The St. Paul Port Authority plans to lease the Midway Shopping Center property — and find new potential owners for the site — to make way for the Major League Soccer stadium and redevelopment.
Port Authority staff will recommend to their board this month that the authority enter into a lease agreement with RK Midway, which owns the Midway Shopping Center.
RK Midway and the Minnesota United soccer team have spent months in negotiations about the property, where the stadium plans overlap with the shopping center and would require part of the strip mall to be torn down. United Owner Bill McGuire has said the stadium project is complex, but has declined to give details on negotiations.
The Port Authority, which has worked on numerous joint ventures around the city, had to get involved at the property because of "complications with existing financial aspects on the deal," Port Authority President Lee Krueger said.
If the plan goes forward, the Port Authority would become the "master tenant" at the site, the first of several steps as the authority works toward redevelopment.
Next, officials would select a commercial development partner that would enter into a joint venture with the Port Authority. They are talking with a number of potential partners and likely will announce who will be joining them in February, Krueger said.
The lease with RK Midway will give the partnership the option of purchasing the property. Krueger said the Port Authority likely will not be part of the purchase and would prefer to let their commercial partner — or partners — take over ownership of the site. When a purchase might happen remains to be seen, he said.
The cost to purchase the property would be based on rents. Exactly what the Port Authority and its partner would have to pay RK Midway in rent has not been finalized, Krueger said.
