City restarts effort to study events center campus with new board

A plan to position the Denny Sanford Premier Center complex for the future is being revisited after getting put on hold during the pandemic – and a new board will lead the effort.

In the summer of 2019, a study group appointed by Mayor Paul TenHaken recommended demolishing the Arena and Sioux Falls Stadium while adding convention space and another hotel to the campus.

“We were getting ready to launch a market study to look at what’s the right sizing and scaling,” said Shawn Pritchett, director of finance for the city of Sioux Falls.

“Unfortunately with COVID, the market disappeared entirely, and there was nothing left to study.”

Now, though, “I think the market has recovered pretty steadily,” Pritchett said. “I don’t know that I can say we’re 100 percent of where we were at pre-COVID, but we’ve seen robust activity. Just maybe different than before.”

The new city board replaces a couple that had outlived their usefulness and will be called the Event Center Complex Advisory Board.

The idea is a slightly larger, more strategic board representing industries with valuable perspective for the campus plan, Pritchett said.

“You have to have the right type of expertise and professional experience to give truly meaningful outside perspective,” he said.

The new board is expected to begin meeting in early August.

The voting members are:

• Angela Bakke, executive director, Doctors for America.
• Ken Bashore, co-owner, Vanguard Hospitality.
• Kurt Brost, director of development, Sanford Health.
• Dick Dempster, founding architect, Architecture Incorporated.
• Mike Hart, founder, Fresh Produce.
• Reggie Kuipers, president, Bender Commercial.
• Kristi Metzger, senior vice president, First Interstate Bank.
• James Nold, assistant superintendent, Sioux Falls School District.
• Tony Nour, senior vice president, First Premier Bank.
• Shailesh Patel, owner, Hampton Inn Hotels – Sioux Falls.
• Orlen Tschetter, retired Sanford Health executive.

“It was easy to say yes when you look at the list of industry partners who are involved,” said Tony Nour, who will chair the board and was involved with the study group three years ago.

“I really enjoy it … and was looking forward to what can happen with this asset in our community and envisioning what it can look like 10, 15, 20 years down the road.”

The market for concerts, special events and conventions is coming back, said Mike Krewson, general manager of ASM Global Sioux Falls, which manages the events center complex.

“We’re starting to see a very positive trend where bodies are showing back up again,” he said. “It’s not near 2019 numbers, but it’s an upward tick. I’m hopeful we can move this train down the tracks because not a week goes by that we don’t have space to host somebody and we have to turn business away.”

Concert tours are doing fewer dates, which is making the scene more competitive, but “we have a very strong fourth quarter this year, and we’re hoping as we remove ourselves from 2020-21 that acts will continue to add more dates to their tours and we’ll be part of those conversations. Right now, 2023 is looking pretty good. It’s not back to 2019 where we set records with concerts and revenue, but it’s trending in the right direction, and hopefully nothing impedes that.”

Conventions also are coming, including some that discovered Sioux Falls during the pandemic and are bringing them back and others that have the city as one of several locations that rotate every few years, he added.

The complex is limited in its ability to host at least half a dozen major trade shows because it doesn’t have enough space, Krewson said.

And when some events require all three buildings on campus, that can eliminate Sioux Falls from securing a concert or sporting event.

The campus needs an additional 200 to 250 hotel rooms on-site or nearby to be more competitive too, Krewson said. Another hotel also was a recommendation of the study group.

“The Sports Authority tells me that’s our main stumbling block from getting an NCAA bid, so if we can add another hotel or two in close proximity, I think we would be able to get that bid, and it would be huge for our city from a financial standpoint,” he said, adding another hotel on-site could include a full-service restaurant or parking ramp to further support the campus.

Facilities’ futures?

The 2019 study group recommended adding 60,000 square feet of convention space along with demolishing the Arena and adding 50,000 square feet of convention space somewhere downtown.

It also recommended demolishing the home of the Sioux Falls Canaries, which was built in 1964, after the city determines a new stadium site. It suggests forming another committee to consider locations, size, amenities and feasibility.

“A 60-year-old stadium on that campus to us didn’t make sense to invest further in,” Nour said. “It made sense to pursue or identify another location for that.”

Since then, new owners have taken over the Canaries and also have said they’re interested in relocating.

“With the new ownership and investments they’re making, certainly they’ve improved the field and facilities,” said Jeff Eckhoff, the city’s director of planning and development services. “Whether that goes to another level and they’re able to get a stadium at another location is all up in the air yet.”

The group also recommended that the city add parking and develop a “fast transit” option between the campus and downtown, that it consider purchasing property adjacent to the events center campus as it becomes available, that it consider investing in green space and a new Convention Center entrance, and that it produce a master plan for the campus.