The head of the St. Paul Port Authority said the official groundbreaking and prep work for construction of the St. Paul soccer stadium starts this week.

Port Authority Chairman Lee Krueger said the owner of property adjacent to the new stadium and the owner of Minnesota United FC have signed early access agreements, and Metro Transit is expected to do the same Monday or Tuesday.

"Once Metro Transit signs the agreement, we are ready to start digging and doing the prep work," Krueger said. "And I would love for it to be early in the week, but I think it is going to be later in the week."

Krueger said the stadium will be built on 10 acres of the 35-acre parcel, which sits at the corner of University and Snelling avenues. Twenty-five acres surrounding the stadium are planned for future redevelopment, but the current property owners have to pay off their mortgages first.

Krueger said some of those mortgages do have clauses in them that require the borrower to pay a penalty for paying off any mortgage early.

"The bad news is there are complications with private sector mortgages involved on it, and that's what we are trying to solve, but our expectation is within the next 60 days all those pieces should be put together," Krueger said.

Krueger said that right now the Port Authority has no intention of using any public money to pay any possible penalties for an early mortgage payoff.

Minnesota United FC owner Dr. Bill McGuire will privately finance construction of the stadium and receive about $50 million in property tax breaks. The city of St. Paul has committed a minimum of $18.4 million to cover infrastructure improvement costs.

Krueger said the stadium is still on track to open in 2019.

 

Source:kstp.com

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