The legislature’s failure to produce a bonding bill deprived the city of Brooklyn Park of a potential funding source for its proposed $10 million teen and youth center, but city officials are looking at other ways to pencil out the project and still hope to break ground this year.
City park and rec officials want to expand the Zanewood Recreation Center at 7100 Zane Ave. N. to make space for the new youth facility, which would offer everything from a gymnasium and art facilities to workforce development services for youths between the ages of 14 and 24.
A site plan for the proposed 24,500-square-foot expansion is up for city council review on June 24. In July, the council will look at options to fill a roughly $4 million funding gap. Pending approvals and a funding solution, construction could begin this fall, said Brad Tullberg, the city’s recreation and parks director.
Tullberg said in an interview that the city requested $4 million in state bonding from the legislature. After the 2024 legislative session ended without a bonding bill, the city began to look at new alternatives, including money identified for other projects, he said.
The center is funded in part by a parks referendum approved by voters in 2018. The referendum also includes money for a future park tied in with the planned $3 billion Blue Line Extension project, which will provide light rail transit service from downtown Minneapolis to north Minneapolis, Robbinsdale, Crystal and Brooklyn Park.
The new light rail service is expected to begin in 2030.
“Instead of continuing to wait on that one option for the city council would be to reallocate those funds to help fill that funding gap” for the Teen & Youth Center, Tullberg said.
Designed by St. Louis Park architecture firm Design by Melo , the two-story center would house a gymnasium, tech center, workforce development space, game lounge, art facilities and other services, according to a city staff report. A breezeway would connect the new space to the Zanewood Recreation Center.
Construction services will be publicly bid once the funding is available, Tullberg said.
Tullberg said the existing Zanewood Recreation Center offers great programming, but space is limited and the spaces weren’t designed to support modern programming needs.
“Every day, we talk about how important it is to have opportunities for youth to learn and grow in their out-of-school time, and the Zane Recreation Center expansion will help us toward that goal,” Tullberg said.
On June 12, the Brooklyn Park Planning Commission unanimously approved a site plan for the teen and youth center and gave the overall project its full support. Multiple commissioners said the project, which has been in the works since at least 2018, is “long overdue.”
“I'm excited,” said planning commissioner Shereese Turner. “I'm excited for our youth. I'm excited for our parents. I'm excited for our community because this is exactly what we need right now. I travel to lots of cities and I see what they’ve got going on. Now I can brag about what Brooklyn Park will have going on.”
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