A partnership hoping to redevelop Tropicana Field and the area around it launched two new real estate investment funds Monday — one for accredited investors and the other with minimums as low as $500.
It’s a model that democratizes access to private real estate investing, a release states, “transforming individual investors from bystanders into true stakeholders ” in one of the most highly anticipated redevelopment projects in the region.
The project is on the site of the Historic Gas Plant district. The developers includ Tampa real estate development firm Ellison Development and St. Petersburg-based investor Cathie Woods’ ARK Investment Management LLC. Along with with Tampa’s Horus Construction, the entities, in October, submitted a bid to the City of St. Petersburg on a $6.8 billion redevelopment plan for the 95.5-acre Gas Plant parcel that now houses the Tampa Bay Rays beleaguered home stadium.
The Rays’ lease on Tropicana Field and its surrounding parking lot, both of which sit on a city-owned parcel called the Historic Gas Plant site, is set to expire in 2028. Once it does, the team has long been searching for a new stadium to call home base. The ARK Ellison Horus LLC would be completed in four phases over 17 years.
The two new investment funds, announced Monday by Ark Ellison Real Estate GP LLC, are meant to help bring the ARK Ellison Horus proposal to fruition, transforming the site into an innovation district with mixed-income housing, public parks, event spaces and advanced research facilities.
The ARK Ellison Urban Innovation Fund will be available to institutional and accredited investors, and the ARK Ellison Community Growth Fund will be open to all U.S. investors, regardless of accreditation status, according to the release.
ARK Investment Management LLC, an SEC-registered investment advisory firm, will serve as the funds’ investment manager and Ellison Development will act as developer.
The ARK Ellison Community Growth Fund will focus only on redeveloping the Historic Gas Plant District site. Participation is open to investors nationwide through app-based, tokenized and blockchain-enabled platforms with minimums as low as $500, the release says.
The new community fund makes private real estate investing attainable to those living and working in the community, “offering residents of St. Petersburg and investors nationwide an opportunity to participate directly in this transformative project,” the release states.
Days after ARK Ellison Horus submitted its redevelopment plan for the stadium and surrounding Historic Gas Plant District, the City of St. Petersburg announced it would issue an official “request for proposals” later this month, giving developers a 30-day window to submit alternative ideas for the site.
If the group’s proposal is selected by the city, the release says, ARK Ellison Horus anticipates the project to create nearly 20,000 jobs and generate $1.2 billion in annual economic impact, growing to an estimated $28 billion over 30 years.
“This is more than a development, it’s a movement,” Cathie Wood, Founder, CEO, and CIO of ARK Invest, says in the release. “For decades, access to wealth creation has been concentrated in the hands of institutions and the very wealthy. ARK was founded to change that, to democratize access to what we believe are the most transformative investment opportunities in the world.”