Maple Grove Pitches Lawmakers on Community Center Expansion

When Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz presented his nearly $1 billion bonding proposal this week, it didn’t include funding for local projects like the Maple Grove Community Center revamp. 

So, on Thursday Jan. 18, Maple Grove looked to sell the project to the Senate Capital Investment Committee during a tour of the region. 

“Essentially, the community center is 26, 27 years old,” said Maple Grove Mayor Mark Steffenson. “There’s a lot of parts of this building that really need a lot of upkeep and work.”

Maple Grove is requesting about $16.5 million to remodel the community center. 

“We’re revamping everything, so we’re going to have an additional ice rink, we’re going to redo the pools because there’s some real problems with the pools, the way they are today,” Steffenson said. “We’re going to move the banquet facility from the north side of the building to the south side so it will overlook the lake … and then our hope is eventually that we’ll acquire the Life Time [Fitness] facility and then be able to put things like veteran services and CROSS [Services food shelf] in that area of the building.”

The city previously received $6 million from the state legislature to start design work on the project.

Graphic renderings of the remodeled Maple Grove Community Center sit on display for the Minnesota Senate Capital Investment Committee.

Senator: Maple Grove Community Center a Regional Resource 

Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, said the Maple Grove Community Center is a resource for people living throughout the northwest suburbs.

“We have growing communities outside to the west and to the north of Maple Grove,” Limmer said. “Many of those cities do not have the development or the resources to have a community center, and this is the one they go to.”

Voters approved a sales tax increase expected to generate about $90 million for the project in 2022.

“It’s the center and hub of Maple Grove and it’s something that the city really uses a lot,” Limmer said. “But, the city’s getting bigger, the development outside of the city is getting even larger, and it justifies a reexamining of this particular building.”

Maple Grove