The Tampa Bay Rays are set to select a construction manager for their proposed stadium on Monday, as Hillsborough College president Ken Atwater says the definitive agreements for the project are expected to appear before local elected officials within days.
The Rays will hold a public meeting at 10 a.m. Monday at the college’s Dale Mabry campus — the projected site of the $2.3 billion ballpark — to review and tabulate scores from firms that responded to the team's request for qualifications, and then make a final selection.
The Rays opened the search for a construction manager that could “mobilize immediately" in July. The procurement is for the ballpark itself, not the larger mixed-use development planned on the surrounding 122-acre district on North Dale Mabry Highway. The company will oversee the “construction, commissioning and close-out of the project.”
The contractor selection comes as the Rays, the city of Tampa, Hillsborough County and Hillsborough College approach a critical point in negotiations over the public financing of the project.
In a message Friday to the college community, Atwater said the definitive documents for the “Forever Home” ballpark project will go before the Tampa City Council and Hillsborough County Commission in the coming days for review.
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“This vote will determine whether we seize an unprecedented opportunity, or let it pass,” Atwater said in the statement. “This has to happen: for our students and future leaders, for the College and for Tampa Bay.”
No item related to the project was on meeting agendas for either panel this week.
Nonetheless, Atwater urged students, faculty, staff, alumni and other supporters to contact decision-makers and “respectfully urge them to support this project.”
Atwater's message goes beyond simply endorsing a new baseball stadium. He described the proposed partnership with the Rays as a chance to put the college at the center of a district combining education, professional sports, entertainment and business.
“Our students deserve a college that doesn't just teach them, but connects them to the future,” Atwater wrote.
The state approved the transfer of state-owned land to the college for the project earlier this year. The college’s Board of Trustees voted in May to approve a 99-year ground lease with the Rays, contingent on local government support and funding.
The Rays have said they envision at least $8 billion in private investment surrounding the ballpark, including residential, hotel, office, retail and entertainment development. The stadium would be the centerpiece of that district.
AI firms interested in college partnerships
Under Atwater’s plan, the campus would become part of that redevelopment rather than remaining in its current configuration.
He said students would gain internships and real-world experience connected to the Rays and other businesses, while a modernized Dale Mabry campus could attract talent and create new career opportunities.
“President Atwater talked to me about how he's building up an AI capability at the Dale Mabry campus, and so I've been talking to tech companies about relocating so that we can build up the tech sector,” Tampa City Council member Bill Carlson said.
Carlson said technology companies are looking for students with those skills, potentially creating a connection between the college's redevelopment and Tampa's efforts to grow its technology sector.
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“There are tremendous synergies that we could build,” Carlson said. “But that's kind of Phase 2 in building it out. My interest has always been: how do we build the economy and how do we build the experience for people, not just buildings?”
Also, that vision could improve the college's chances of securing more financial help from the state. Gov. Ron DeSantis already approved $50 million for college infrastructure in the 2026-27 state budget.
“He's very excited,” Carlson said of Atwater. “They feel confident that they can get the other $100 million from the Legislature, and if they do that, then the experience for Hillsborough College students will be much better than it has been.”
What could change
Carlson told WUSF he hopes the Rays release the final documents in time for the public and local lawmakers to review them and offer even more suggestions before votes are taken.
It is anticipated that some of the framework the city and county approved in May would look different. That nonbinding memorandum of understanding called for roughly $976 million in public contributions and the Rays committing more than $1.2 billion toward the ballpark.
The Hillsborough County Commission approved its portion — $796 million — including $360 million from the Community Investment Tax; $303 million from the Tourist Development Tax; $30 million in federal disaster-recovery reimbursements; and other county funds.
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Tampa's share was originally $180 million, with $80 million from the city's portion of the Community Investment Tax and $100 million in future tax revenue through the Drew Park Community Redevelopment Area. Use of the CRA was never approved by the city council, acting as the CRA board.
That memorandum was never a final agreement. It was explicitly nonbinding, and several pieces still require additional action by local governments.
Carlson, in direct talks with the team, recommended a different approach to the city's contribution that did not involve the use of existing or new property taxes or CIT — funding he said he would oppose, likely killing the entire stadium plan.
In an interview with WUSF, he detailed a multi-pronged alternative that would get his vote and that he said the Rays were amenable to bringing to the negotiating table:
- Creating a community development district (CDD) around the stadium district that would allocate property tax growth from the private development to the city, county and the CDD itself. The percentages distributed to each stream were under discussion.
- An $80 million loan from the city to the Rays that would be repaid from the tax increment from the CDD.
- Taking the city’s share of the CDD split and a portion of the tax increment from the now-thriving Downtown Tampa CRA to seed a citywide infrastructure trust fund. He estimated it would create $1.5 billion to $2 billion over three decades without raising property taxes.
- Redrawing the Drew Park CRA so the stadium district is excluded and extending the CRA for another 30 years.
- Extending the East Tampa CRA for 30 years.
Stadium project at a critical juncture
Carlson acknowledged that some of the details still need to be worked out, but the possibility of restructuring those funding streams is one of the issues that could emerge when the definitive documents are presented.
He said those particulars don’t need to be completed when votes occur, but they must be promised in the definitive documents.
The original MOU itself contemplated that the structure could be adjusted. During the May negotiations, Rays CEO Ken Babby said the community development district option raised by Carlson and fellow council member Lynn Hurtak could be explored.
ALSO READ: Tampa councilman Carlson says financing framework for Rays stadium is evolving
County commission Chair Ken Hagan has said he would not schedule a vote until the city approves its part of the final agreement.
In the meantime, the team is moving on with what it can to get shovels in the ground next month to stay on a construction timeline to open the stadium by the 2029 baseball season. According to the qualifications request, the selected firm must have the building ready for occupation by Dec. 31, 2028, with final completion by March 1, 2029.
Beyond Monday’s announcement of a project contractor, the Rays previously filed an environmental resource permit application for early work on about 33 acres of the site.
That March application with the Southwest Florida Water Management District referenced temporary classroom trailers, demolition of the campus tennis complex and grading to support interim parking as part of a campus relocation.
Also, the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice announced on Friday that it was closing the Hillsborough Regional Juvenile Detention Center at the end of August. The 80-bed facility sits on the north side of the stadium district on West Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
In a statement, the department said the closing was “part of a long-planned effort to transition to a new juvenile detention center and related to the future use of the property on which the current facility is located.”
