Tropicana Field deal didn't pay off for all

Group seeks benefits never realized for a razed neighborhood.

By NICOLE HUTCHESON, Times Staff Writer
Published November 28, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG -- Mollette "Michelle" Davis remembers getting her hair curled as a child at Redvict's Beauty Parlor on Fourth Avenue S. Down the street, she would hold funerals for grasshoppers. When she was 13, she found the Lord at First Baptist Institutional Church.

Those memories were long ago paved over for the Tropicana Field parking lot.

Davis, 55, was among scores of residents moved out of their homes in the Gas Plant area, an aging, predominantly black neighborhood near downtown St. Petersburg, to make way for Tropicana Field. City officials said the stadium would revitalize the area, attracting businesses and jobs.

It never quite happened.

Today, as the Tampa Bay Rays unveil their plans to leave the dome and build a new waterfront stadium, some are demanding that the black community get a piece of the pie this time.

"The hollow promises were never made true," said Darryl Rouson, a lawyer in St. Petersburg. "We want to be significantly included and remembered this time."

* * *

While city leaders agree that the stadium didn't produce the projected economic benefits, they say Gas Plant residents fared well in the deal.

"That was a slum area," said David Welch, a former City Council member. "They had the jail on one side, the gas plant on the other. Those places were undesirable."

But Rouson says the city and team should still be held accountable for promises made. He is representing five black ministers whose churches were at one time in or near the Gas Plant district.

As the Rays and the city move forward with a new plan, the group has asked for:

• A designated fund to help redevelop disadvantaged neighborhoods.
• Business ownership opportunities for minorities, including those inside the new stadium.
• A priority on awarding contracts to minority developers for the Tropicana site.

"We're not enemies or opponents of the new dome, we want all the quality of life economic benefits that it will bring," Rouson said. "But since the stuff never happened with the old one, include us with the stuff that happens on the new one."

At least one elected official is siding with Rouson.

"The jobs haven't come," said Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch, who is David Welch's son. "This new project has the potential to fulfill that challenge. There needs to be some giveback to this community."

The Rays' plans, first reported on the St. Petersburg Times' Web site, tampabay.com, include building a 35,000-seat stadium at Al Lang Field and developing Tropicana Field into a retail hub.

They say the projects will create 2,500 permanent jobs and 14,000 temporary construction-related jobs.

Ultimately, voters will decide. The team must get voter approval on a referendum to build at the public waterfront.

* * *

Through the late 1970s, the Gas Plant area had been targeted for redevelopment.

While there was an affluent set of black professionals that called Gas Plant home, much of the area -- generally between First Avenue S and Interstate 375 and Ninth and 16th streets -- was considered dilapidated.

The city wanted to increase industrial zoning there to provide more jobs. Affordable housing also was sought to replace blighted dwellings.

Those plans were halted in the early 1980s when baseball became the city's new priority and officials targeted the area as a site for a new stadium.

"What we were trying to do was accomplish a few things," said David Welch, who also served on the Pinellas County Sport Authority at that time. "We had been trying to get baseball in St. Pete over a number of years, and that area needed to be upgraded."

The city estimated the new stadium would pump $22-million into the area each year and create 400 full-time jobs.

The City Council agreed to build the stadium in 1982.

Residents were offered market value for their homes, though some negotiated better deals.

"In all it was a plus," said David Welch, the only black council member at the time. "But the projection of new businesses was a failure."

Clarence Welch, pastor of Prayer Tower Church of God in Christ and David Welch's brother, said it was a tumultuous time.

"The city had the power to let you stay or make you go," Welch said. "But they were very fair after I told them what I would have to have."

His church, then called the 14th Street Church of God and Christ, received $250,000 for its property, he said.

But other residents didn't fare quite as well.

"That area was a low economic area," said Clarence Welch, 76. "A lot of those people did not have the expertise of negotiating."

"If you had a house that was valued at $20,000 and you take that money, you aren't going to be able to find another house for that amount," Welch said. "Now you're in debt. I tried to help, but some had already negotiated their contracts."

Some say the biggest loss wasn't bricks and mortar. It was the cohesiveness.

"They also had a sense of community that was decimated both by the highway going through and the development of Tropicana," said Carol Steele, an administrator at a research institution whose thesis "The Effect of Baseball's Arrival on an African American Community"looked at the economic and social ramifications of the stadium.

"There were people within the black community as this was going along that wanted to be assured that this was going to be good for the black community, and I think it was a tortured experience."

To be clear, stadium disappointment extended beyond Gas Plant residents.

"The development impact around the Dome has not had as great an impact as people expected, but that's in large part because the team hasn't been as competitive as we'd hope for," said Rick Mussett, city administrator in charge of economic development.

Many hope the second time around proves more beneficial.

"It is a tragedy up until this time," Steele said. "I'm cautiously optimistic in the new ownership ... and that we really can have a different outcome."

Times researcher Mary Mellstrom contributed to this report, which also includes information from Times archives. Nicole Hutcheson can be reached at nhutcheson@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8828.

The unveiling
The Rays will unveil the ballpark plans at 2:15 p.m. today. Watch it live on Bright House Ch. 47, and see renderings and details for the stadium and the Tropicana Field site at tampabay.com.

[Last modified November 28, 2007, 06:55:02]