St. Paul, Minnesota Wild look for state help in Xcel Energy Center renovation

The Xcel Energy Center was built in downtown St. Paul in 2000, as a way to draw an NHL expansion team to Minnesota.

It worked, opening the door for the Minnesota Wild.

But a quarter-century after it opened, St. Paul city leaders and Wild executives say it is time for the city-owned arena and adjoining facilities to get a renovation.

“Our goal is to renovate not only the Xcel Energy Center, but the Roy Wilkins Auditorium that’s right next to it, as well as the RiverCentre,” St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said. “In a way that has the power, the potential to take what’s currently a $383 million economic impact every year and increase that by $100 million a year."

The project is estimated to cost $769 million. The Wild, St. Paul and Ramsey County plan to cover about half of that.

Mayor Melvin Carter and others will ask the state Legislature to pick up around $397 million of the project cost.

The project would include updates to the arena’s HVAC systems, security and accessibility, seating, and new street-level, public-facing bars and restaurants that Carter said will help bring people to the arena before, during and after events.

In addition to the Wild, the Minnesota Frost women’s professional hockey team plays at the arena. It also hosts concerts from artists like Billie Eilish and Janet Jackson, comedy shows and other events.

Carter acknowledges that the state is facing a tighter budget outlook going forward, but he said there is some flexibility in the request.

“There’s options that could include actually releasing the bonds in later years, because obviously would take a significant amount of time,” he said. “But it would be helpful to have the appropriations now so that we’d know that we have a project, and we can start planning the multi-year work that it requires.”

Carter and others will present their request to the Minnesota House Capital Investment Committee Thursday and a Senate committee next week.

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