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Twins stadium on shaky ground

A dispute is raging over the price of land where the new Twins stadium is to be built.

After all these years - what appeared to be a done deal - is actually, no deal.

When the county pushed the ballpark financing bill through the legislature, it named a specific piece of land in downtown Minneapolis. But the county neither owned the land, nor had an option to buy that land.

What's more the county never sat down with land owners to negotiate the price, until just a few weeks ago - almost a year after the bill became law.

The county could seize the land - but that could cost them.

How did all this happen?

The very notion of a Twins stadium going up - on eight specific acres of "parking lot" in downtown Minneapolis - was the brain child of Bruce Lambrecht.

He and his partner - Rich Pogin - bought the land back in the mid-1980s by recruiting many people to buy one-or-two-percent shares.

There are about 70 investors in this land today.

They call themselves "Land Partners," and they've made their money by using the land as a parking lot for the last 20 years.

Lambrecht's idea was to put a ballpark smack in the middle of it.

"The original concept of Twinsville," he says was, "a ballpark with mixed use housing and office space on either side."

They worked it hard, lobbying the legislature and the Twins, going back to the year 2000.

They became very serious in 2003, hammering out an option agreement for the land - with the county and city.

The county can't negotiate directly for land like this. They had to go through the city to set everything up - and then make the deal transferable.

KARE 11 News obtained a copy of that deal.

In it, the government offered $12.9 million in cash plus about five acres of nearby land - in exchange for the Land Partners property they wanted for the stadium.

In the end, there'd essentially be about 24 acres of land in a long narrow strip on the southwest side of the city, with the ballpark in the middle and Land Partners would have the land on either side.

The option agreement was signed in January, 2004 - and was good for one year.

When the legislative effort failed in 2004, Pogin and his partners began making other plans.

"It was our opinion," he said, "and the opinion of most people involved in the ballpark discussions, that the ballpark was dead."

Still, Land Partners thought they had something better moving in.

Light rail - and the North Star line - would be dropping people right at their door.

They began putting together plans with one of the largest developers in the world - Hines Company - for what they called "the Grand Central Station" of Minneapolis.

Pogin said he began meeting with some of the finest architectural firms in the country who told him, "You don't want the stadium!" he says he was told, "You want transit oriented development."

Meanwhile in 2006, against all odds, Hennepin county officials succeeded in their effort to lobby the legislature for a new stadium.

Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat bristles at the idea that the land owners weren't intimately involved in the success of the stadium.

"To suggest that they'd changed course in 2006, and this came as a surprise, is a ridiculous notion."

Still, Opat acknowledges that at no time during the '06 session did the county, the landowners, and the team sit down together and talk about how the plan would come together.

"There was no reason to do that," he said.

When asked how he could justify the idea that there was 'no reason' to do it, when the law clearly involves the Twins, the county and the landowners, he said: "It's a long way from drafting a bill to having it pass into law. That would be like putting the cart before the horse."

When this reporter suggested that the cart before the horse was getting a law that specifies land he neither owned nor controlled, Opat responded, "I'm sure people can go to that conclusion, but the county plans road projects on land we don't own."

Pogin said he could not believe that he never heard from the Twins or the county throughout the legislative session. "I thought it was bizarre to say the least."

Land Partners told us they came to the conclusion the county wouldn't seek to negotiate the land. They figured the county would just show up one day and take it. Counties can do that. They still have to pay whatever the court decides is "fair market value". The land owners figured that would work.

But when Hennepin county began the process to condemn the land - in court - they showed up with an appraisal that was for much less than that 2004 option.

Thee years later, the offer amounts to nearly the same cash offer - about $13 million - but there's no land trade in the deal. And the county is seeking more land than initially discussed.

They want another couple acres - currently owned by Land Partners - for a staging ground for the construction. All for the same price. The construction hold would last three and a half years.

Pogin says there's no way that will happen, "There will be no vote for any deal remotely close to what the county's proposed."

Over the last week, Hennepin county, the Twins, and columnists in the Star Tribune have come out swinging at the land owners, calling them 'greedy' and out for 'blood'.

Among the 70 landowners, is 69-year-old Kay Green who is, "quite surprised to hear she's a greedy landowner," because, "I don't feel like a greedy landowner!"

And Ted Schultze says he's flabbergasted that the county pushed through the law, without knowing the value of the land, "I cannot conceive in my wildest imagination that they did not have this number absolutely dialed in."

Opat insists the landowners actively marketed the sight as available for a ballpark, "They marketed themselves as willing sellers," he says.

But Pogin explains, "When you say we're a 'willing seller of the land' that does not mean the buyer gets to name the price. It just means you won't object to an independent determination of the value of your property."

The landowners are not balking at selling the land.

In fact, if they wanted to kill the deal they probably could.

Certain court motions could bring the thing to a grinding halt.

The landowners have waived all such rights. Still, they say they do want "fair market value." And they say the county knows that is not what's on the table.

"They don't believe their own number," Pogin says, "because if they believed their own number, they would deposit that money and they'd own the land and they'd be off and running."

It's true that bulldozers would move in the second the county put the $13 million they say the land is worth, with the court.

But they'd be liable for more if the court decides it's worth more later on.

Mike Opat admits, that could be very risky. "Sometimes there are surprise awards," he says, "Good and bad. What if we're wrong?"

If they're wrong, the consequences can be substantial.

KARE 11 looked at what happened with several downtown Minneapolis properties that were condemned this decade.

At Ninth and Nicollet the appraisal came in at "$3.2 million" - the courts granted $7.5 million.

At Sixth and Nicollet the appraisal said "$750,000" but the court granted $2 million.

And at Seventh and Hennepin the appraisal said "$1.3 million" and the court granted $2.9 million.

That's more than twice the appraised value every time.

What would the landowners consider a fair market price? They're preparing a number now, since the county has them in court to take the land.

They say they'd be happy to accept the court's determined value.

Read the timeline of events according to members of 'Land Partners II'