St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field Advisers to Also Evaluate Airport

ST. PETERSBURG — The same consultant the city retained to review proposals to redevelop Tropicana Field was selected by a committee to study the best future use of Albert Whitted Airport.

A committee made up of city officials has selected HR&A Advisors Inc. to evaluate the long-term effects of keeping Albert Whitted as an airport or whether those 110 waterfront acres would be best used for something else.

The city will now enter into negotiations with HR&A to discuss the scope, narrow down the study’s details and negotiate a price. The study is expected to cost more than $75,000, which requires the City Council’s approval, and work can’t officially start until then.

That might take awhile. HR&A needs the airport’s master plan to complete its proposal. That master plan, which has been in the works for three years, is due to the City Council by June. HR&A’s proposal to the city would come to the council after that.

The city in December solicited proposals for a two-part study “to determine, through an equity lens, the economic and fiscal impacts, and community benefits and burdens” of the two scenarios, the bid’s scope of work read. The first part studies current and future use of the site as an airport. The second part would identify an alternative use.

Two bidders responded: HR&A Advisors, which evaluated the proposals for the Historic Gas Plant District redevelopment and continues to serve as consultants on the project, and Dover, Kohl & Partners, or DK&P.

City staff evaluated the proposals. HR&A received 423 points, and DK&P got 342 points. HR&A’s proposal then got the tentative nod for the job last week. They are also partnering with Inclusivity LLC, which the city recently contracted with to develop a work climate survey.

“They have the complete picture,” said Brian Caper, the city’s economic and workforce director. “They understand traditional airport planning. They are very strong on the conceptual master planning as well.”

Caper said he also liked the firm’s response about equity and community benefits. He said HR&A said it would study how created jobs would be relevant to residents and the city, and what the quality of those jobs would be.

Liz Abernethy, the city’s planning and development services director, also noted the firm’s approach to inclusivity and “their being able to bring people to the conversation that aren’t typically part of the conversation.”

The evaluators had one concern: HR&A proposed an 18-week schedule, which they found to be “very aggressive.” Abernethy said she shared that concern, because the city might not be able to keep up with that timeline.

“We all have a lot of competing projects,” she said.

According to the city’s bid request, the first part of the study will look at the employment, wages, construction activity and required infrastructure to assess the current and future economic impact of the airport. It’ll account for benefits, such as acting as a relief airport and effects on tourism and business development, as well as its burdens, such as development restrictions, noise issues and “inequality.”

The city’s bid asks for three scenarios for the site that do not include aviation. Each scenario should include the effect on jobs, costs and tourism, what limitations exist on the site and what funding opportunities are available.

It lists “perceptions, both positive and negative” for Albert Whitted, including that the airport is “only for a select few users” and it “attracts visitors and businesses to downtown St. Petersburg.”

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