Star Tribune
Years in the making, Rochester closing in on site for $65M regional sports complex
ROCHESTER – Voters here approved a $205 million local sales referendum last fall largely on the promise of a spectacular new regional sports complex that would add tons of recreational space to the city.
More than eight months later, that promise is closer to coming to fruition.
Rochester officials are close to choosing a site for the sports complex after years of discussions, offering the first real glimpse of the estimated $65 million facility. City staff have narrowed down three possible sites for the complex and will make recommendations to the Rochester City Council within the next few weeks.
“That would give us our direction to firm up that preferred site,” said Ben Boldt, Rochester’s head of recreation and sports.
The sites include part of the former IBM campus in the northwest part of town, as well as land owned by Seneca Foods near the Shoppes on Main commercial district by 45th Street SE. A third site just northwest of the city in Kalmar Township — off Valleyhigh Drive and the 60th Avenue roundabout — also is under consideration.
All three sites have space for the proposed 125,000-square foot complex, which would occupy up to 90 acres of land. Boldt said the sites were chosen above others closer to the downtown area because they’re easily accessible by highway and large enough to accommodate the city’s plans, as well as potential future expansions.
“We really envision this facility being both a great community resource but also having that regional impact in events,” Boldt said.
The complex has been in the works for several years, but city officials have faced hiccups along the project’s track.
It was included in Rochester’s 2022 local sales tax referendum proposal, but didn’t get lawmaker approval that year after the Minnesota Legislature adjourned without a tax bill. Around the same time, the Rochester City Council voted down a $60,000 proposal to hire LSE Architects out of Minneapolis for predesign work on the complex, citing concerns over spending money on a project that hadn’t received the necessary legislative approval to bring before voters.
The council rectified those concerns last year once lawmakers signed off on bringing a sales tax referendum before voters last fall. Consultant ISG surveyed residents for several months before issuing recommendations.
Under the proposal, the complex would have 12 multiuse outdoor turf fields for various sports as well as a dozen pickleball courts and a basketball court. Inside, the gymnasium would have enough space for eight full-sized basketball courts (or 16 volleyball courts), as well as play areas for children, changing rooms, rock climbing fixtures and room for future expansions among other features.
It also would be set up to host regional tournaments and could economically benefit the area by as much as $13 million to $46 million annually, according to ISG’s projections.
“With the limited facilities in Rochester … the city has the opportunity to develop a significant client base within the local and sub-regional market,” consultants wrote in a July 2023 report.
The complex is expected to run at a shortfall of a little more than $50,000 a year.
Rochester officials are partnering with outside group Oak View Group-Sports Academy to help design the complex and operate the complex once construction’s complete, likely in 2026.
Oak View Group-Sports Academy will conduct another market survey to tweak the current proposal before finalizing plans. If all goes well, construction will start in spring 2025.
Star Tribune
More than 40 years later and thanks to advances in DNA technology, a man has received a 20-year term for a murder in the Uptown area of Minneapolis.
Thanks to advances in DNA technology, a man has received a 20-year prison term for a murder in the Uptown area of Minneapolis more than 40 years ago.
Matthew Russell Brown, 67, of Ingleside, Ill., was sentenced Wednesday in Hennepin County District Court after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in connection with the stabbing of Robert A. Miller at a home in the 3200 block of S. Girard Avenue in 1984.
With credit for time in jail since his arrest in June 2023, Brown is expected to serve the first 12½ years of his sentence in prison and the balance on supervised release.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said the linchpin in the case was a disposable cup discarded by Brown that contained DNA matching the blood at the scene.
“As we all know, advances in technology have improved DNA analysis,” the Minneapolis Police Department said in a statement released at the time of Brown’s arrest. “Over the past eight years, MPD homicide investigators assigned to the FBI’s Cold Case Task Force have been working diligently with the BCA Forensics Lab to identify DNA found at the scene and narrow down a possible list of suspects. One lead led to another until the MPD homicide investigators were able to identify a suspect in the case.”
At 2:30 a.m. on July 19, 1984, police arrived at Miller’s apartment , where two women in the hall said a man armed with a knife had broken into the building and attacked them.
Officers found Miller dead with “stab wounds to his face, head, chest, back and shoulders,” the complaint read.
Star Tribune
Twin Cities man guilty of murder for fatally stabbing fellow group home resident nearly 2 dozen times
The staffer told a 911 dispatcher that she didn’t hear anything further from the room and said “something isn’t right.”
A police officer arrived and saw a shirtless Adams running from the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses across the street and into the group home. In a Kingdom Hall trash can, police located a “badly bent” and bloody kitchen knife inside a garbage bag. Another bag held a pair of blood-soaked gloves.
Officers located Rahn in his room with stab wounds to his neck and back. Medics declared him dead at the scene.
Adams gave various accounts to police about how and why Rahn was stabbed.
The medical examiner found stab wounds to Rahn’s face, neck, upper body and elsewhere. He also suffered at least 20 stab wounds to one of his hands, which are “consistent with defensive wounds,” the complaint said.
The title track from the coming album by FKA Twigs, “Eusexua,” isn’t exactly euphoric or sexy. Produced by FKA Twigs, Koreless and Earthearter, the track runs on nervous, hopping 16th-notes and distant chords under FKA Twigs’ whispery soprano before a beat fully kicks in. It’s anxious and tentative at first, wondering about a primal, possibly dangerous, possibly life-changing attraction: “Don’t call it love — eusexua.” Later, as the rhythm revs up, she promises, “You feel alone, you’re not alone.” But the propulsion falls away, leaving her “on the edge of something greater than before,” but dangling.
JON PARELES, New York Times
Suki Waterhouse, “Model, Actress, Whatever”
Stardom, by definition, is one of the rarest occupations. It’s also a wildly disproportionate topic for songwriters to take on. The immensely sly, self-conscious and droopy-voiced English model, actress and songwriter Waterhouse takes up the self-pity of a star in “Model, Actress, Whatever,” the title song of her new EP. It’s a slow-building waltz about what happens after making it big: “All of my dreams came true/The bigger the ocean, the deeper the blue,” she declares. She musters grandiose orchestral production to sum up a feeling of emptiness.
JON PARELES, New York Times
