Sprucing up 'round the ballpark

The Minnesota Twins are in Minneapolis about one in every four days each year. But Target Field won't be going anywhere when the baseball season is over.

That's why, now that the stands are up and the sod is down, the work being done outside the ballpark to improve the nearby streetscape is as essential as the finishing touches taking place within, said Dan Kenney, executive director of the Minnesota Ballpark Authority.

"It's about creating connections to new transit opportunities, to downtown in all directions," he said. "It doesn't matter what mode you take -- at some point you're a pedestrian, and you want to create an environment that's open and welcoming."

With the days growing shorter and chillier, workers are scurrying to wrap up the exterior projects before commuters on the Northstar rail line start using the stadium's transit station on Nov. 16 -- projects for which there won't be a lot of time before the Twins' opening day in April.

During the past week, workers have been pouring concrete for a double-wide sidewalk along N. 7th Street, which parallels the first-base line and will provide access for charter buses. On the grounds of Hennepin County's garbage burner, across from the third-base-line stands, landscapers have been planting trees and grass.

And St. Paul artist Craig David has been on hand to oversee the installation of his murals on the ballpark's exterior walls along 5th Street.

It's all part of the effort to stretch downtown Minneapolis two blocks beyond Target Center, all the way to the ballpark's left field corner, Kenney said.

The hope is that the ballpark will be the catalyst for a new downtown district, perhaps something akin to San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter near Petco Park or Denver's LoDo neighborhood outside Coors Field -- a NoLo (or North Loop) District for Minneapolis, if you will.

"You have an exciting, thriving entertainment district, and you already see housing development in the general area," Kenney said. "This area just seems ready to take off when the economy is right. I think it will have its own unique identity."

Sprucing up outside

Using a special stadium sales tax, Hennepin County fronted the $350 million public contribution for the ballpark, including $90 million for infrastructure: acquiring the site, locating utilities and other basic needs.

It also has spent nearly $2 million to remodel and upgrade the garbage burner, moving its doors away from the ballpark and equipping it with air locks and spritzers to prevent Twins fans from having to see -- or smell -- the trucks coming and going.

The team itself has ranged far beyond its original pledge of $130 million toward the ballpark.

In the past couple of years, it has contributed at least $55 million more to cover niceties ranging from radiant heating in the stands to the ballpark's distinctive yellow limestone facing and the huge left field scoreboard.

The biggest crowd-pleaser will be a large center field sign featuring the classic team logo with twin ballplayers clasping hands across the river; when the Twins hit a home run, the twins will shake hands.

The Twins also paid for the $4 million Target Field Station on the ballpark's northeast corner that enables transit users to go between the Northstar commuter platform below and the light-rail line at street level. And the team joined with Target Corp., the ballpark's namesake, to build the landscaped $9 million plaza linking downtown to the new stadium.

The Ballpark Authority, which is funded by the county's sales tax revenue, has spent $5 million to extend Target Plaza to 1st Avenue N., widen sidewalks and install lights. The Minnesota Department of Transportation financed a $3.3 million skyway that will take fans from Parking Ramp A into the ballpark.

Minneapolis has spent $100,000 landscaping a traffic island with new planters and lighting, but Kenney said the city's most important job will be managing ballpark traffic. The city's 3 percent entertainment tax will apply to Twins tickets, bringing Minneapolis about $3 million a year that it doesn't get now from Twins sales at the Metrodome.

In a little more than two weeks, Northstar commuter trains will be gliding along the tracks below the ballpark, and Kenney said ballpark officials want to be as ready as possible.

"We're doing everything we can so that they can have a great opening, and they're doing everything so we can hit our deadline," he said.

Kevin Duchschere • 612-673-4455