A bold idea for Minneapolis: Tear down City Center and build a new Wolves arena
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The City Center complex. Photo: Nick Halter/Axios
If Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore are serious about building a new basketball arena, picking a high-profile site in the middle of downtown could be a huge win.
State of play: The duo still needs formal approval from NBA owners to take control of the Timberwolves. Once they do, they intend to build a privately financed arena to replace the league's second oldest venue, Target Center, The Athletic reported in June.
Why it matters: Previous speculation on where to build an arena — and the United FC and Vikings stadiums before that — was focused on the Farmers Market site on the fringe of downtown. But with real estate values plummeting in the core of downtown, the new owners should take a look at the City Center complex.
Zoom in: Located at 33 South Sixth St., City Center is a massive complex that includes Minneapolis' fourth tallest tower, plus a Marriott hotel and retail complex that stretches from Nicollet Mall to Hennepin Avenue.
- An arena here could have an entrance on Nicollet Mall and another on Hennepin, which would bring much-needed evening and weekend foot traffic to a downtown core that has long been too dependent on office workers.
- Imagine a Wolves or Lynx playoff game with fans bar hopping on a pedestrian-only Nicollet Mall where open containers are allowed, as Mayor Jacob Frey has proposed.
The intrigue: Tearing down a massive complex like this might sound absurd because it sold for $320 million in 2018, but not if you consider a nearby tower with a similar story.
- Ameriprise Financial was the sole tenant in the 960,000-square-foot Ameriprise Finance Center, but decided in 2022 to consolidate its workers to a building it owns nearby.
- The building just sold for $6.25 million, or a 97% discount from its 2016 sale price of $200 million.
Between the lines: Roughly 85% of the 1.2 million square feet of office space in City Center is leased by Target Corp. through 2031, but the retailer in 2021 consolidated its employees to nearby properties and ceased operations in the complex. Aside from a few smaller firms, the tower is dark.
- Target has been trying to find companies to sublease its space for four years, but it's not had much — if any — luck and continues to pay millions per year in rent. Landlord Samsung, which did not respond to a request for comment, will eventually have to try to find new office tenants despite there already being 10 million square feet of vacant space downtown.
- The building's assessed value has already fallen to $139 million, but as recent sales have revealed, downtown buildings are trading for far less than their assessed values.
Why it might work
There's a reason why City Center sold for so much a few years ago: It's in a great location.
🏗 A new arena could be linked up to the old Target Center site through Mayo Clinic Square, where the Wolves and Lynx headquarters and practice facility are located.
- Target Center could be demolished and turned into a Wolves/Lynx district, where the teams could develop gathering spaces and buildings like the Bucks have done in Milwaukee.
🚗 This configuration would also allow for a skyway connection from the A and B parking ramps, and the arena would be only one block from the Nicollet Mall light rail station that has Blue and Green line service.
🌆 While losing a massive tower like City Center would take away some of the skyline's clout, the brutalist design is considered by some to be the ugliest in downtown.
🏢 Removing 1.2 million square feet of office space would help stabilize other downtown properties by eliminating some of the competition.
Why it might not work
This would be a complicated deal to pull off.
🍽 While the office tower has its challenges, restaurant tenants like Fhima's, Tom's Watch Bar and Fogo de Chão have invested in pricey buildouts.
🛏 There's a separately owned, full-service Marriott hotel that underwent a major renovation in 2020 and is assessed at $59 million.
💰 Even if the landlords for City Center and the hotel want to sell, they would likely need signoff from their lenders.
🏟 While the 4.75-acre site is larger than Target Center's (3.4 acres), it would still be among the smallest footprints in the NBA. New arenas in Milwaukee (10 acres), Detroit (12 acres) and San Francisco (12 acres) have been built on much larger sites, though some of their land was for ancillary uses.
- Wolves executives have said the tight layout makes for narrow concourses and long bathroom and concessions lines.
- The City Center site is boxed in on three sides by mostly historic or high-value buildings.
The bottom line: Even if City Center is too difficult of a deal to pull off, A-Rod and Lore should still think more about the middle of downtown, which has suddenly become more affordable.