A new Major League Soccer stadium planned by Minnesota United FC for the Snelling-Midway area has the green light from the St. Paul City Council. As far as the city is concerned, the professional soccer team need only apply for building permits to start construction.

But the team is still waiting for the Minnesota Legislature to approve a property tax exemption.

The City Council on Wednesday approved three resolutions and one ordinance amendment to clear the way for the team to build a 20,000-seat stadium on part of a 34-acre “superblock” bounded by Interstate 94 and Snelling and University avenues. The council approved the stadium’s site plan and an ordinance amendment that allows for outdoor sports and entertainment at its 16-acre site.

It also signed off on a redevelopment master site plan and a preliminary plat for additional development around the stadium. In addition to Minnesota United FC’s $150 million stadium, the master plan allows for for up to 1 million square feet of office space, 420,000 square feet of retail and commercial space, 620 residential units, 400 hotel rooms and 4,720 parking spaces at full build out.

Jonathan Sage-Martinson, the city’s director of Planning and Economic Development department, said the council’s votes leave just one step the team must take to start construction.

“From the city’s perspective, it’s pulling a building permit,” he said.

Council members were not fully united Wednesday. Ward 7 Council Member Jane Prince was the lone vote against the outdoor-sports ordinance amendment, as well as the redevelopment master site plan and the stadium site plan. She and several other council members voiced concern before Wednesday’s votes over traffic and transit issues, as well as the level of business interest in redeveloping the acreage around the stadium.

Ward 2 Council Member Rebecca Noecker said she was “torn” about going forward without transportation and development plans fully worked out. At the council’s Aug. 3 meeting, members of the public and council members questioned whether adequate parking is available for stadium game and event attendees.

But Noecker said moving ahead on the stadium now is a better choice than letting property that includes the remains of a former transit repair facility lie fallow.

“The devil we know in this case will not be worse than the one we don’t,” she said.

Meanwhile, the team is waiting on the Legislature to act on millions of dollars in sales and property tax relief for the project. Gov. Mark Dayton said Thursday afternoon he would not call a special session this year, meaning the property tax relief question is on hold until the 2017 session.

Bill McGuire, a former United Health Group CEO who leads the investor group funding the stadium construction, has said not getting the property tax exemption would make for a “high possibility” that the project would not go forward.

The sales tax break doesn’t necessarily require action on the part of the Legislature. Minnesota law would allow sales tax refunds on construction materials after the fact. Refunds have been estimated between $3 million and $5 million.

Redevelopment of the land around the 16-acre stadium site will require future approvals. Sage-Martinson said individual projects on the rest of the superblock will have to come before the city as they are proposed.

The owner of the surrounding acreage, New York-based RK Midway, operates the Midway Shopping Center on the property. Richard Birdoff, a principal with group, has committed to tearing the center down to make way for redevelopment, provided the stadium is built.

Mollie Scozzari, a spokeswoman for St. Paul’s Planning and Economic Development department, said the city has received “about a half dozen” informal inquiries from developers and potential end users interested in the Snelling-Midway site.

Bloomington-based United Properties – run by the Pohlad family, which is also part of the Minnesota United FC owner group – confirmed last year that it’s among the companies “exploring redevelopment scenarios” adjacent to the stadium.

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