What will become of the Gas Plant’s funding source?

St. Petersburg officials extended a special district’s lifespan to help fund a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium and a massive redevelopment project. Those plans have since withered.

Jason Mathis, CEO of the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership, agreed that officials should discuss Intown CRA’s future. He also questioned the urgency of eliminating a funding mechanism that has “served us well for many years” when the Gas Plant’s future remains uncertain.

“It doesn’t look like we’ll need to build a ballpark, but we still have 86 acres of blighted area in the Intown CRA that is a parking lot and, currently, a partially open dome,” Mathis said. “I know it’s sometimes tempting to think all of downtown is Beach Drive, but there are other parts of the Intown CRA that could use a little bit of TLC.”

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