The Tampa Bay Rays may finally get a new ballpark after a city council vote on a major redevelopment project that also guarantees the team will stay where it is for at least 30 years.
The ballpark is part of a broader $6.5 billion project that supporters say would transform an 86-acre tract in the city\'s downtown.
The project also calls for a Black history museum, affordable housing, a hotel, green space, entertainment venues, and office and retail space. There\'s the promise of thousands of jobs as well.
The site, where Tropicana Field and its expansive parking lots now sit, was once a thriving Black community displaced by construction of the ballpark and an interstate highway. A priority for St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch is to right some of those past wrongs in what is known as the Historic Gas Plant District.
\"This is a day that has been more than 40 years in the making,\" said Welch, the city\'s first Black mayor with family ties to the old neighborhood. \"It is a major win for our city.\"
The St. Petersburg City Council voted 5-3 for the plan, which also must be approved by the Pinellas County Commission. A county vote is set for later this month.
Via Associated Press