Vikings detail plans for new training headquarters
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The Vikings laid out a vision for a nearly 200-acre headquarters campus in Eagan this morning, weeks after announcing plans to buy property there along Interstate 494.
Most of the site is the former headquarters of Northwest Airlines, just east of Interstate 35E. The team said it planned to include indoor and outdoor practice facilities for players, commercial office space, a "town center" type retail development as well as a hotel and conference center.
"We're going through the due diligence process," said team vice president Lester Bagley. "There's some zoning and planning changes that would need to be made for this to come to fruition. ... But for us, this is an opportunity to bring a Vikings destination to Eagan ... and establish our home with team headquarters and practice facilities."
Bagley said the team would retain its 12-acre Winter Park site in Eden Prairie, possibly for redevelopment. He said the team just signed a three-year extension for its training camp in Mankato, Minn.
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"It's premature to evaluate whether the Eagan site would be a training camp solution," Bagley said. "But we love Mankato. It's been a great training camp. We'll sort that out in due time."
Team CFO Steve Poppen outlined the preliminary details of the plan at a press conference in Eden Prairie this morning. He declined to put a dollar figure on the development value or disclose the purchase price for two parcels the Vikings owners have acquired: the 185-acre former Northwest Airlines site, as well as an adjacent nine-acre site.
Vikings officials also said they don't know yet whether the former Northwest Airlines buildings would be saved or demolished to make way for new construction.
Poppen said the team would build out as much as three million square feet of space, and could include as many as 800 housing units. A hotel could have 120 to 150 rooms, and a conference center could have several hundred thousand square feet of meeting space.
Poppen said that the timeline remains uncertain, but that the team would like to finish the first phase of the process, a new training facility, before 2020. He said it could take a decade or longer to fully build out the campus. Poppen said that the team hasn't sought any development subsidies yet, but wouldn't rule them out.
If the build out goes as planned the team would have several practice fields as well as a practice stadium that could seat up to 10,000 fans. Chief operating officer Kevin Warren said the Vikings anticipate that the stadium would be available to other users, perhaps hosting a "game of the week" high school game for Twin Cities area teams.
In an interview, Warren said that the Eagan campus is proof that the Wilf family, which owns the Vikings, are in Minnesota to stay. That's contrary to initial charges by skeptics that the new $1.1 billion stadium being built in Minneapolis would give the family a chance to sell off the team for a big gain when the building opened.
"We've said all along that the Wilfs are really community oriented people, they've invested a lot of resources into this community, and this plan, although very early, shows their long term commitment. ... This is a 30, 40, 50 year plan," Warren said.
