Q&A with Mike Opat

We visited Hennepin County commissioner  Mike Opat in late March to figure out if the Twins Stadium is gonna get built. He says the county could start condemnation proceedings tomorrow or things could drag on for weeks.

County commissioner Mike Opat’s struggle to land a Twins stadium in Hennepin County has been a lonely one. And Opat, forty-six, did not expect to run into a passel of pain trying to acquire the land. We sat down to discuss why the effort got sidetracked, and whether the Twins, who stand to gain so much, will pick up some costs to make construction happen. 

In hindsight, what would you do differently?
I would have had the Twins buy an option on the site. . . . I wouldn’t have drawn the site so specifically. [The legislature] wanted specificity. We would have had an opt-out that would have liberated us to look for other sites that wouldn’t take $90 million in infrastructure. We’re building a $7 million plaza over I–394. You don’t need it if you’re out at Brookdale.

So you think $13.5 million is a fair price.
A certified appraising firm took a look at the land, taking into account environmental remediation—if you’re going to build anything on this site, you’re going to have to clean it up and correct the soil so it can hold the weight of the structure. And that’s the number that’s been in the paper, $13.5 million.

So why haven’t you started condemnation?
The landowners and the county aren’t the only parties. BNSF [Railway, which has a line skirting the site] is a big question mark. [The Twins] have to tie up some details with them—and they’re not the easiest to deal with.

But you love this site, right?
I like it. I don’t love it. Target Center is there. Light rail is there. I like that. The freeway ramp and parking is nice, but you could have surface parking if you were more suburban. You could get gold plate for $90 million. But you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t because you end up with folks saying “the Cedar Lake bike trail [rerouting] isn’t idyllic.” Well, what do you want out of us?

That’s the old Minneapolis thing . . . .
And when two-thirds of the money is coming from the suburbs, it gets a little old.

The land owners have been vilified . . . .
Rightly so.

How did you expect this to go?
I expected them to be willing sellers. Until the bill passed, they were. Now they’re profiteers.

We saw you sitting in Starbucks with Jerry Bell last Thursday. How are the Twins going to be involved in the solution to all of this?
The Twins have the most to gain and the most to lose. They have enough invested to stay the course on this site. And we are going to spend 350 million public dollars on this. We’re going to spend all $90 million. We’re not going to approve a substandard infrastructure plan to [save money to pay the land owners]. The Twins understand that. The Twins need to think about what they have to do to keep it from falling apart. And BNSF needs to understand they can’t be obstructionist or we’ll make sure we’re not helpful with them when they want something. Representative Oberstar has been great with that. . . . It seems to me that it’s taking an inordinate amount of time for people to make a lot of money.

There seemed to be some Democratic opposition to “Pawlenty getting a Twins stadium.” But you led on this. Why does your party lack such long-term strategic foresight? 
I think we’re better off with the Twins than without them. I think public works projects are good. I come from a building and construction trade background. When people are working, we are better off, and it’s OK to build things that the middle class uses, even if you have to hold your nose about the salaries pitchers earn. I think sometimes the party decides “that’s not going to solve poverty, therefore, we shouldn’t do it,” and I just don’t think that way. I do think the party is learning some things about suburban influence. When Melissa Hortman wins in Brooklyn Park, when some of the seats in Minnetonka go DFL . . . people are coming around to thinking we don’t have to be left of left.