ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — St. Petersburg’s African-American pastors held a special gathering on the south side of the city Thursday afternoon to announce their support for Sugar Hill Community Partners. 

Sugar Hill is one of two developers working to finalize their plan for the Tropicana Field project.

Their proposal includes housing and jobs that would be suitable for those who’ve called the south side home for decades. 

The pastors were joined by former Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, who is also one of the principal developers of this project.

Johnson spoke about a similar project he brought to his hometown when he helped bring housing, jobs and the new Sacramento Kings facility to this area. 

He said when he heard St. Pete was working on a similar project; he wanted to help. 

“This project is going to have over 30,000 construction jobs,” Johnson said. “Half of those are going to be permanent jobs ongoing — that’s a way you stimulate the economy as economic development in a real way.”

“At the end of the day, our project has two scenarios: one with the Rays and one without the Rays, so it’s bigger than baseball. Not because we don’t want the Rays, which we do, but if they don’t stay or have some other place they want to go, we have to respect that. We have to make good on this project, regardless.”

Longtime residents who grew up in this neighborhood, once called the “Gas Plant” area, spoke optimistically about this project. 

African-Americans in the area have been vocal about being pushed out of their beloved neighborhood when The Trop was built and now they just want to see more opportunities for low-income people in the area.

Pastor Clark Hazley grew up on the south side of St. Petersburg before leaving for the military.

“Growing up,” he said, “It didn’t look like this. We had Booker Creek. We had everything else running around. We had Webb City downtown.”

The pastor said he could go on about the things he remembered as he took a walk around his neighborhood.

“We knew our neighbors, and we were OK crossing 16th Street coming on this side of the city to engage, and all of that is practically gone,” he said. 

The change he’s referring to is when developers built Tropicana Field.

The pastor is not against watching the Rays play in his hometown — he actually refers to having the stadium here with a feeling of gratitude.

“I just recently went to a game. Me and a couple of my clergy friends, we went to a game. We love the Rays. I love to see them win,” Pastor Hazley said.

He said what’s missing is more opportunity for African-Americans, something they promised when The Trop initially came to St. Pete.

Many were forced to move and are still being forced to move because rent prices are way above their means.

The pastor said the proposed plan from Sugar Hill Community Partners gives him hope that opportunity is on its way.

“When I hear they can take this land and cause, I think they said 100 units of homeownership along with affordable housing, I get excited,” he said.

The pastor added he’s also excited to hear that the developers have a plan to fund the project through capital investments, mainly, a way that St. Pete residents would not have to eat up the cost of this project.

St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch is expected to make a decision on the project by June 30. Former Mayor Rick Kriseman had picked a developer before he left office — the Midtown Development Group — but the choice is ultimately up to current Mayor Welch.