Historic farm is a top draw for Brooklyn Center, but it’s been losing money for years. Now, the city questions its future.

Brooklyn Center’s historic convention and event complex, the Heritage Center, is a top tourism driver for the north metro suburb.

Red barns with white trim mark where the Village of Brooklyn Center was formed in 1911, on a farm once owned by early resident, Hennepin County sheriff and controversial figure Earle Brown. The property now hosts weddings, conferences and events, including an annual father-daughter dance.

But the center has been losing money almost every year over the past decade, and ended 2024 down $500,000. Now council members are questioning whether the city should continue operating the complex.

“The 10-year history of financial performance is dismal. This requires immediate attention,” Council Member Dan Jerzak said last month. “If you find yourself in a hole, you stop digging.”

The financial picture is bleak, council members say. But it has been gradually improving since the COVID-19 pandemic brought public gatherings to a halt.

The center in 2020 ended the year $1.3 million in the red, and was down $700,000 in 2023. In the past decade, the facility has turned a profit twice, including in 2016 when it made $113,000.

City staff are asking for more time. City Manager Reggie Edwards said they have a plan for continuing to improve the outlook and within two years, the city can get the business in the black.

City leaders are creating an “exit plan” in case that goal is not met, Edwards said, including what it would look like for the center to be privatized or leased out.

“Heritage Center brings more people to Brooklyn Center than any other entity,” Edwards said. “It’s nationally known. What would be the implication of that loss?”

Jerzak said the city has dipped into reserves to keep the Heritage Center afloat, arguing residents struggling to pay higher taxes and utility bills would have “little desire to subsidize business lunches, corporate meetings or private weddings.”

The debate comes as a more conservative-leaning council majority says city leaders should tighten their belts. They say a critical approach should not only be applied to the Heritage Center, but also the city’s municipal liquor store and golf course, which is bolstered with a special revenue fund.

Mayor April Graves said in an interview she understands the “larger conversation about being fiscally disciplined,” but warned against making short-sighted decisions.

She has confidence in city leaders to make the Heritage Center profitable, she said, calling it a “central historical marker.”

“It is an important asset for the city, period,” Graves said.

The City Council a few years ago stripped the Heritage Center of Earle Brown’s name due to his racist ideologies.

Brown has long been lauded for his contributions to Brooklyn Center. He served two terms as Hennepin County sheriff and helped found the Minnesota State Patrol in 1929.

City leaders questioned Brown serving as a namesake amid revelations that he had connections to the Minnesota Eugenics Society. A 2013 book written by a Minneapolis teacher states Brown allowed the Ku Klux Klan to burn crosses and meet in Hennepin County while he was sheriff.

Brown’s name was removed from the Heritage Center, an elementary school and the city’s annual “Earle Brown Days” celebration.

The Heritage Center is on Earle Brown Drive and his name also remains on a historic, red water tower on the estate.

Brown received the property in 1901 from his grandfather Capt. John Martin. In 1918, it was home to the state’s first commercial airfield.

Brown lived on the farm until he died in 1963, upon which he willed the property to the University of Minnesota.

The estate was declared a state historic site in 1974. The designation requires agencies to consult with the State Historic Preservation Office before undertaking projects that might affect the property, office spokesperson Michael Koop said.

The city of Brooklyn Center purchased the 14-acre property for $2 million in 1985. In 1990, the city opened it as a convention center with three rentable rooms. Today, it has 12 spaces for events.

The Heritage Center brings large crowds to Brooklyn Center, to stay at several nearby hotels, eat at restaurants and shop. Edwards said the facility has a “90% return rate,” meaning most visitors will come back.

City staff said they have events booked through 2028.

Questions about the center’s future came about last month when the council debated a contract with a new catering and events company.

Staff negotiated with a new company that will lessen the city’s costs, plus contribute $300,000 to help renovate one of the barns so it can be opened for events.

But council members were skeptical.

“We cannot continue to lose money,” Council Member Kris Lawrence-Anderson said. “We need to take a serious look at the management model there. Maybe we just get out of it and we own the property and we get rent.”

Council Member Laurie Ann Moore questioned “how much residents are benefiting from us continuing to subsidize something? It’s not a namesake any longer. We changed the name.”

Edwards cautioned against the council taking any action to jeopardize the ability to operate the center.

“The prospect of not being in business, not having a food caterer to provide service, which in essence would shut down the Heritage Center, that would be a significant decision,” he said.

Council Member Teneshia Kragness said she believes the center is a staple of the city and is “totally against shutting it down.

“But we do have to figure out how to make money,” she said. “The numbers have to make sense.”