Young athletes with dreams of being the next Tony Hawk may soon have another reason to visit the south metro as plans take shape for an outdoor skateboard park at the Burnsville Center a project that’s consistent with a vision to make the 1970s-era mall more economically viable.
The new attraction an expansion of SkaterApolis , an existing Burnsville Center business billed as the first indoor skateboard park in Minnesota could open as soon as mid-June on an underused existing site northwest of JC Penney’s, SkaterApolis owner Mark Somerville said in an interview Monday.
But first the city needs to tweak the zoning in the mall district to include “outdoor sports, recreation or entertainment” as allowable uses. The proposed zoning amendment was scheduled for Planning Commission review Monday night. Pending a Planning Commission recommendation, the application is “scheduled for City Council review on June 4,” Burnsville Community Development Director Jeff Thomson said in an email.
Somerville believes the park would be a regional draw for skateboarders and a big improvement for a nondescript site that’s largely vacant except for a few garbage receptacles. A city staff report notes that it would increase foot traffic at the mall, and is consistent with the city’s goal of bringing more diverse offerings to the mall district.
Amid the post-pandemic decline of traditional brick-and-mortar retail, “they're trying to come up with creative ways to draw families back to the mall,” Somerville said.
SkaterApolis has been filling that role for a couple of years on the second floor of Burnsville Center. The facility offers “open skate, lessons, camps and clinics,” and features an “indoor, full-scale skateboard park with ramps, half pipes, and rails for skateboarders, rollerbladers, and BMX bike riders,” according to the city.
Somerville said the business has been doing well. But the new park would appeal to skateboarders who prefer to be outdoors during the warm weather months.
A 50-foot-long, 17-foot-high vertical ramp would be the park’s centerpiece. Currently located in Hopkins, the ramp was displaced by construction and reuse of the site, according to the city. Somerville has a deal to acquire the ramp, which is currently disassembled.
“We inherited the ‘vert’ ramp” on the condition that “we can find an outdoor space close to our business. That's kind of the plan, is to get that back up,” Somerville said.
Skateboarding in general has seen a resurgence since it became an Olympic sport, Somerville said, adding that Minnesota is one of the top five producers of professional skateboarders in the U.S.
“It’s coming back, so we thought, ‘We better try to take this opportunity to align with the mall’s vision, and also provide something this side of town where action sports enthusiasts can partake in something that's truly unique,” Somerville said.
For its part, Burnsville Center has long been the focus of revitalization efforts. Finance & Commerce reported in January 2021 that the shopping complex went into foreclosure earlier that year. CBL Properties’ 522,000-square-foot portion of the mall was sold at an auction for $17.96 million.
Efforts to reenergize the 47-year-old mall have been ongoing.
A city staff report notes that the mall has seen a “long history” of conditional use permits and planned unit development amendments to accommodate growth and changes. In 2021, the city created separate outlots to “more effectively accommodate redevelopment,” the staff report notes.
Recent amendments, for example, have paved the way for a “quick service” restaurant on the north end of the mall and exterior improvements tied to a new Asian Grocery and Food hall. In 2023, the city approved a plan for an indoor zoo known as Sustainable Safari.
Reinventing older malls, of course, isn’t a new phenomenon.
George John, a professor of marketing in the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Business, told Finance & Commerce in 2021 that 75% of malls were experiencing financial trouble even before the pandemic.
In response, he said, mall owners have been looking at “experiential” businesses to replace failed anchor stores. Examples range from yoga studios and food halls to the Mall of America’s “Crayola Experience.”
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