With Rays stadium project uncertain, Woodson Museum pulls funding request
The Woodson African American Museum of Florida is pulling its request for $10 million from Pinellas County due to uncertainty surrounding the redevelopment of the Historic Gas Plant District and plans to build a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium.
The museum's executive director, Terri Lipsey Scott, wrote a letter to the Pinellas County Commission, which was considering the request at its Tuesday meeting. The item will be pulled off the commission's agenda.
A plan to build a new $1.3 billion stadium for the Rays and surround it with condos, affordable housing, restaurants, shops, office space and the first African American history museum built in the state appears to be on life support. St. Petersburg and Pinellas County approved the deal and public funding to the tune of $742 million, but now it's up to the Rays and development partner Hines to carry out their end of the deal.
The Rays have until March 31 to meet certain criteria and prove they have their share to pay for the stadium — $700 million — and have done enough work to move forward. Recent remarks from the Rays have pointed fingers at the county and city for delaying votes on financing, which they say has resulted in unaffordable cost increases..
'Despite our best efforts, we face challenges in meeting the criteria set for this year's Capital funding cycle, particularly given the uncertainties surrounding the master development of the Gas Plant redevelopment project,' Lipsey Scott wrote, adding that the museum plans to reapply 'when a greater degree of certainty has been reached.'
The museum was seeking $10 million from the county's tourist tax. It needed special consideration from the County Commission because the Woodson's patrons don't book enough nights at hotels and other short-term rentals. Based on that criteria, funding for the Woodson was unlikely to be recommended by Pinellas County's tourism bureau and board.
As part of the Rays stadium and Gas Plant agreement reached last summer, the Rays and Hines would give $10 million to the Woodson as part of a community benefits pledge. But it came with conditions. That money is contingent on completion of a financing plan, a guaranteed maximum price from a contractor and proof that the Woodson has fundraising deposits and/or commitments totaling at least 50% of that guaranteed maximum price.
The Woodson is seeking to relocate to the Gas Plant into a new two-story, 41,262—square-foot facility expected to cost $38 million. It is currently located in the former community center and management office of the Jordan Park housing complex.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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New York Times
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Politico
a day ago
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Black church leaders pressure companies over Trump's anti-DEI push
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Rev. Al Sharpton — the civil rights leader who supported Bryant's Target boycott — said the company boycotts are one of the most effective ways to push back against the rollback. 'The success of the Montgomery boycott is that it changed the law,' said Sharpton, founder and president of the National Action Network, referencing the famous mid-1950s bus boycott to protest segregation. 'We can't just do things as a grievance, we must go for their bottom line.' It is hard to tell exactly how much boycotts are hurting companies' bottom lines. But Target's CEO Brian Cornell in May acknowledged that at least some of its sales drop, including a quarterly sales decrease by 2.8 percent, was due to 'headwinds' including 'the reaction to the updates we shared on Belonging in January,' referring to the company's announcement to end their DEI programs, along with consumer confidence and concerns around tariffs. 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'I wanted this year to show the pressure that we're putting on these companies with DEI, to go right to the bastion of industry and right where the stock exchange is and say to them that if you do not want to have diversity — in your boardroom, with your contracts and your employment — then you will not have diversity in your consumer base,' said Sharpton. But the boycotts do present challenges for church leaders. In some cases, Sharpton said, congregants have forgotten the boycotts are still on — and he says Trump is in part to blame for this. 'One of the things that I learned during the Civil Rights Movement from [Rev. Jesse Jackson] and others is, you have to keep people's attention,' said Sharpton. 'But there's so much going on now, Trump and them are so good at flooding the zone. You've got to make sure people don't forget, 'I'm not supposed to be shopping at that store.' Keeping public attention is a challenge.' But even with congregants who are engaged in the battle to retain diversity commitments across the country, Adam Clark, associate professor of theology at Xavier University, said the church cannot carry the burden alone, especially when the president has taken a stance. 'The attack on DEI is so much broader than the specific companies,' said Clark. 'Trump is the culmination of all this type of white aggression against DEI. He has the authority to implement what's been going on in certain parts of the country and he makes it federal law, and I don't think the church by itself has the capacity to just overturn everything that's happening.'
