A crowd that nearly filled the St. Paul City Council chambers had to wait almost three hours to get the news they had hoped for. In the end, the Council voted 5-2 to approve both a lease for the Met Council-owned bus barn site, and $18.3 M worth of infrastructure improvements for the 24.5 acre superblock owned by RK Midway.
There are still many details to be sorted out, but the vote allows Minnesota United and the City of St. Paul to head to the legislature to ask for tax exemptions for the site. The council also gave the go-ahead for Minnesota United to ask the state for exemption on sales tax of stadium building materials and for a separate liquor license for the stadium.
City of St. Paul director of finance Todd Hurley walked the council through the lease and financial commitments by the city for infrastructure improvements. He said the bus barn site, which was secured over 50 years ago for Metro Transit by the Federal Transit Authority, has given its preliminary approval of the deal. That deal is a 52-year lease that will see Minnesota United pay Metro Transit via the City of St. Paul, who are leasing the land for $556,000 annually. Hurley explained that MN United would be 100% responsible for building the stadium and upkeep, overruns, or any maintenance and improvements that are needed in the future. Hurley said the stadium will cost over $150 million and will have a seating capacity of approximately 20,000.
For their part, the city committed $1.5 million towards the environmental clean-up of the bus barn site, which they are hoping to get grants for. Hurley said the Met Council would be on the hook for another $8 million of the clean-up costs.
Hurly and Director of Economic Development Jonathan Sage Martin took turns explaining the deal and answering questions from the seven-member city council. They explained that United had agreed to contract with businesses that are local and owned by minorities and women. The team also agreed to work with the city’s sustainable building policy. The club also agreed to play all home games at the new Midway stadium, manage and pay for the upkeep on all green spaces and promenades, conduct annual maintenance, provide affordable tickets, and support youth and amateur sports in the city.
The city would create the new street grid, bike lanes, sewer, water, lighting, and sidewalks. The city would also be responsible for cleaning, maintaining, and plowing the street grid. Minnesota United would be responsible for the green spaces, promenades, and parks.
The deal says Minnesota United will be allowed to control their own concessions, but agreed to commit to bringing in local and ethnic food venues.
It was also discussed that Minnesota United and the City would continue to work on a parking and traffic study which only recently commenced. The study is not due until the beginning of April, and councilperson Jane Prince vocalized her concern in approving the resolutions and lease deal without having the completed data on parking and traffic.
Council President Russ Stark opened up public discussion to first hear those who opposed to the stadium. Only four in the crowded room stood to take the mic. Later, when asked for a show of hands, only one more showed his opposition but didn’t want to speak publicly.
When Stark called on those who supported the stadium, over 20 people stood. Youth soccer player Gabriel Eduarte took the microphone first. Edaurte was with a large group of parents, coaches and players from Joy to the People, who lease a recreation center on the city’s west end, a seven-minute light rail trip to the bus barn location.
Minnesota soccer supporter Bruce McGuire explained to the council that he’s traveled the world to watch games and he didn’t think he’d see the day in his home state that he could have a world class soccer stadium in the Twin Cities. He said he had wanted the stadium in Minneapolis but his city didn’t seem to care and St. Paul did. He said he would be attending games at the Midway site.
Many more spoke in favor including the president of the Midway Chamber of Commerce and Todd Johnson, Executive Director of the Amateur Sports Commission that leads the National Sports Center. Bobby Kasper, president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, talked about job creation from not only the stadium being built but the overall redevelopment of the Midway Center site. Owner Rick Birdoff recently said he is planning to expand the square footage of the site from it’s current 330,000 square feet of retail to somewhere around 1.5 million square feet of retail, business and housing.
The council discussed the issues before voting with impassioned speeches by councilpersons Dai Thao and Chris Tolbert. Thao said he thought the people of St. Paul were smart enough to know this is a good deal, and they won’t have to spend a dime on the stadium itself. He said he believes millionaires should pay their share and in this case, that’s what they are doing.
Tolbert said that for a very long time the site had been a sea of concrete and pollution. “This is a game changer,” he said. “We are now going to have large amounts of green space which was trash and asphalt and we’ll finally have a cleaned up bus barn site. We could be a world-class city or continue to be a sleepy suburb. I choose the world-class city.”
Rebecca Noecker, who is in her first term with the council, said she took this issue very seriously. “It’s a very big deal,” she said. There were concerns for her about return on investment for on the site, but she believes with the overall development of the rest of the superblock that “it’s a solid deal,” citing the Met Council’s agreement and the deal negotiated by the St. Paul Port Authority.
Prince said she didn’t necessarily disagree with the deal but felt the timeline was too steep. She wanted to wait another week while an independent consulting firm was called in to verify the soundness of the deal. According to Prince, the same situation occurred before the Xcel Center was built.
Dan Bostrom was the most vocal of those who disagreed with the deal saying the council couldn’t find money for his east side community projects but could find money for the redevelopment of the superblock.
Councilperson Amy Brendmoen also showed strong support for the stadium and politely challenged the opposition.
Even council president Russ Stark had his say, explaining that he will probably be more affected that anyone in the chambers on Wednesday. Stark lives just a few blocks north of University and near Snelling Avenue. He said he was comforted because he knows of many businesses that are now interested in moving into the area, where there was little interest before the stadium and redevelopment was revealed.
Stark said he is equally motivated to solve parking and traffic issues because of his home’s close proximity to the site. “It’s a double-edged sword,” said Stark. “We want people to ride transit but we know we need to provide some degree of parking. The more parking you provide the worse the traffic gets.”
The Minnesota State Legislative session kicks off next week, meaning some time in the coming weeks, Minnesota United will be heading to the Capitol for a very important ask.
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