The bid to redevelop St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field site sounded promising: Hundreds of residences and hotel rooms, park space along Booker Creek, and hundreds of thousands of feet of office and retail space.
The Rays were out to build a new stadium, and the development firm they’d partnered with on the Trop site was a Houston company called Hines. Everyone knew the Rays-Hines pitch was coming, and some thought the city’s choice was a foregone conclusion.
Except it wasn’t. The mayor and City Council went with another bid, one that promised more homes, more hotels and more jobs. Hines was out of the Tropicana Field redevelopment business.
That was 2008.
Now Hines is back, working alongside the Rays to lead a monumental 20-year, $6.5 billion plan for a stadium and mixed-use development on the Trop site. The plan is moving forward with support from city and county leaders, putting Hines at the forefront of the biggest redevelopment deal in Pinellas County history.