When Wes Burdine and Lydia Garver bought their first home in St. Paul’s Midway neighborhood in March, neighbors already knew two salient facts about their young family.

First, they knew the married couple has 17-month-old twins.

Second? “They all apparently heard that we liked soccer,” Burdine said. Related Articles Little pushback from Senate committee on St. Paul soccer stadium

What do we get from the Minnesota United stadium deal?

How about a walkable village around St. Paul’s Minnesota United stadium?

Minnesota United stadium: Our own Space Needle? Parking over I-94?

Burdine loves soccer, and the location of their four-bedroom home on Charles Avenue was based on three factors: finding an affordable neighborhood as first-time buyers, proximity to light-rail transit and being within walking distance of Minnesota United FC’s proposed $150 million soccer stadium near Snelling and University avenues.

The Pioneer Press interviewed eight United fans drawn to live in Midway in part by the glassy 21,500-seat stadium planned for a weedy 12-acre lot along Interstate 94.

That’s exactly what St. Paul officials wanted to hear. The city enthusiastically courted the project in part because it hopes a Major League Soccer stadium will help spur housing and business development in the area.

“Obviously, we are very hopeful that this is just the tip of a very large iceberg because, at the end of the day, there is just so much opportunity for development in that area,” Mayor Chris Coleman said.

Tina Angell, president-elect of the St. Paul Area Association of Realtors, said sales statistics show growth in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood that will be home to United after it transitions to Major League Soccer as early as 2017. She said the median home price is up 23 percent, while average days on the market has decreased 35 percent, according to numbers comparing the opening two months of 2015 with 2016.

“I think (the stadium) will help the Midway area maybe gain a little bit more momentum,” Angell said.

The number of home sales in the area dipped from 14 in January and February 2015 to 10 in those two months this year, but Angell said she believes that could be indicative of an overall lack of housing inventory across the Twin Cities metro area.

Burdine’s purchase was added to March’s tally, and fellow United fan Matt Privratsky will add to April’s when he and his wife close Friday on a two-bedroom home on Hubbard Avenue.

“I try to hold back my excitement about being close to the stadium from my wife, but it’s going to be pretty crazy to be able to walk there,” said Privratsky, a communications manager at St. Paul-based nonprofit Fresh Energy.

Rochelle Privratsky calls her husband out on his soccer-based enthusiasm, but she’s pretty excited about their first home, too. They walked through about 15 houses within their $150,000 budget and pounced when their home became available.

“It’s pretty competitive up there,” said Matt Privratsky, who rents a one-bedroom condo on Grand Avenue.

NO DONE DEAL

United fans moving to Midway are ahead of the curve, but the stadium deal isn’t yet set.

In order to break ground on the stadium in June, St. Paul and United have requested a continuation of 50-plus years of a property-tax exemption on the site, plus a sales-tax break on construction equipment. The proposed exemptions breezed through the Minnesota Senate tax committee March 31 and could be included in a larger tax bill before the session adjourns in May.

“We are looking at different possibilities of how we can get language in,” Coleman said. “We have multiple Republican … and Democratic supporters. The ask, quite frankly, is so diminutive compared to other asks that have been made of stadiums. With no public money going into it, we think this could be one of the noncontroversial positions or bills that could be inserted.”

On top of privately funding more than $150 million for stadium construction, United owner Bill McGuire and his partners have paid an $100 million expansion franchise fee to join Major League Soccer. He has stressed that the club’s inclusion in MLS — the top domestic soccer league — hinges on these tax exemptions being passed this legislative session.

If it’s finalized, United most likely would begin MLS play on the University of Minnesota Gophers’ turf at TCF Bank Stadium in 2017 and then move into the new Midway stadium when it’s completed in 2018.

“We’ve got to get this done this year,” Coleman said. “… I think that failure to act could well jeopardize $250 million of private investment coming into the Midway area.”

Sen. Sandra Pappas, DFL-St. Paul, who sponsored the stadium bill, said large tax bills aren’t easy to pass because there is no immediate need for them. To make it work, Pappas said she could recommend two tax bills — one with more consensus measures such as the stadium bill.

“I think the problem is if it gets caught up in any kind of trades that might happen, (related to) what kind of a corporate tax cut the House will require,” she said.

Pappas, whose district includes the stadium site, said the stadium tax bill “could get lost in the shuffle because we are considered small potatoes compared to these other big issues.”

BBQ AT BURDINE’S

Burdine envisions hosting barbecue cookouts on the patio in his fenced-in back yard and then strolling over to the stadium. Or Loons fans could meet somewhere local and walk over together.

