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The Atlanta Braves spring training operations, along with a hotel and office buildings, are part of a development proposal to reclaim the former Toytown landfill.
SportsPark Partners LLC is one of three groups to submit plans to Pinellas County’s Economic Development Office to develop the sprawling 240 acres in the gateway area off of Interstate 275 near Roosevelt Boulevard.
The SportsPark group envisions a $662 million international professional and amateur sports complex that would include the Braves and possibly a second Major League Baseball team for spring training.
The group includes Echelon, the real estate development firm led by Darryl LeClair, who in 2012 proposed building a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays in the Carillon area not far from Toytown. It also includes the Gary Sheffield Sports Foundation, SportsWise Partners, and the Braves.
The SportsPark proposal has athletic facilities including a 10,000-seat baseball stadium, a 15,000-seat indoor arena, a 20,000-seat track and field venue, a swimming pool center and a hockey rink. It also has 210,000 square feet of hotel space, 695,000 square feet of dormitories and apartments, and 164,000 square feet of retail.
News of the baseball complex on Tuesday caused some concerns for St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, who has been in stadium negotiations with The Tampa Bay Rays. The team wants to leave Tropicana Field before its lease with the city expires in 2027.
The St. Petersburg City Council is deadlocked 4-4 on a proposal by Kriseman to let team explore other locations, and the mayor said the SportsPark project likely will seek the same tourist tax money that could help to build a new Rays ballpark.
"So yeah, I have some concerns regarding the impact it could have and the fact that we have had no movement with the council to move the ball forward — to know whether we’re going to need funds for a Rays stadium,” he said.
He said he remains in contact with Rays ownership, and the sides have agreed to halt talks until the baseball season ends.
City Councilman Karl Nurse said the proposal “reinforces the need to get the Rays discussion off dead center.”
“You really don’t want to end up funding a spring training facility for the Atlanta Braves without considering what you’re doing with the Rays and how does this impact them,” he said. “Eventually you sort of close the door to options for the Rays.
County Commission Chairman John Morroni, who also chairs the county’s Tourist Development Council, did not return a telephone call.
Rick Vaughan, the Rays’ vice president of communications, said the team had no comment on the proposal.
The SportsPark submission includes a letter from Braves President John Schuerholz sent to Sheffield in August confirming the team’s interest in the project and in forming a partnership. Schuerholz said the goal is to begin construction of a baseball facility in 2016 and for the team to move its spring training from Kissimmee to the new complex in 2018.
The team has one year remaining on its contract at Disney’s “Wide World of Sports” facility.
Populous, the group’s architect firm, specializes in sports projects, including the design of the Braves’ new Cobb County Stadium and work on other major league ballparks. The project’s spring training complex includes six major league size fields in addition to the 10,000-seat stadium. The complex would have 12 more major league fields and a 3,000-seat stadium, two youth baseball fields, 20 multi-sports field and 18 volleyball courts.
Sheffield, a former major league player from Tampa and St. Petersburg, plans to use the facility for his charitable sports organization that reaches out to low-income children. Sheffield previously had proposed building a $34 million baseball complex in Pasco County. But county commissioners terminated that contract in December as Sheffield and his partner, James Talton, could not raise the money.
SportsPark anticipates the project will generate $800 million in annual revenue and create 3,361 permanent jobs.
Other bidders for the Toytown property are developer Charles Puccini and Meridian Realty Capital.
Puccini, proposes to build a 135-acre, energy-producing solar complex called SunRay Park. The $300 million project includes a movie theater that produces and stores its own electricity, a hotel, 225 rental homes, office buildings and retail space, all of which would be tied to the solar power panels.
It expects to create more than 1,000 jobs, in addition to the temporary construction jobs to build it.
Meridian, from Cincinnati, proposes a town center concept that includes commercial property, up to 1,500 residences, park space. retail/restaurant space, and a sportplex with baseball fields, tennis courts and a skate park. It will pay the county $1 million, will assume costs of preparing the old landfill for development and expects to create 21,000 jobs.
The proposals are being reviewed by a five-member committee that will report to the Pinellas County Commission.
Pinellas officials decided to seek proposals for the former landfill in the spring to gauge potential interest even though the site has about 25 years of buried trash that could complicate development and require some mitigation or trash removal. The landfill closed in the mid-1980s and the county spends about $750,000 a year on maintenance.
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