Brooklyn Center Considers Increasing Fee To Monitor Vacant Commercial Buildings

The vacant Target, Sears and Wal-Mart buildings in Brooklyn Center are among the largest remaining monuments to Brooklyn Center’s past as a regional retail hotspot.

Sears closed in 2018, its empty husk along Highway 100 now serving as a faded reminder of the city’s old Brookdale Mall.

Target and Walmart have also shuttered, their once-full shelves now collecting dust. 

With these empty commercial buildings comes the potential for crime, trash dumping, graffiti and break-ins. 

“There have been several issues with a few of the buildings requiring staff to visit multiple times throughout the day,” Brooklyn Center city staff wrote in a memo to the city council. “Many of the properties are often used to dump garbage, large furniture and auto parts, or construction debris.” 

In a more dangerous case from earlier this summer, the Target building sustained substantial fire damage after a suspected arson.

Brooklyn Center aims to stem these issues, or at least recoup some of the costs associated with monitoring these properties, by requiring property owners to pay a larger fee if their commercial building sits vacant.

The Brooklyn Center City Council discussed the fee during a Sept. 11 work session, and was open to increasing fees.

Along with the former retailers, there’s other commercial buildings, like the former Earle Brown Lanes bowling alley and Brown College building that remain unoccupied. 

Brooklyn Center is home to several vacant commercial buildings, like the former Walmart building at Shingle Creek Crossing Shopping Center.

Fee Structure

Commercial building owners are required to register their property with the city if it becomes vacant. 

The city charges a $400 registration fee and $195 for an inspection. Once a property is registered, code enforcement officials monitor the property periodically to ensure it’s secure and undamaged. 

However, according to city staff members, the existing fee structure does not cover the costs of the program. 

Monitoring a property for a year is estimated to cost $2,327 in city staff time. 

Those costs are higher if the fire department or police have to respond to the vacant buildings.

“The annual estimated staffing cost relating to commercial vacant properties is $8,389.38,” city staff members wrote. 

An expanded fee structure could charge landowners based on the square-footage of the vacant building.

Or, the city could levy charges based on the length of the vacancy.

One Brooklyn Center City Council member said that the costs could be assessed to the property to ensure the city is reimbursed for those costs. 

“These should not fall to the taxpayers,” he said. 

Properties ought to be charged in-part based on their size, said Brooklyn Center City Council Member Kris Lawrence-Anderson.

“I want to encourage them to sell their building,” she said. 

Brooklyn Center