Real Estate Blog

The question of whether a new waterfront baseball stadium for the Rays could threaten the viability of the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was answered Sunday morning. It doesn't.

Andretti Green Promotions, which stages the downtown street race, and the city of St. Petersburg announced a four-year extension of their existing agreement that will bring it back through 2013.

The contract must be approved by city council, but five of the eight members appeared with Mayor Rick Baker at Sunday's announcement and voiced support.

In addition, AGP also announced tentative agreements for multi-year extensions with the Indy Racing League, American Le Mans Series and sponsor Honda Motor Company.

"To say we're coming here through 2013, it really speaks to the stability of racing here in St. Petersburg," Kevin Savoree, managing director of AGP, said. "That's something that a lot of people have talked about, so we don't need any more those kinds of stories. We're here to stay."

AGP could face challenges if the Rays are able to build a proposed 34,000-seat, $450 million stadium on the site of Al Lang Field. Bayshore Drive, a prominent feature of the 1.8-mile street course, could be affected by construction.

Also, the grand prix uses a parking lot at Al Lang for turns 4, 5 and 6 of the 14-turn course, some high-end hospitality and a family "fun zone."

Besides a possible new stadium, the city plans to relocate the Salvador Dali Museum next to the Mahaffey Theater and onto land used for the competition paddock. A 2-acre plaza connecting the theater also could impact space used by the race.

Savoree said he's confident that AGP's relationship with the city is such that "whatever issue we have to work through we're going to work through them together."

Baker pointed out that stadium project has not been approved.

"If it is going to happen, it would be subject to a referendum vote this November," he said. "I'm very much for the success of our baseball team as well here in St. Petersburg, but I've made it clear to all the parties that if a project moves forward, it has to move forward in such a manner as to ensure that the contract with [AGP] continues to succeed as well."

Grand Prix attendance was up dramatically on Friday and somewhat on Saturday, possibly in part because recent unification of the Indy Racing League and rival Champ Car has created additional interest. The fourth running of the grand prix's featured IndyCar Series race was set for Sunday at 2:45 p.m. The Tampa Tribune