SAN DIEGO—Stakeholders are leveraging the newly opened US Bank Stadium in Downtown Minneapolis as a means for economic growth and more, Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority chair Michele Kelm-Helgen tells GlobeSt.com. Kelm-Helgen recently joined the Downtown San Diego Partnership for a special discussion on the stadium's impact on the city of Minneapolis. Why? Downtown Minneapolis and Downtown San Diego share many characteristics as active, engaged and thriving urban centers, and (especially given current discussions about Chargers Stadium), there were potential lessons to be learned from Kelm-Helgen on how the redevelopment of Minneapolis' Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome into US Bank Stadium re-energized economic growth in the city.

Kelm-Helgen was appointed chair of the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority in June 2012 by Governor Mark Dayton. Working in partnership with the Minnesota Vikings, she was the public lead on the construction and design effort of US Bank Stadium. She continues in this position, leading the Authority in the financial oversight role needed to run the new stadium. Michele focuses on sales and marketing of the stadium for major events and bids, works on the Authority partnership with the Vikings, oversees state and local government and community efforts and manages public relations and external affairs.

We spoke exclusively with Kelm-Helgen after the Downtown San Diego Partnership about the lessons learned from that redevelopment and how they might be applied to San Diego.

GlobeSt.com: What were the most important lessons learned from Minnesota's US Bank Stadium?

Kelm-Helgen: We built the new stadium on the same footprint that the old stadium had been on, and we had a really tight footprint. There also was a debate over whether to take the stadium out to the suburbs or stay Downtown, but everybody felt the economic impact would be greatest staying Downtown. It was really important to have a building done that would be very connected to the neighborhood and to the cities; it would be kind of a beautiful iconic addition to the neighborhood and city.

Our old Metrodome had been surrounded by a sea of parking lots that were all empty, which was nice for tailgating but not the highest and best use from the City perspective. There was an opportunity for economic growth from state and city investment, but we needed to do it the right way. Once we had the design of the stadium done and started moving ahead with construction, people knew it was really going to happen and what it was going to look like, and we had incredible interest and invigoration in the economic development of that area.

Right now, within a couple blocks of the stadium, there is $1.4 billion in economic investment completed or underway, and we opened just a month ago. Wells Fargo in particular did a $400-million development with two office towers and housing all around it, and through another partnership between the City, the developer of the Wells Fargo housing towers and the stadium authority, they were able to create an incredible two-block park space. Now, the towers are connected and we use the parking ramp during the day. Employees pay for parking, but they didn't have to invest in their own parking structure. It would have only been used on evenings and weekends, but it became a cash generator, and revenues from parking are being used to pay off the two-block park structure there. We have access to the park for events. Wells Fargo's initial investment has led to private investment, which is unbelievable.

GlobeSt.com: How can these lessons be applied to San Diego's stadium situation?

Kelm-Helgen: We believed in Minnesota that having an NFL team there was important. Our worst nightmare would have been for the Vikings to leave Minnesota. In the city of Minneapolis, that NFL team, the brand and the national and international attention that comes with that are important, so keeping the Vikings there was important. So, from our perspective, having a white-elephant vacant Metrodome would have been a really negative thing, but having an iconic, beautiful stadium meant not just economic development from the stadium but an economic boom.

We have the Super bowl coming in 2018, and there's a $400-million economic impact associated with that. The Final Four have committed in 2019, which will have a $200-millin economic impact; and the summer X Games, ESPN's extreme-sporting event, has committed for the summers of 2017 and 2018, which has an $80-million economic impact associated with it each year. When you look at the concerts, the multi-purpose venue and being able to host and bringing all these other events to our people, it's really important. And we can use it at very subsidized rates for high-school football and baseball championships so the kids don't have to travel outside of Minneapolis for their early spring games, and the marching bands can use it. It's an important resource for the state as well. Other communities could view it in the same way.

GlobeSt.com: What do you think the biggest mistakes are that are made in developing these projects?

Kelm-Helgen: We worked really hard because the state and city have a very significant investment in our stadium. We had a process—we needed to make sure all our stakeholders, neighborhoods, the city government and the city community were involved as the stadium got started. We put together a committee with all the major stakeholders, looking at the exterior design of the stadium and how to really connect it to the neighborhood and the city and make it the most iconic building that fit in with the landscape and design of the city to generate investment. The whole process we used was really key to our success. From the state and city perspective, we needed to be as open and transparent as possible. There is always some skepticism when public dollars are involved along with a private partner, so we needed a public, open, transparent process so people would know what's happening, how the money is being spent and that there was a series of checks and balances in place.

We spoke exclusively with Kelm-Helgen after the Downtown San Diego Partnership about the lessons learned from that redevelopment and how they might be applied to San Diego.

GlobeSt.com: What were the most important lessons learned from Minnesota's US Bank Stadium?

GlobeSt.com: How can these lessons be applied to San Diego's stadium situation?

GlobeSt.com: What do you think the biggest mistakes are that are made in developing these projects?

Instant Insights /

What Downtown SD Can Learn From a Minneapolis Stadium

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