If Legislature OKs stadium, Lambrecht is optimistic about Twinsville

By KEVIN SWEENEY

Journal Editor

NEW ULM -- Proponents of the "Twinsville" plan for building a new ballpark for the Minnesota Twins think the leadership is there for passing a workable ballpark bill in the Minnesota Legislature this year, but they are going to the grassroots to help push the legislation along.

Bruce Lambrecht, president of Twinsville, LLC, his partner Rich Pogin and employee Mike Sable spoke at the New Ulm Rotary Club meeting Tuesday about the chances of the Legislature passing a stadium bill this year.

If the bill passes, Twinsville is confident it has the best site for the stadium in downtown Minneapolis.

Twinsville's plan features a retracting roof ballpark in Minneapolis' Warehouse District, a block away from the Target Center on what is now a parking lot owned by Lambrecht's firm, Investment Management, Inc.

The site has a number of advantages, including having a willing seller of an assembled site; location near existing and soon-to-be- built transportation infrastructure with plenty of parking, restaurants and hotels within walking distance.

The stadium would be the centerpiece of a larger project to develop the blocks around the stadium into a new community of commercial and residential properties. This neighborhood development plan, developed last year after several years of pushing a stadium plan foundered in the Legislature, has revitalized the debate about professional stadiums, said Lambrecht.

Twinsville proponents hope this is the year the Legislature will finally come through with a workable plan, said Lambrecht.

"Why now? If you've refinanced your mortgage in the past year you know that interest rates are very low now," said Lambrecht. Construction costs will only get higher in the future, he said.

The political support is there, said Lambrecht. Gov. Tim Pawlenty is leading the push in the Capitol, and statewide, people are beginning to push to get the stadium crisis solved. Contraction by Major League Baseball, which the Twins narrowly avoided a couple of years ago, is still a possibility in the future.

The question is, of course, who's going to pay for it and how.

Pogin, the financial expert with Twinsville, said it would cost about $531 million to build the kind of stadium with a retractable roof at the Twinsville site.

Pawlenty has proposed a financing plan that would have the Twins, private investors and their fans put up about a third, or $156 million. The local community where the stadium is located would pay $331 million, and the state would provide $44 million in the form of "tax increment" financing, bonds that would be paid with the income tax increases and related to the stadium and baseball.

Hennepin County and Minneapolis propose that the Twins provide $120 million; the local community provide $311 million, and the state provide $100 million.

Twinsville's proposal is similar to Hennepin County's, but it would capture more revenue from a couple of taxes that expire in 2005. One is the 6.2 percent tax on rental cars at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport. Twinsville proposes the state extend that tax and commit the revenue to the ballpark plan. That would fund $118 million in bonds. There is also a 2.5 percent statewide tax on alcohol sales that will expire in 2005. Twinsville proposes that 0.5 percent of that tax be retained. This would finance $105 million in bonds.

Legislation is being debated now in the House of Representatives, but it has not yet come up in the Senate. The Legislature is meeting until May 17, though Pawlenty has said he may call a special session if he doesn't like the budget balancing measures taken by the Legislature.

Lambrecht, who is a New Ulm native, said he and his partners have been talking to groups around the state and asking people to contact their legislators and encourage them to support the stadium legislation. A phone call or personal letter from a constituent does a lot, said Lambrecht, to help legislators stand up to anti-stadium pressure.

Lambrecht said the ballpark issue is not about building something for billionaire team owners.

"This is a public facility we are asking a private business to fund up to one-third," Lambrecht said. "This is for Minnesotans, not just the Twins."

Twins baseball is part of the fabric of Minnesota life, said Lambrecht, and a stadium will help preserve that, as well as provide economic development opportunities in the area surrounding the park.