixed-income neighborhood, strengthen “physical and cultural integration” with the Warehouse Arts District, The Deuces and Low Line Park, and incorporate planned participation from higher education and healthcare partners.
Phase 3 would complete the district as a “regional destination for culture, education, and large-scale events.” Components include the Resilience Event Center, a Discovery Center Museum and education facility, and the St. Pete Surf Wave attraction.
The 4,000- to 5,000-seat Resilience Event Center would feature up to 100,000 square feet of flexible space envisioned for concerts, touring performances, sporting events, conferences, civic gatherings that could also serve as “a fully generator-powered hurricane evacuation center offering safety and shelter.”
The rest of the district would be filled out with market-rate housing, office space, hotels, retail and entertainment. The Burg Bid describes a need for office space as unmet demand in downtown St. Petersburg. The proposal also calls for micro-office and startup space for local businesses and entrepreneurs.
“Downtown vacancy has fallen below four percent, with limited modern inventory and rapidly rising rents signaling a clear market gap,” the team wrote in the proposal.
Retail would include a mix of local businesses, minority-owned businesses, micro-retail, food and beverage concepts and national brands. The hospitality plan calls for up to 800 hotel rooms distributed across the district.
Transportation is another major component emphasized in the pitch.
The proposal calls for reconnecting the city street grid, intentionally limiting vehicle traffic in the center of the district and prioritizing pedestrian access. It also pitches connections to Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority service, the Bus Rapid Transit system, “and provisions for a future multimodal center capable of integrating light rail directly into the heart of the district.”
The Burg Bid team says it is not seeking public funding outside of Community Redevelopment Area dollars for public infrastructure and Samuel Davis Park. However, several components could still rely on further financing strategies individually, according to the proposal.
Welch formally announced his intent to move forward with The Burg Bid this week, arguing the plan would help the city deliver on decades-old promises tied to the Historic Gas Plant District neighborhood that was razed to give way to construction of Tropicana Field.
He also selected the Pinellas County Housing Authority to develop affordable senior housing on a Third Avenue South parcel, which he said would include specific opportunities for former Gas Plant residents to return home.
But the selection is not final, and it faces potential opposition from the City Council. The city must still negotiate terms with the development team, and any final agreement would need to return to the City Council for approval.
That — along with the fact that Welch announced the decision amid a re-election bid just weeks ahead of the Aug. 18 mayoral election — leaves the proposal open to further scrutiny.
City Council Member Brandi Gabbard, who is challenging Welch, has urged the city to slow down before advancing a deal for what she calls St. Petersburg’s most valuable remaining public asset. She has also questioned whether selling the land outright is the best approach, arguing the city should consider alternatives such as long-term ground leases or a city-led master plan with smaller parcels.