For real estate developers, Tropicana Field has the potential to be a home run

The first time Jim Cloar saw Tropicana Field, it was a bit of a head-scratcher.

Cloar, a downtown revitalization consultant, was visiting St. Petersburg from Washington, D.C. in 1990. He was in town to give a speech, and a friend drove him past the stadium, which was then the Florida Suncoast Dome.

“I looked at him and said, ‘Why in the world did they build the stadium on this end of the site, when you have all this surface parking separating it from downtown?’” recalls Cloar, who now lives… …read more