Tampa, Hillsborough await Rays’ stadium pitch

The town of St. Petersburg is within the batter’s field in probably deciding the Tampa Bay Rays’ future stadium plans, however the metropolis of Tampa and Hillsborough County are taking follow swings within the on-deck circle.

Two days earlier than Thanksgiving, Tampa Bay Rays President Matt Silverman and others from the staff met through videoconference with Tampa Sports activities Authority CEO Eric Hart, Hillsborough County Administrator Bonnie Clever, Tampa Mayor Jan Castor’s chief of employees John Bennett and different metropolis, county and authority representatives for a briefing on a proposed baseball stadium north of the Ybor Channel.

The assembly got here the identical day Darryl Shaw’s Banana Docks LLC closed on the $1.2 million buy of two parcels supposed to develop into a part of the venture. The land, previously owned by the J.H. Williams Oil Firm, is a quadrilateral-shaped lot at 1616 Penny St. and the adjoining property at 1705 E Adamo Drive on the fringe of the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway.

Shaw had previously announced plans to accumulate and develop the adjoining 25-acre ship restore web site on the north finish of Port Tampa Bay — land the Rays had focused as a stadium location in 2016.

Renderings of the Rays’ new stadium plan, proven to metropolis and county officers throughout the Nov. 22 briefing, had been launched to the Tampa Bay Enterprise Journal after metropolis of Tampa Mobility Director Vic Bhide grabbed a screenshot of the photographs. It was the primary public affirmation of the Rays’ continued curiosity in probably shifting the staff to Tampa after two earlier failed makes an attempt.

The town of Tampa has not but supplied information aware of a Tampa Bay Instances request Tuesday for all notes and different paperwork that Bhide might have produced. Usually, in extremely delicate stadium talks, members don’t take notes to keep away from making a public report. Nevertheless, Bhide took the display screen pictures “for note-taking functions,” stated Adam Smith, a Castor spokesperson.

Tampa Sports activities Authority and county and metropolis employees, together with Commissioner Ken Hagan and Mayor Jane Castor, had been scheduled to talk by cellphone Tuesday afternoon.

The publicity got here because the Rays concurrently search a deal in St. Petersburg for a brand new stadium as a part of redeveloping the Tropicana Area web site because the Historic Gasoline Plant District. In essence, the staff proposed marriage to St. Petersburg whereas nonetheless flirting with one other suitor throughout the Bay.

The Tampa Bay Rays didn’t reply to requests for remark.

“We perceive the Rays are different choices simply as town considers all its choices associated to the redevelopment of the Historic Gasoline Plant District,” Mayor Ken Welch stated in an announcement.

“We clearly need them in Tampa and St. Pete clearly desires them in St. Pete,” stated Castor.

The Nov. 22 stadium replace additionally got here simply two weeks after Hillsborough County voters rejected a gross sales tax referendum to pay for transportation. It places the county authorities able of attempting to help with what might be a near-billion-dollar baseball stadium after acknowledging a 10-year, $2.2 billion shortfall of its personal to construct and preserve roads, intersections, sidewalks and trails.

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“The transportation wants on this county actually are nice and the infrastructure wants for a stadium are nice as nicely. So, it’s all the time been a troublesome bundle,” stated Clever.

Commissioner Michael Owen, who represents japanese and southern Hillsborough, was extra blunt.

“It’s only a actual powerful factor to promote a dedication for a baseball stadium proper now,” stated Owen. “I don’t know the way excited my constituents are to fund a baseball stadium the place we’re at proper now.”

Hagan, who sits on the Sports activities Authority board and has been a number one proponent of attempting to deliver the Rays to Tampa, was extra optimistic.

“Backside line is the satan is within the particulars,” stated Hagan. “My aim has all the time been for the ballpark to be primarily financed with person charges, not tax {dollars}.”

A study commissioned by the Tampa Sports Authority on one other Shaw-owned web site in Ybor Metropolis recommended paying for the general public portion of the stadium prices by means of a possible levy or evaluation inside a brand new ballpark district that may take within the stadium web site and areas past it. That research, launched in February, additionally calculated a further $14 million a yr in property taxes from almost 6 million sq. ft of “ancillary growth” in Ybor Metropolis.

The research projected the associated fee for a stadium with a roof, able to holding 27,000 followers, at as much as $960 million. That stadium proposal, a part of the Rays’ plan to play a break up season with Montreal, died after Main League Baseball killed the shared season idea on Jan. 20.

However that didn’t finish the prospects of a stadium in Tampa. Lower than two weeks later, in line with authority information, the Sports activities Authority’s consulting lawyer, Irwin P. Raij, was on the cellphone with the Rays, Hart and Skanska — a marketing consultant on the stadium proposal. By April, Raij was speaking to Shaw in addition to metropolis and county officers.

The tempo of these talks and the Rays’ due diligence picked up after Aug. 31 when Shaw made public his deliberate acquisition of the land at Ybor Channel. By way of a spokesperson, Shaw declined to remark for this story.

However the Sports activities Authority, metropolis and county probably aren’t in a rush to plan a financing bundle whereas the redevelopment proposals are in play in St. Petersburg. The methodical tempo diminishes the alternatives for the staff to leverage one metropolis’s proposal in opposition to the opposite’s.

Hagan and Clever stated the Rays have but to make a particular proposal. Clever characterised the conversations as preliminary and stated the county should “perceive the wants of the staff and their plans earlier than you may actually suggest something significant. That’s what we had been attempting to do, is perceive what they’re proposing to us and requesting from us.”

Castor, in an announcement, acknowledged, “There are nonetheless vital questions that must be answered when it comes to financing, infrastructure, and extra.”

So, what’s the subsequent step?

“That’s most likely a greater query for them (the Rays),” stated Clever.

Instances employees author Christopher O’Donnell contributed to this report.