City of St. Paul - Xcel Energy Arena

Bringing Back the State of Hockey: In 1997, Minnesota was awarded a new National Hockey League franchise which brought the professional sport back to a state well-known for hockey. Building a new arena for the Minnesota Wild Team was a fantastic opportunity to be designed and constructed in 27 months. The City of Saint Paul, the State of Minnesota, and the Team contributed public and private funding. Since public funds were being used, the City of Saint Paul desired an independent management team to ensure the construction quality, program requirements, and use of funds met their standards. CPMI provided this service. We helped develop the building requirements with the City and the Team, tracked financial and critical issues, audited and authorized payments to consultants and the construction manager. We also were the interface between the construction and the convention center staff to ensure proper scheduling, communication, and minimize the impact on City events.

The Pucks in Our Court: On time and on budget, the first puck dropped in the new arena on October 11, 2000. It was a significant construction project in a downtown urban area adjacent to the recently constructed RiverCentre Convention Center, also managed by CPMI. The construction manager, architect, subcontractors, and CPMI worked long hours on-site to keep the project on schedule. Named by ESPN in 2004 as one of the “Best Overall Sports Venues," the result is an 18,000 seat Arena featuring 74 suites, a team store, ticket office complex, an impressive press box, two full-service kitchens, a state-of-the-art scoreboard LED ribbon display around the perimeter of the seating area, and loading docks. Overall, this project brought the state of hockey back to the state of Minnesota.