By: Meghan Holden

In the 1970s, Darrel LeBarron fought to save the old fire station on University Avenue Southeast.

Now, he’s struggling to keep the property he’s owned there for more than three decades.

Because of his love for the building’s design, LeBarron helped to make Fire Station #19 a historical landmark in 1982.

Since then, LeBarron has put more money into the building than his company, Station Nineteen Architects, Inc., can recoup.

Because the property taxes for the building have gone up 18 percent each year over the last decade, LeBarron said, he might be forced to sell.

After TCF Bank Stadium opened in 2009, property taxes were too high for tenants to afford. Office spaces had to be gutted out to make room for Buffalo Wild Wings — a $700,000 loss for the company, LeBarron said.

“I love that building,” LeBarron said, “but I’m not sure we can economically stay there.”

The utilitarian-style building opened in 1893 because of a demand for fire protection during the city’s industrial movement, according to the Minneapolis Heritage Preservation. The building is also the birthplace of kittenball, a form of softball a lieutenant at the fire station invented.

For more on how businesses deal with historic limitations, pick up Wednesday’s Minnesota Daily.