Mpls. officials: Target Center is still part of Vikings stadium deal

City officials negotiating a Vikings stadium agreement stressed Monday that Target Center improvements remain on the table as they work toward a public deal.

Sources told the Star Tribune last week that Target Center renovations and refinancing were dropped from a stadium agreement. The city would, however, be allowed to use existing taxes for that project.

Mayor R.T. Rybak wants to use existing hospitality taxes to help pay for a stadium after convention center bonds are retired in 2020, while redirecting some money to renovate and pay debt on the city-owned Target Center. How that differs from the presumed agreement on Friday remains unclear.

"It is still part of the deal," said Chuck Lutz, the city's development chief. "It's an integral part of the deal …The key reason why we're doing this deal is because of Target Center."

Jeremy Hanson Willis, the mayor's chief of staff, would not explain exactly what the final public deal would look like with regard to Target Center, however.

"That's yet to all be hammered out," Hanson Willis said. "Like I said, we're still negotiating. And we've maintained all along and continue to maintain that Target Center needs to be a part of this."

He added: "I think it's clear to us that Target Center is still part of the conversation."

"Target Center being included in this complicates the whole deal," House stadium bill author, Rep. Morrie Lanning, said Friday. "If, in fact, [it's] not, then that would avoid some complication."

There is also disagreement over whether the city even needs the Legislature to redirect these taxes for the Target Center. In 2009, the Legislature passed a law allowing the city to use the excess money for capital projects. There's no excess money now, but there will be when bonds are paid in 2020.

Hanson Willis said he has heard "various opinions" about whether the city already has the authority to redirect the money to the Target Center. He added that there's no certainty the taxes will still exist by that point.

"I think it's clear that we are not counting on being able to have this revenue in the future unless we can come to some better agreement with all the various parties, including the Legislature," Hanson Willis said.

City Attorney Susan Segal did not return a call for comment Monday. declined to comment in an e-mail.