TAMPA - A large Washington-area developer and some local political heavyweights are behind a proposal to put a huge hotel, retail - and possibly baseball stadium - project at the Florida State Fairgrounds, documents show.

Last week, former Tampa Mayor Dick Greco, who is a real estate consultant, said he was representing a group that wants to build a commercial project on Florida State Fair Authority property. However, he declined to name the developers behind the proposals.

This week, e-mail from the Fair Authority obtained by the Tribune list players in the proposal. They include Republic Land Development of Fairfax, Va., Naples-based engineering and design firm WilsonMiller and a Tampa-based real estate group that calls itself the Land Sharks. It is affiliated with former Pinellas County Commission Chairman Ronnie Duncan.

David Mechanik, a local land-use lawyer working on the project, confirmed that Republic Land would essentially be the project's developer. Plans are in their infancy and would need to be approved by the Fair Authority. Now, they include building hotels, shops and restaurants on the roughly 350-acre fairgrounds at U.S. 301 and Interstate 4, said Sandy MacKinnon, the Fair Authority's chairman.

Even after construction, the massive hotel and retail project would still leave about 125 acres for the annual fair.

A Major League Baseball stadium also is a possibility.

In a Fair Authority e-mail in September, MacKinnon sounds bullish on the idea: "The wild card that still exist(s), and while we had nothing to do with throwing the fairgrounds into the mix on the Rays stadium, certainly space exists in the master plan for a baseball stadium, and it could be a once in a lifetime opportunity that would secure substantial revenues not only from such a stadium, but the entire project as a destination for the Tampa region."

On Thursday, MacKinnon said a stadium has never been a focus of the proposed project and he doesn't want to provoke hostility over the stadium between Pinellas County and Hillsborough County. The Rays are under contract to play at Tropicana Field in downtown St. Petersburg through 2027.

"That was mere speculation on my part," he said of the e-mail.

Among players in the fairgrounds proposal, the deepest pockets seem to belong to Republic Land Development. Its Web site says it's a major developer and landlord in Washington, D.C., and has leased space to the federal government. It is a subsidiary of Washington-based Republic Properties Corp., which has invested in or developed real estate worth $4 billion, its Web site says.

People at Republic Land also have ties to The Mills Corp., a defunct mall company that built Sawgrass Mills outlet mall in South Florida and other U.S. malls.

Mills made big waves locally a decade ago, when it proposed building a huge mall called Tampa Bay Mills on the fairgrounds property.

It proposed relocating the fair to a southern Hillsborough County site, but eventually dropped those plans. It's not clear whether Republic Land's old ties to Mills played any role in its current interest in the fairgrounds, but two current Republic Land executives were not part of the project 10 years ago, Mechanik said.

Stacy Hornstein, a development official with Republic Land, did not return calls Thursday.

Also in the project are WilsonMiller, a prominent engineering firm with an office in the Ybor City area, and Duncan, the former Pinellas commissioner. Neither WilsonMiller's chief executive nor Duncan returned a call Thursday.

Mechanik said WilsonMiller has done engineering work for Republic Land and might have a similar role in the fairgrounds project.

Developers are high on the fairgrounds because of its location as a gateway to the Tampa area.

Reporter Michael Sasso can be reached at (813) 259-7865.