A major redevelopment of Tropicana Field and the area around it in St. Petersburg is moving to a vote on Thursday after council members agreed on final details during a Tuesday workshop.
Most of the suggestions put forth by city council members on tweaking the deal appear to have been met.
The revised plan now calls for a supermarket, council approval of any reduction in the number of affordable apartments to be built and having set dates for development milestones that would have to be met.
Council member Gina Driscoll thanked everyone involved for getting to this point.
"We gave a lot of suggestions, we made a lot of changes and there are some things that we were very clear that needed to be improved," Driscoll said during a Tuesday workshop. "And to get this, this new copy to see almost everything that we asked for was changed. And throughout this entire process,
"I have felt heard, but to see all of it coming together in this draft was really meaningful. And I think that everyone on City Council as well should be very proud of the work that we've done to get this, these agreements to this point."
Councilman Richie Floyd said he was still opposed to the amount of subsidy city taxpayers will give toward the stadium.
"It has been my main point of contention in this whole conversation. It still represents one of the largest stadium subsidies in MLB (Major League Baseball) history and that's where the core of like my frustration comes from and my concern."
But officials with the Rays/Hines Partnership ticked of a list of other baseball stadiums built recently, and said the roughly 50-50 split between the city/county and the team for the stadium construction is in line with other cities.
St. Petersburg would contribute $312.5 million, Pinellas County would contribute $287.5 million — primarily from bed taxes levied on hotel and motel stays — and the Rays would pay for the remainder, at least $700 million.
If the deal is approved Thursday, the city would hold public hearings on financing their part of the $6.5 billion project. They would be asked to approve $291.5 million in bonds to finance the stadium and $140 million in bonds for infrastructure, such as roads, water, and utility construction.
Mayor Ken Welch expressed his satisfaction at the final outlines of the deal, which have been negotiated for the past two years.
"So I'm really excited about the vision we've developed together now and looking forward to our conversation in a couple of days," Welch said the the end of Tuesday's meeting.
