The Tampa City Council and Hillsborough County Commission are expected to vote on a final financing agreement for a proposed Tampa Bay Rays stadium next week.
A draft version of the definitive documents is expected to be publicly released Thursday, City Councilman Bill Carlson told WUSF late Wednesday.
Votes and discussions would then likely be added to agendas for the city council and Tampa Community Redevelopment Agency meetings scheduled on Aug. 27. If passed by the city council, the county commission will vote on the documents by the following morning.
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The agreement is expected to contain elements recently proposed by Carlson that would not involve the use of the city's portion of the Community Investment Tax or property taxes.
Carlson, considered the swing vote on the council for the plan, has said he would vote no if his ideas were not included, although he has told WUSF that some of the proposals may not be formally adopted until after next week’s votes.
“We would vote on what's referred to as definitive documents, which there'll be five or six,” City Council Chair Alan Clendenin told Florida Politics. “It'll be everything from the finance agreement to the non-relocation agreement to community benefits agreement. There are a number of them, but there still would be a couple of votes that have to take place after that because of some of the tweaks and changes that we're making.
Carlson, who said he has yet to see the draft, has spent the past two weeks publicizing his proposals while seeking more feedback from constituents.
“What I've been doing is pushing the county and the Rays to get the draft document out as soon as possible,” Carlson told podcaster JP Peterson on Wednesday morning. “Then we'll take a few days of input, and then there'll be a final document that'll be edited after that. ... We’ve got to make sure that it includes all the things that we asked for.”
Carlson negotiated the changes during face-to-face discussions with Rays CEO Ken Babby. Last week, Carlson told WUSF the Rays were amenable to his ideas, which replaced the CIT and CRA proposals in a nonbinding memorandum of understanding that was approved by a 4-3 council vote on May 23.
The $2.3 billion ballpark would go up on land now used by Hillsborough College’s Dale Mabry campus in the Drew Park neighborhood. The Rays have committed more than $1.2 billion to stadium construction, with the two local governments asked to contribute nearly $1 billion — most of that from the county.
In addition, the Rays plan to spend at least $8 billion to build a multi-use development surrounding the stadium. It would include a modernized Hillsborough College campus and space for businesses, residences, retail, recreation and a major hotel.
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The nonbinding MOU for the stadium financing was negotiated without direct input from the city council. It committed $80 million from the CIT, a half-cent sales tax, and $100 million in property tax growth from the Drew Park Community Redevelopment Area — funds earmarked for reinvestment inside the blighted neighborhood.
That proposal is no longer on the table.
Once the Rays brought council members into the discussions in July, Carlson floated the creation of a tax-increment financing district around the stadium and surrounding development. Tax-increment revenue from that 120-plus acres would be divided among a community development district that would invest in publicly owned projects within the boundary, and the city and county.
The team would not receive any of the CDD funds.
“The county has been going back and forth with (the Rays) editing the document. I know the city attorneys have looked at it, too,” Carlson told Peterson. “I also asked them to separate the city from the county because they're really two separate deals. The city's contract mostly is with the county, not with the Rays. The county's deal is with the Rays.”
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In addition to the TIF proposal, Carlson has pitched:
- An $80 million loan from the city to the Rays that would be repaid out of the CDD’s tax-increment revenue.
- The city’s share of the CDD revenue and a portion of the tax increment from the now-thriving Downtown CRA would seed a citywide trust fund to begin about $2 billion in deferred infrastructure projects.
- The CRAs for Drew Park and East Tampa, slated to sunset in 2034, would be extended for another 30 years.
Carlson said, “I think I would have no choice at that point,” but to vote for approval if all of his proposals are included.
Both the city council and CRA board, made up of the council members, need to vote on their respective parts of the deal.
Carlson told WUSF late Wednesday that he "plans to bring up the CRAs" during Thursday morning's CRA board meeting.
Clendenin said the Downtown CRA change would be considered a “separate issue” from the definitive documents.
“There would have to be a CDD vote. There would have to be votes to amend the CRAs, and those things take time. It would probably take another two months,” Clendenin told Florida Politics.
Carlson has said the county may include a financial incentive to ensure the Rays build out the surrounding development. The TIF would capture tax revenue generated by growth above the district’s base-year value over 35 years, with the money dedicated to public infrastructure.
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The MOU, approved May 20 by the 5-2 county commission vote, detailed nearly $800 million from Hillsborough, cobbled from the Community Investment Tax, tourist taxes, federal disaster-recovery infrastructure reimbursements and other general funds. Carlson has said that may change somewhat in the final documents.
“Our staff is doing everything possible to bring this in for a landing. I can tell you, we are extremely close. Our goal is to try and schedule the necessary meetings for next week,” County Commission Chair Ken Hagan told WDAE radio on Tuesday.
“I was told (Monday), one of the many calls I had with Ken Babby, that (the Rays) had come to an agreement or an understanding with the city, and so they are prepared. City council is prepared to schedule their meeting.”
Hagan said the commission will not schedule a vote until the city approves its part of the agreement.
The Rays have hired AECOM Hunt and Turner as the stadium construction manager and developed an aggressive timeline to open the stadium by March 2029. To meet that schedule, work must begin by next month, the team said.
The Rays' lease at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg ends after the 2028 season.
