Judge rules Twins ballpark has public purpose

Many questions remain, but a day in court produces some progress in acquiring land for a new Twins stadium.

By Mike Kaszuba, Star Tribune

Last update: January 22, 2007 - 8:31 PM

A court hearing Monday produced some optimism about land negotiations for a new Minnesota Twins stadium, but it left unanswered many of the questions that have stalled the talks.

Hennepin County District Judge Stephen Aldrich authorized the county's possible condemnation of the property in downtown Minneapolis and said the 40,000-seat, open-air stadium served a "public purpose" under the law. The ruling came after the landowners, in a pivotal move, told the judge they would not contest the project's public purpose or appeal the judge's final condemnation ruling.

In documents filed with the court Monday, Hennepin County also released figures showing that the privately held site had been appraised for the county at $13.35 million.

But the 20-minute court session left unanswered the larger questions that hang over the land sale, including how close the county is to striking a deal with the landowners in separate private talks, what the sale price eventually will be and whether the negotiations will delay an ambitious schedule to complete the $522 million project by early 2010.

"It went how it had to go. If there had been a challenge [to the project's public purpose], we made clear that was going to be a 'walk-away' for us," said County Commissioner Mike Opat, lead stadium negotiator for the County Board.

Even though the judge authorized the condemnation, the ruling did little to make clear whether the county would actually go through with the process, which allows government to force the sale of private land for a public purpose. Nor did it shed light on the ongoing private negotiations between the county and the landowners, in which the two sides are reportedly tens of millions of dollars apart over a sale price.

From the outset, county officials have said they would prefer to quickly negotiate a sale with the landowners rather than use a time-consuming condemnation in which many months could pass before the price of the land is determined.

Knowing the property's sale price is critical because the county's infrastructure budget for the stadium, which includes money for buying the land, is capped by the Legislature at $90 million. The $90 million also must pay for an assortment of related projects, including roads, walkways and soil remediation -- meaning that the more the county pays for the land, the less it has for the other needed work.

The complicated land negotiations, and impasse over the price, seemed at one point to perplex Aldrich. "Do I understand that none of the parties were asked to agree to a price as part of getting the legislative approval [for the stadium last year]?" asked the judge.

"That's correct," said Marc Simpson, an attorney representing the county.

Simpson and Dan Rosen, an attorney representing the landowners, who are made up primarily of a limited liability partnership with more than 100 investors, said they were pleased with the limited progress made Monday.

"We talked [over the weekend] to make sure that we weren't going to have any fights in court today," Rosen said.

Mike Kaszuba • 612-673-4388 • mkaszuba@startribune.com

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