City Of Brooklyn Park Teen Center Project
By Marcus Hill
The City of Brooklyn Park recently broke ground on its highly anticipated Teen Center, a dedicated space designed to empower and support local youth. This event brought together city leaders, project partners, and community members to celebrate this exciting milestone.
Brooklyn Park has a high population of young people who live along Zane Avenue and surrounding neighborhoods. For years, Zanewood Recreation Center has been a staple in the community. It provides kids and teens with a space and opportunity to hang out, get to know their peers and explore their passions.
However, Zanewood’s needs are growing. There is an increasing demand for recreation activities and facilities in the area. This is why Brooklyn Park approached the Minnesota Legislature for an initial investment and is working to secure the rest of the funding from a variety of sources.
The project will be to renovate the existing Zanewood Recreation Center and make that the dedicated K-5 programmable space and creating a new facility for teens and young adults attached to the existing building. The new teen center would supplement existing youth services programming, which serves ages kindergarten to 24 years old.
Community Engagement
Brooklyn Park began seeking feedback for this project during the 2022 Community Survey. Efforts continued through additional surveys and community engagement sessions at summer events and gatherings.
The city engaged with the community, and stakeholders in the summer of 2023 by partnering with Youthprise, who lead a series of engagement sessions to hear their thoughts on what types of amenities, experiences, and activities they would like to see in the new Teen Center.
Design And Vision
Design efforts have been led by Design by Melo, a Minnesota-based architectural and urban design firm who also helped with designing the Small Business Center. Through this partnership, we have developed a floor plan and site plan that will reflect the needs of the community. The city has awarded the bid to Donlar Construction, a local company based out of Shoreview, Minnesota.
The types of spaces we will have in the new Teen Center include:
- Indoor gym
- Best Buy Tech space
- Fully-fledged art space
- Teen gaming lounge
- Other new program areas for youth k-5th grade on the existing side
- Outdoor amentities and a plaza space for large-scale events.
This project is our commitment to providing a space that caters to the diverse needs and aspirations of Brooklyn Park’s youth.
Cost Breakdown
The master planning and design development are being funded through the $26 million Park Bond Referendum that voters approved in November 2018. The Teen Center project itself will cost roughly $10 million.
Additional funding sources include:
- $9,000,000 2018 Bond Referendum
- $150,000 Best Buy tech lab grant
- $500,000 Congressionally directed spending
- $100,000 from the Thielen Foundation
Project Timeline
Phase 1: Community Engagement
Phase 2: Architect and Design Phase
Phase 3: Construction Documents and bidding
Phase 4: Groundbreaking April 7, 2025
Phase 5: Ribbon Cutting (Tentatively December 2025)
Images courtesy City of Brooklyn Park.
