Chair of the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority, Michele Kelm-Helgen, issued the following statement regarding the construction schedule for the new Multi-Purpose Stadium:
“The MSFA and the Minnesota Vikings have been working towards the development and construction of the new Minnesota Multi-Purpose Stadium. We have been on budget and on schedule up to this point.
Today, the MSFA board had a report from the Hammes Company, the MSFA’s construction consultants, on the details of an updated construction schedule. The project can meet the July 2016 opening schedule if the MSFA and the Vikings finalize negotiations on the Use Agreement (UA) and the Development Agreement (DA) by September 15th.
Last week the team cancelled meetings on those agreements and yesterday notified the MSFA that they will not resume negotiations on these two critically important agreements until our additional due diligence into the New Jersey ruling regarding the Wilf’s is complete.
The schedule laid out today has construction beginning in November to meet the substantial completion date of July 2016. To meet this aggressive timeline, it is imperative that the MSFA and the Vikings work on these two issues concurrently – negotiate the UA and the DA and complete the additional due diligence required by the recent court decision. If these negotiations do not resume until September 15th, the entire schedule will slip a month.
Having received numerous questions about the schedule from the public the MSFA thought it was of critical importance to clarify the construction schedule.
Today the MSFA urged the Vikings organization to come back to the negotiating table by Monday, August 26th to ensure that the stadium project remains on time and on budget. The MSFA is ready to work evenings and weekends, if necessary, with the Vikings to finalize these important agreements to keep the July 2016 schedule.”
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Jenn Hathaway
Director of Communications
[061312_MSFA LOGO_FINAL.jpg]Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority
900 South 5th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55415
office: 612-335-3308
cell: 612-816-1710
email: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
www.msfa.com<http://www.msfa.com/>