Hines, Tampa Bay Rays Planning Baseball Stadium Development With Senior Living Included

Global real estate company Hines and the Tampa Bay Rays are moving forward with plans for a professional baseball stadium development project with hundreds of senior living units included in the plans. 

The project in Saint Petersburg, Florida, was initially announced last year as part of three competing development proposals.

Plans by Hines call for a master-planned project with 600 senior living units, along with “on-site affordable units for seniors.” This follows Hines offering a proposal to the City of Saint Petersburg late last year, which was ultimately selected for further development. 

The wider project will redevelop an 86-acre site where the current Tampa Bay Rays stadium exists. The new area is slated to include eight million square-feet of mixed-use development and the creation of a “neighborhood ballpark,” representing a $6.5 billion investment over two decades. 

Hines

The plan also calls for the construction of 1,200 “affordable/workforce housing units,” with half of the amount to be built at the Historic Gas Plant project site. As the project progresses, the agreement calls for a $50 million commitment to “intentional equity initiatives” tied to affordable housing, educational programming, employment initiatives and minority-or-women-owned business hiring protocols.

“Our goal is to create St. Petersburg’s next great place to live, work, and play for all of St. Petersburg, while also generating one of the most exciting mixed-use placemaking destinations in the world,” Senior Managing Director of Hines Michael Harrison said in a press release. “We consider it a privilege to partner with the Rays, the city, and the community to make this vision a reality.”

Other project amenities include: 4,800 residential units, 1,200 affordable / workforce housing units, 600 senior living units, 1.4 million square feet of office, medical and commercial space, 750,000 square feet of retail space, 750 hotel rooms, 100,000 square foot entertainment space, 50,000 square feet of civic space, 90,000 to 100,000 square-feet of conference space, 14 acres of public open space and 14,000 parking spaces.

Construction is slated to start in late 2024 and proceed in two phases, with the Rays playing in the existing ballpark until the end of its current lease in 2027. Phase one of the development is planned to be ready in the spring of 2028, Hines notes. The municipal approval process for the project by city and Pinellas County officials is expected to continue this fall, Hines said.

The latest push into senior living continues a long line of Hines-involved senior living projects, after the global real estate developer announced plans for a $1 billion “flagship” fund targeting senior housing, as previously reported by SHN.

The developer brought to fruition The Watermark at Houston Heights, Watermark Retirement Communitiy’s luxury Elan Collection brand, and The Apsley, a highrise New York City Community operated by Sunrise Senior Living.

Representatives for Hines could not immediately be reached for comment as of Monday afternoon.