The team angling for a new Major League Soccer stadium in the Twin Cities has gone silent toward fans and foes alike, and even a property owner they need in their corner says he’s had enough.

Minnesota United team owners have been mum with the media about their plans for a professional soccer stadium in the Twin Cities. They have fallen out of touch with two Hennepin County commissioners who supported their efforts, and a vote last week by the St. Paul City Council to keep 10 acres of Midway property tax-free was met with a grateful but terse written statement.

Now, a Minneapolis landowner says he’s fed up with waiting for Minnesota United to buy his North Loop property for a future Major League Soccer stadium.

With land values rising amidst the city’s residential building boom, Robert Salmen told the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune newspaper last week that he wanted a check on his desk by Monday, or else he’d entertain rival offers.

The land, which sits between the Minneapolis Farmers Market and Target Field, has been on the table for $30 million this past year, but Minnesota United team owners have been publicly silent on whether they will pursue a stadium there or off Snelling and University avenues in St. Paul.

The team announced interest in funding construction of a $150 million Minneapolis soccer stadium in March. With Minneapolis taking its time on a partnership, team owner Bill McGuire has been meeting with St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman about possibly relocating the proposal for an 18,500-seat stadium to St. Paul’s Midway area.

Brian Quarstad, a contributor at the NorthernPitch.com online soccer magazine, said the 8-acre site at 501 and 415 Royalston Avenue North in Minneapolis is split into three parcels, and Salmen owns two of them.

Minneapolis city officials have convened a working group, and their initial report on the prospect of partnering with the team on a stadium is likely due out in September. Whether Salmen will make good on his threats to entertain other land buyers remains to be seen.

Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat said Salmen’s Aug. 31 deadline might be artificial. “I don’t believe that,” Opat said Monday. “That’s a good way to negotiate in public.”

Salmen did not return a reporter’s calls Monday, but Opat isn’t the only skeptic.

“With Salmen (stating) that he has developers knocking on his door every day, it’s not really a stretch to believe he is taking every opportunity to promote his property to optimize its value,” Quarstad said.

Nevertheless, “with all the publicity this past year and the North Loop continuing to develop, it’s likely the property is more valuable today than it was a year ago when a price was set,” Quarstad said. ‘The prices over there have been going up in general.”

The Pohlad family, owners of the Minnesota Twins, told Quarstad in March that they are interested in the Royalston Avenue property regardless of whether a soccer stadium is built there. The site would add to the family’s considerable real estate investments in Minneapolis.

Opat and fellow Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin have proposed using the county’s 0.15 percent sales tax to fund $10 million in infrastructure improvements such as lighting and sidewalks around the stadium site, with another $10 million funding youth sports teams.

In exchange, the team would transfer the soccer stadium to the same ballpark authority that oversees Target Field. The commissioners said the team has not been in touch with them in recent days.

“I haven’t heard anything,” said Opat, who indicated he had not received word from the team in “a couple weeks, probably.”

There are still signs of life across the river.

In addition to the St. Paul mayor’s office, the St. Paul Port Authority is working with the Metropolitan Council on possible lease arrangements that would accommodate a stadium on the 10-acre Midway site.

“I don’t have anything new on soccer at this time,” St. Paul City Council member Dai Thao, who represents the Midway area and sponsored the resolution to keep the 10 acres tax-free, said Monday. “I talked to Deputy Mayor (Kristin) Beckmann this morning, and we’re waiting to see what MLS will do.”

Stadium opponent and real estate attorney Jack Hoeschler estimated the vacant Metro Transit “bus barn” property could raise millions of dollars for city coffers if it is put on the tax rolls.

“Annual taxes are about 4 percent of the value of a commercial property,” Hoeschler said. “It’s a foolish deal. This should be tax-paying property. All this is doing is raising the ante for Minneapolis, because that’s where they really want to go.”

Frederick Melo can be reached at 651-228-2172.

Follow him at twitter.com/FrederickMelo.

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For more on Minnesota United’s silence, visit the City Hall Scoop blog at blogs.twincities.com/cityhallscoop.