St. Paul may not have received state bonding for projects this session, but it did claim a legislative victory it's been chasing for years: the state will forgive most of the remaining $32.7 million it loaned the city to build Xcel Energy Center.
That doesn't mean that the Minnesota Wild will stop paying rent to St. Paul for use of the arena, money the city used to pay down the loan to the state.
What it does means is that the money now will go toward renovating the arena, a project Wild and Xcel Center spokeswoman Kathy O'Connor said is overdue. "It's the right time for an update," she said.
In 1998, the state made a $65 million interest-free loan toward construction of the $130 million arena, $17 million of which was forgiven when the team agreed to allow amateur and public events. That left a loan of $48 million.
Under the terms of the forgiveness deal in this year's omnibus jobs, housing and commerce bill, St. Paul's annual loan payment will be reduced by $500,000 in 2014 and again in 2015. The balance of the loan will be forgiven in 2016. The city still owes $56.8 million in bonds on the arena, of the $72.7 million it borrowed in 1998.
The Wild and the city will jointly decide how to use the loan windfall for arena improvements, O'Connor said. High on the team's list: seat replacements, widening of concourses, expanding entrances and upgrading scoreboards for the digital era, she said, "All things we feel are important to keeping the arena relevant."
She added that there are no plans to use the money for a nearby practice facility that the team has long desired.
As a tit-for-tat of sorts, the state gave Minneapolis about $33 million over several years to help pay off debt on the downtown library, a last-minute addition to the tax bill intended to right the balance with St. Paul.
