More than a ballpark

Unlike the dead zone around the Metrodome 24 years after it opened, developers and planners expect the area around the newly approved Twins ballpark in downtown Minneapolis to become a busy hub for commuters, residents and fans.

Plans are grand for about 16 acres of what the current site owner, Texas-based Hines Interests, and its Minneapolis architects call a "transit-oriented compact ballpark in an urban neighborhood."

The vision includes condos with views of the ballpark field, parking, restaurants and stores. Architectural renderings by Hammel, Green and Abrahamson (HGA) show paths running in all directions around the ballpark, including walking and biking paths, roadways and most significantly, transit -- an extension of the Hiawatha light-rail line and the arrival of the North Star commuter rail.

Nick Koch, an HGA architect, said the vision is for a "complete community" so residents can play, get groceries and prescriptions filled without ever leaving the neighborhood.

"If you look at the pictures with the hoped-for vision and compare them to the Metrodome, it's a different world," Koch said.

HGA is the architect for Hines development but is not designing the ballpark.

Expectations were mixed about the Metrodome's development potential. Some, including the Greater Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, forecast that an entertainment district would sprout around the Dome. Clearly that didn't happen -- unless Hubert's, a bar -- is generously called a "zone."

John Cowles Jr., whose family owned the Star Tribune newspaper, said: "We did not think the Dome was going to transform downtown. What we wanted to do was: a) keep the Twins and Vikings in town, b) not create a third central city in Bloomington and c) keep the Dome within walking distance of downtown."

'New frontier'

Expectations are much higher this time for the new ballpark behind the Target Center.

"It will open up a whole new frontier. Right now it's a trench, but it will act as a bridge," Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat said of the development.

Opat's board colleague, Commissioner Peter McLaughlin, said the new development would be "making up for the sins of the past" by reconnecting the city's North Side to the rest of downtown. He added, "This is a continuation of the march up from the river of development and reuse of industrial land."

Even Minneapolis City Council Member Lisa Goodman, who represents downtown and has been a ballpark naysayer, is excited. She called the plans ambitious, "but if anybody can do it, Hines can. They have a track record."

Hines owns the ballpark site as well as land to the north stretching to Washington Avenue. Hines calls its proposal for condos and other amenities "North Loop Village" and was planning to forge ahead with or without a ballpark.

Petco Park, which opened in San Diego in 2004, led to what city officials there say is nearly $2 billion in ancillary development, including 4,449 housing units, 747 hotel rooms and the commercial space equivalent to several shopping malls.

Making it happen

Gov. Tim Pawlenty is expected to sign the Twins stadium bill at the team's Friday game. The ballpark bill cleared its last legislative hurdle early Sunday. The stadium's price tag is estimated at $522 million -- $390 million for construction, $90 million for infrastructure and $42 million for financing.

The Hiawatha Line is expected to be extended to the ballpark, where it will meet the commuter rail trains, which are anticipated to arrive in the morning, then stay parked underneath the ballpark until the evening commute north.

"It's going to open that whole area up," said Minneapolis City Council Member Barbara Johnson, a North Side resident excited about the potential for her side of town.

Plans not finalized

Condo development is still years off. Hines' project manager, Bob Pfefferle, said the rail and ballpark construction will happen first. The ballpark is expected to open for the 2010 baseball season -- if all the approvals go as planned.

Architects Koch and Bill Blanski of HGA laid out a plan for the site, but cautioned that it isn't the final plan. "We expect it will morph over time," Koch said.

Blanski added, "We aren't to the point where we want to point to a building and say how big it is, how tall it is."

Still, the architects expect a lively green space with lots of activity. They also say they want the neighborhood to maintain the character and feeling of the North Loop-Warehouse District.

Cowles is also enthusiastic about the plan. "We'll all have to bundle up in April, September and hopefully October," he said. "We won't have to wear snowmobile suits like we did at the old Met for the Vikings."

Rochelle Olson • 612-673-1747