Dr. Bill McGuire, a part-owner of the Minnesota United soccer team, faced tough questions from not one but two mayoral candidates flanking him Thursday when the Union Park District Council held an information session at the Midpointe Event Center on Pascal Street.

With structural steel likely to roll into the site of St. Paul’s future Major League Soccer stadium in September, the district council is assembling a task force of neighborhood residents to help sort through construction and game-day concerns.

The task force will include members of the Union Park neighborhood group and the nearby Hamline-Midway Coalition. Non-voting members from the Frogtown Neighborhood Association and Summit-University District Council are also likely to take part.

The goal is to tally complaints, vet neighborhood questions and disseminate information as construction of the $150 million stadium moves forward south of University Avenue between Pascal Street and Snelling Avenue.

Pile-drivers have finished breaking earth and overhead electrical lines have been relocated from the southern portion of the future stadium.

19,400 SEATS, 18-30 GAMES

McGuire said the latest stadium plans call for 19,400 seats, and the facility will host 18 to 30 soccer games per year, including the championship game for the annual Hmong Freedom Festival, which takes place around July 4.

McGuire: 19,400 seats. 18 – 30 games/soccer events, including Hmong festival. Yankee Stadium is 85 pct mass transit. pic.twitter.com/YKOTIPS7Mh — FredMelo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) July 14, 2017

In an effort to protect the stadium’s natural grass, non-soccer related events, such as concerts, will be limited, he said.

The task force also will have the broader mission of helping provide information to the public as redevelopment of the Midway Shopping Center takes place.

Lee Krueger, president and CEO of the St. Paul Port Authority, said Thursday he was still in talks with the real estate firm Irgens, a developer known for commercial and healthcare projects in Milwaukee, Chicago and Phoenix. Related Articles As memories of George Floyd fade, activists make sure his legacy does not

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Irgens has not yet signed a final development agreement to allow it to reorganize the shopping center, which is still owned by RK Midway of New York.

In the short-term, the goal is to put an experienced developer in place to help relocate small and large tenants to make room for the stadium’s northern end and two grass plazas. Those properties include the building occupied by anchor tenant Rainbow Foods, and the site’s mortgage debts may need to be paid in full prior to demolition.

Krueger said some tenant leases will expire “naturally,” while others will have to be renegotiated.

Addressing an intimate crowd at Thursday’s information session, a representative of general contractor Mortenson Construction informed neighborhood residents that a new project office in the former Furniture Barn storefront south of Snelling and University avenues would also take their questions on a walk-in basis. The Mortenson office is staffed from about 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. most workdays.

Port Authority's Lee Krueger says master lease/development agreement with private developer are still not complete pic.twitter.com/67Mg0ejKPC — FredMelo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) July 13, 2017

He said the pile-driving that took some residents by surprise a few weeks ago is finished. With earth broken, the early semblance of a superstructure will take shape after structural steel arrives in September. A building permit application will likely be submitted to the city in the next week or two.

CAMPAIGN TRAILS

The information session drew at least a handful of stadium supporters, but Sarah McNally wasn’t one of them.

McNally, who lives within four blocks of the stadium, said few neighborhood benefits have been spelled out, and responsibility for basic services such as litter pick-up remains unclear.

Mayoral candidate Tom Goldstein, a critic of the privately-funded stadium project, said the team’s “community benefits” agreement with the city lacks teeth and does not commit Minnesota United to perform specific charitable works or services in the surrounding neighborhoods.

An aide from the office of City Council Member Dai Thao, who represents the area, responded that the team has made broad commitments toward partnering with St. Paul youth soccer teams, ethnic food vendors and local civic or nonprofit groups. The city council has also recommended the creation of a community fund to address neighborhood issues rising from stadium events, though nothing has been finalized.

“You’re going to team with other soccer teams?” McNally said. “That’s called doing business. That’s called playing soccer. I don’t play soccer.” Related Articles Patriots running back pulled before game on news of father’s death

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Seated across the room, fellow mayoral candidate Tim Holden called the stadium’s tax exemptions at the Midway site unconscionable, adding that it’s the “best” piece of developable property in Minnesota.

Holden’s choice words drew widespread laughs from the audience, including from Midway Pro-Bowl proprietor Scott Koecheler, a fellow stadium critic and longtime tenant of the Midway Shopping Center.

Koecheler said he’s been kept in the dark as to when he’ll have to relocate his bar and bowling center, which will clearly have to move to make room for the stadium’s northern nose.

“Nobody’s talking with anybody,” Koecheler said later.

More information: A Union Park District Council webpage about the stadium and surrounding redevelopment of the Midway Shopping Center includes announcements and frequently asked questions.