If you’ve been to St. Petersburg, there’s a good chance you’ve visited one of the waterfront museums or taken in the action at the annual IndyCar race.
City officials are looking to build on that with a $289 million plan to boost the area's arts scene.
The Economic and Workforce Development Committee presented the city council on Thursday with a two-phased plan to build a Center for the Arts on the downtown waterfront. It would involve a major expansion to the Dali museum, a green promenade area reaching to Tampa Bay and a new professional music venue.
But it could come at the expense of Al Lang Stadium.
John Curran, a consultant with design firm ASD | Sky, told city council members that the project would generate $445 million over its first 13 years.
Phase 2 of the plan would include the destruction of Al Lang Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Rowdies soccer team. Curran said the 10,000-seat amphitheater that would replace the stadium could be used for “any community activity, including the opportunity for outdoor music.”
Multiple council members were excited at the prospect of having a professional music venue, which Curran said would host 40 to 50 events annually.
“We also saw, potentially, an opportunity to tie The Florida Orchestra into that,” Curran said.
While council Chair Copley Gerdes thought the plan was “gorgeous,” he wasn’t sure about tearing down the stadium, a longtime spring training baseball stadium before it was converted to a soccer venue.
"I'm struggling with totally removing Al Lang Stadium, which is 80 years old, with a massive amount of history,” he said. “Especially when we're contemplating the future of the Historic Gas Plant (District)."
When the Tampa Bay Rays walked away from a deal to build a $1.3 billion stadium, it left the city without a partner for the $6.5 billion Historic Gas Plant District redevelopment.
Gerdes said it was important for council members to balance the costs of the arts center with their promises to the Gas Plant project, which was also supposed to feature a new concert-entertainment venue.
Curran also proposed an alternative plan to keep and renovate Al Lang Stadium, which could be used as an entertainment venue while keeping the Rowdies.
The Rowdies are owned by the Rays.
Phase 1 of the Center for the Arts proposal has a $161.7 million price tag and focuses on Curran’s question: “Once you remove the (Mahaffey Theater) garage and build a new one, what could this area be?”
Set to be complete over five years, Phase 1 would feature:
- A new garage in place of the theater’s current one. It would accommodate 1,100 parking spaces and 20,000 square feet of ground-level retail space.
- A new 60,000-square-foot conference center.
- An up-to-50,000-square-foot expansion of the Dali museum, which is expected to double its economic impact in the decade after completion.
Phase 2 would run from 2028 to 2038 and cost approximately $127.5 million It would include:
- An additional 400 parking spaces on top of the 1,100 in the new garage, with additional surface parking.
- Demolition of Al Lang Stadium.
- A new multiuse amphitheater with 3,000 to 4000 covered seats and 6,000 lawn seats.
Council member Corey Givens Jr. appreciated the amount of green space included in the plan but asked for local artists to be highlighted through things like temporary exhibitions in the promenade area.
The green walkway could also serve as extra paddock space for the IndyCar race, providing the potential to add more racing teams to the event.
Keeping the road course intact and taking the event's needs into consideration was one of Curran’s priorities, but he said he wanted to do so with “little to no trouble” to other stakeholders.
The plan is in its preliminary stages and is set to be reworked with city council feedback. Eventually, the city will also ask for community input.
