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Stadium Watch Blog
Tim Nelson

Mortenson Construction picked to build new Vikings stadium

MSFA executive director Ted Mondale and chairwoman Michele Kelm-Helgen sign construction services agreement.

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Minnesota Sports Faciliites Authority executive director Ted Mondale with the just-signed construction contract with Mortenson.

The Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority  picked Minneapolis-based Mortenson Construction to build the new Vikings stadium in downtown Minneapolis.

Vikings team vice president Lester Bagley said the team will likely play two full seasons at the University of Minnesota football stadium while the new stadium is built .

Mortsenson is already known for most of the Twin Cities sports landmarks, including the Target Center, the Xcel Energy Center, TCF Bank Stadium and Target Field

The company also build the landmark Minneapolis Central Library, the Minneapolis Convention Center, and the in-progress Orchestra Hall renovation, on the south end of downtown.

  • Check out some of the space age designs that Dallas-based HKS Inc. proposed for the stadium that Mortenson is going to build . 

Mortenson was contending with Arizona-based Hunt Construction, which built Lucas Oil Field, where the Indianapolis Colts play, and the University of Phoenix Stadium, where the Arizona Cardinals play. They also build landmarks like Citi Field, and Brooklyn's Barclays Center.

Hunt sweetened its bid by teaming up with Minneapolis-based Kraus-Anderson, which built the U of M's Amplatz Children's Hospital and the 35-story Dain Rauscher/Nieman Marcus Plaza in Minneapolis, as well as Lawson.Commons in downtown St. Paul.

The pick comes as no real surprise: Mortenson actually got the job once before, back in 2008, when the then-Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission was planning its "Metrodome Next" intiative. Mortenson has also been in on the ground floor in the latest project, lobbying for state aid for the project up at the Legislature, offering construction schedule and cost estimates and otherwise doing the legwork for the runup to the stadium bill signed last May.

The construction management services agreement is the biggest contract in the stadium project. The stadium itself is expected to cost about $822 million of the total $975 million cost of the planning, land acquisition, building and other elements of getting a new stadium open.

Initial designs for what Mortenson is supposed to be working on are expected to be unveiled in a few weeks by the MSFA and HKS architects. Groundbreaking is scheduled for October, and the Vikings should kick off their first game there in the second half of 2016, if all goes as planned.