2012 Stone Arch Festival of Arts in the Works

2012 Parade of Homes – Bridgewater Lofts

Come visit us during March to view our 11 fabulous new models and remaining units available to customize! Sales Center Hours during the Parade are: Thursday – Sunday 10-6, weekdays 10-5

Taste Twin Cities DT Skyway Tour – Thurs. Feb. 9th

Time: 2:30pm

Location: 800 LaSalle Plaza (On Hennepin Avenue between 8th & 9th)

Taste Twin Cities Food Tours

While it’s chilly outside, join us as we weave our way through the cozy corners of downtown Minneapolis skyways on a food adventure. We will stroll through the “Broadway” Theatre District and enjoy VIP service as we visit some the newest and hottest award winning restaurant downtown has to offer. The tour includes seeing the Minneapolis skyscraper that was modeled after the Washington Monument and visiting the famous Statue of Mary Richards tossing her hat. Along the way we will also visit quaint eateries that have pride in local ownership; including a favorite since 1932. You will participate in tea sampling, and learn the secrets behind the great food you are enjoying. You’ll leave the tour with a tasty experience of some of the best food finds Minneapolis has to offer all while learning history of downtown and soaking in the local culture.

GUTHRIE CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF

Cat On a Hot Tin Roof
by Tennessee Williams
directed by Lisa Peterson

Run time: 2 hours and 45 minutes including intermission.

In the course of one sultry evening, a prominent Southern dynasty is pushed to the brink when tender memories are relived and life altering secrets are revealed. It’s the 65th birthday of wealthy Southern plantation owner Big Daddy and his family has gathered to celebrate, while sparing him the news that he’s dying of cancer. As one son Brick, a hunky former football hero, mysteriously retreats from his desirable but sexually frustrated wife Maggie, his money hungry brother and sister-in-law plot to secure more than their share of the family fortune. Don’t miss this Pulitzer Prize-winning gem, an emotionally intense drama that sizzles with passion and greed like you’ve never experienced before.

Vikings’ Wilf ‘optimistic’ about Metrodome site

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)—Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf said Wednesday that the team wants a new stadium in the Twin Cities, even if it means building on the current site of the Metrodome.

It was the New Jersey businessman’s strongest signal that he would ultimately accept the site that for months had been his least favorite among a handful of options.

“I’m optimistic that it could be,” Wilf said when asked if the Metrodome’s downtown Minneapolis location could be the site of a sparkling new stadium that he wants to be partially funded by state money.

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Wilf and team officials met privately with Gov. Mark Dayton, several state lawmakers, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and others to discuss tearing down the Metrodome and rebuilding there.

The meeting came after several days in which the team’s bid for public funding appeared on the brink of falling apart, at least for the year, as Dayton proclaimed two other site options unworkable and Wilf was said to be frustrated that a proposal to build in suburban Arden Hills had been discarded.

The group emerged after more than three hours to say the Metrodome site would be the focus of stadium negotiations going forward.

Concerns about the site remain, meeting participants said: the Vikings face a costly and logistically difficult relocation to the University of Minnesota’s football stadium for three seasons, and team officials are concerned the crowded Metrodome location offers too little space for new parking, game-day tailgating, and adjacent development projects.

Another Minneapolis option, on the other side of downtown, appeared to be completely dead. While the Vikings had been warming to the site, opposition on the Minneapolis City Council and its proximity to a historic Catholic Church— whose rector threatened to sue to prevent it—apparently doomed its prospects.

No one was ready to write off the Arden Hills option entirely. Wilf said while the team still has hopes for Arden Hills, “we will leave it up to the legislative working group to decide where they would want us to work hardest at.”

The Vikings have sought a replacement to the Metrodome for nearly a decade, contending it no longer generates sufficient revenue for the team to keep up with other NFL clubs, most of which are playing in new or renovated facilities. The Vikings used to share the building with the Twins and the University of Minnesota, but both opened new stadiums within the last two years.

Building a new stadium on the same spot as the Metrodome is an old idea, with a number of plans and blueprints sketched out in recent years.

But the team backed the Arden Hills proposal last spring after state lawmakers told them to find a willing host. As Minneapolis leaders waffled on rebuilding downtown, Ramsey County commissioners swooped in to offer a large suburban swath of land in the St. Paul suburb that once held an Army ammunition plant.

The team envisioned not only a stadium but space for a training camp and museum, plenty of room for tailgating and other game-day activities, and the possibility of related retail and hotel development that prompted some critics to dub the project “Zygi-World.”

The Ramsey County plan hit a major roadblock by requiring a local sales tax increase to raise about a third of a $1.1 billion price tag. The Vikings are on tap to pay about another third of that total, and state lawmakers say they’re likely to raise the final third by expanding gambling and using the tax proceeds from that. But the Ramsey County sales tax increase has little support, which would make the plan untenable.

“We’ve put some confinements around them,” said Sen. Julie Rosen, the chief state Senate author of the stadium bill. “If they can come back to us with another proposal to keep this alive, by the end of the week, then we’ll take another look at it. At this point, it’s not doable as far as I’m concerned.”

The current Metrodome site plan is cheaper, about $920 million, and Rybak has offered to divert an existing city sales tax to help pay a share. That will require the support of the Minneapolis City Council, whose members have met the mayor’s stadium push with skepticism.

Rybak said having the team on board with the Metrodome location would make a big difference. “I think every Vikings fan knows it’s easier to get down the field if the team is moving in the same direction,” he said after the meeting.

One of the costs of making the Metrodome site work could be coming up with an additional $100 million to refurbish the Target Center basketball arena, the upkeep of which is currently the responsibility of Minneapolis taxpayers—a fact that doesn’t sit well with Minneapolis councilmembers.

Rybak said the Target Center money would be necessary to getting a Metrodome deal through the council, though Rep. Morrie Lanning, the stadium bill’s chief House author, said that cost votes in the Legislature.

“Any idea out there that we have is going to gain us some votes or lose us some votes,” Lanning said. “That’s why this is so difficult to put this together. Because you have to gauge—is it going to help us get this job done, or is it going to keep us from getting this job done?”