Council panel OKs final plan for Target Center renovation
Sarah Mckenzie : The Journal : March 2, 2016
A $128.9 million renovation plan for Target Center has cleared a key City Council committee.
The final design plan for the city-owned entertainment venue shows a more modern exterior featuring various shades of brown and a large, glassy atrium at the corner of 6th Street & 1st Avenue.
City officials have been working out the details on the proposed renovation project for several years. The agreement has the City of Minneapolis pledging $74 million for the project, the Timberwolves/Lynx paying $49 million and AEG, the arena’s operations manager, contributing $5.9 million.
Kevin Carpenter, the city’s former chief financial officer who has remained part of the Target Center design team, called the project a “labor of love.”
“It took too long for the right reasons because we were working together to come up with a truly transformative, within budget sensible solution to reenergizing this entertainment and basketball arena,” Carpenter told the Council’s Community & Regulatory Services Committee on Tuesday.
City Council Member Lisa Goodman (Ward 7) praised the city’s work on the project.
“The fact that nobody is here really says something about cooperation and the fact that the city is doing its job in cooperation with our partners, because sports facilities finance deals generally generate a lot of high emotion as well as a lot of controversy,” she said.
The full Council will vote on the final project design and budget March 18.
Target Center is scheduled to close for four to five months in the summer of 2017 during construction. It’s expected to open in the fall of 2017.
In addition to a new exterior and lobby, project highlights include three new loading dock bays, a green wall installed along the building on 7th Street with an expanded sidewalk and several interior improvements, including an upgrade of the suite level and other premium spaces.
(Below: The green wall proposed for Target Center along 7th Street.)