“It shows that soccer is a little bit of a cultural lifestyle,” said Burdine, editor at Byline Press and the Northern Pitch soccer website. “I also think that it shows that it’s really important that the stadium was built in proximity to where people are, that it was necessary to put it in Midway or downtown, somewhere it’s accessible.”

Burdine, Garver and their twins, Emil and Iris, were renting in Northeast Minneapolis when they began house hunting. They thought the process would take months, but within a week, they had looked at seven houses and put a bid on their new home. They beat out four competing offers in the three days the house was on the market.

“We got lucky,” Garver said.

‘I LIKE ST. PAUL’

Nachiket Karnik, an admissions counselor at Macalester College, has been renting an apartment in the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood for four years, which equals the time he’s been a United supporter.

The immigrant from Mumbai, India, is looking to buy a home in the Midway neighborhood. He listed reasons he’s drawn there:

“To be within walking distance of the stadium is massive.”

“I’m excited about the investment opportunity of having a place (when) there is a slowdown in property price increases.”

“Being an immigrant, going into a neighborhood with other immigrants, that diversity is huge for me.”

Karnik would not have considered a move to Minneapolis, where United initially planned to plant stakes near the Farmers’ Market just west of downtown. When Minneapolis couldn’t reach a consensus on United’s request for tax exemptions, attention turned to St. Paul.

“I like St. Paul,” Karnik said. “I like this neighborhood. There is so much. There is the public transport. There is walkability. There’s the stadium. I think it fits into the ecosystem better.”

HOPEFUL AND SKEPTICAL

Chris Zumski Finke moved his family of four to Midway in June, about four months before United announced plans to be their neighbors.

“We wanted to live in Midway for the same reason I think United wants to build a stadium there,” said Zumski Finke, who lives five blocks from the proposed stadium and surrounding green space. “It’s right in the center of the city and it’s connected to the freeway and the train. We knew that (the stadium) might go there, and (now) that it did go there, we are very excited about it.”

Zumski Finke, a fan of the pro club since they were named the Stars in 2010, said main drivers were a bigger, four-bedroom house for him, his wife, Amber, and their two kids under 3. He wants to call this home until his kids go to college.

However, Zumski Finke, a freelance reporter, is skeptical about a direct causation of the new stadium boosting his home’s value.

“I don’t think that’s proven for sports stadiums,” Zumski Finke said about economic impact. “Developing that piece of property will be great. It’s not a particularly positive part of the neighborhood. If they bring in some redevelopment in Midway, I think that would be great.”

The mayor calls United’s stadium a “catalytic” chance to add increased property values while still remaining affordable. “It’s also an area that could use some more stimulus and growth,” Coleman said. “But it’s really blending those things that make a successful community.”

‘HAPPY ACCIDENT’

After United announced its stadium plans last fall, Matt Axelson and his wife looked at 27 houses near Midway before closing March 7 on a small three-bedroom home along the light-rail line in Frogtown.

“We said, ‘Hey, the stadium is coming in and we might as well get in there before some of the housing prices start raising,’ ” said Axelson, an academic adviser at Capella University. “Then we can be at the forefront of being in the neighborhood.”

United season-ticket holder Jake Rueter called it a “happy accident” that he and his wife bought a three-bedroom home in Midway just 10 months before United announced plans to build a stadium there.

Rueter, an urban planner, said he tries to keep two perspectives on the stadium.

“There’s … the soccer fan that is really over the moon in the fact that I can walk to games,” Rueter said. “The other hat that I wear is being somebody in the neighborhood and thinking about how the stadium will impact my neighbors and my family. Certainly on game days, it’s going to have a huge impact.

“As somebody who has one car in the house, I’m a big believer in biking and transit infrastructure and things like that. It’s really important that as part of the development, the team, the city and the community work together to actually hit that goal of half the people bike, walk or take transit to games.”

WANTING TO STAY

Rueter’s younger brother, Jeff, moved to Midway as a Hamline University student in 2012. Now that Jeff Rueter works as a service desk technician at Atomic Data in Minneapolis, he’s not moving west across the Mississippi River.

The prospect of United’s stadium is a linchpin in his desire to upgrade from renting a studio to a one-bedroom apartment in Midway.

Rueter, also a writer for Northern Pitch, was offered a new lease for his current studio, with rent increasing $25 a month. He thought that was a modest amount. For one-bedroom apartments in the area, Rueter said he found the cheapest to be about $700 a month.

“As somebody who rents and has been in the habit of moving every year for the last four or five years, (the stadium is) keeping me from wanting to leave,” Rueter said.