Reusse: Timberwolves owners’ plan for development around a new arena seems like a very suburban idea

The Timberwolves entered the second round of the NBA playoffs in May against Golden State. This caused a few one-time newspaper reporters now with national connections to show up at Target Center.

They were staying at downtown hotels near the arena. And one veteran of covering events such as “Falcons 30, Vikings 27″ in January 1999, and Kevin Garnett bringing his imaginary weapons to defeat Sacramento in a seventh game in 2004 (still the best Wolves series ever), said to me:

“What is going on with your town? You can walk blocks without finding any retail. You can’t buy a shirt.”

Best I could do was point out there was a Target a short walk from the hotel. That wasn’t quite in his wheelhouse. He was more of a guy for Hubert White — the high-end store for the finely tailored businessperson that regrettably gave up in 2023, after nearly 90 years downtown.

The answer many people insist on bellowing is that downtown fell into this decline when George Floyd was murdered five years ago, and the violent protest not only destroyed much of Lake Street and other areas of south Minneapolis, it also spread to downtown.

That perception of downtown danger has been part of it, certainly, but the opinion here is the retail disappearance is based more on the COVID-19 restrictions that led to people being ordered to work at home.

Since then, all attempts to get these spoiled brats back into their downtown offices in similar numbers have failed miserably.

We’ve been in the same first-ring suburb near Hwy. 100 since 1988. Never seen as much traffic as in the past four years. Cars trying to make that turn from I-394 through the Lowry Tunnel now can be found backed up a mile at 1:30 p.m.

You know why that is, don’t you? All those people “working at home” are taking three, four trips a day to do personal chores.

That’s my theory and I’m sticking with it.

Which gets us back to Target Center, and its vital importance to downtown as home to the Wolves and Lynx and a variety of concerts.

Yes, the North Loop is doing fine, with those young urbanites living and visiting friends down there, but it’s frightful to think of what that already-troubled traditional core of the city — First Avenue to the Nicollet Mall — will be like without the arena to feed it some people 125 nights a year.

There’s going to be a new arena for the basketball teams by 2030, and while dreamers contemplate locations in the Target Center/Target Field area, this was apparent to an old skeptic such as me:

As new co-owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez offered the required lip service to Minneapolis as that arena’s potential location, they were also talking up the idea of surrounding said arena with nightspots, drinking spots, apartments, a hotel … you know, like the mini-city that the Atlanta Braves created surrounding Truist Park, 11 miles from downtown Atlanta.

The Braves even gave the area they created a name since moving there in 2017: The Battery.

Makes it sound a little New York-ee. Makes it sound a little urban. And it’s much catchier than “home of white flight,” which was the accusation offered by several Black leaders in Atlanta — often advertised as home to more successful Black-owned enterprise than any place in the country.

Didn’t stop the Braves from tomahawk-chopping their way from urban Turner Field (the modified Olympic Stadium, now modified into a 25,000-seat football stadium for the Georgia State Panthers) to Cobb County, which has increasing diversity — but not in the usually-packed Truist Park stands.

Lore offered the perfunctory “you can envision it downtown” for a new arena, then took this SGA-style dive away from that:

“We have to obviously find the right location that can support the vision for this new [arena]. We want to make sure we don’t have to sacrifice the vision for what this could be.”

On occasion, I’m required to confer with my younger (aren’t they all) friend and broadcasting colleague on these matters — Judd Zulgad from SKOR North — about the Timberwolves.

“They’re gone from Minneapolis — not just the suburbs, the distant suburbs," Zulgad said. “Hotels, apartment buildings, bars, restaurants … just like the Braves and the Patriots. And don’t underestimate this: thousands of parking spaces.

“The City of Minneapolis is charging 25 bucks a game to park in the ramps next to the arena and Target Field, and the Twins and the Timberwolves get none of the revenue. It’s a city operation.

“Build the arena on your land, you surround it with parking and it’s your money. Forty bucks, 3,000 spots … that’s $120,000 a game for parking."

Plus valet, Judd. “Right! Plus valet,” he said.

A regular Asteroid City somewhere out there in the current boondocks. We skeptics already see that.

There might even be A-Rod’s Apparel, where the well-to-do visiting media member can buy a very expensive shirt.