City spells out next steps for downtown convention center, including advisory vote

The city of Sioux Falls plans to seek an advisory vote from the public before moving forward with plans to relocate convention space downtown and repurpose the existing Sioux Falls Convention Center into recreation space.

“It’s about the opportunity to create a large vision for the future,” Jeff Eckhoff, the city’s director of planning and development services, said Tuesday in an update to the Sioux Falls City Council.

He compared the plan to the completion of Phillips Avenue to Falls Park and the decision to redevelop rail yard land downtown.

“Along the way, there were twists and there were turns and there were iterations, but look at what we have today,” he said.

The Friends of the Riverline Group was formed in 2022 to explore the possibilities for available land on the eastern edge of downtown.

With funding from community partners, the group secured options on two parcels of land totaling more than 8 acres.

The larger parcel, 7.2 acres, is slated to be purchased for $8 million in the proposed 2025 city budget, which is consistent with a recent appraisal.

Securing that much property adjacent to downtown “is really kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity before it gets bought and parceled out,” Eckhoff said. “That’s what made this one of the more developable sites within the downtown.”

The goal would be to close on the land in March 2025. If a project hasn’t moved forward by March 2028, there would be an option for the former owners to repurchase it.

In parallel, there are studies moving forward to analyze the overall project concept. One involving the feasibility of converting the convention space to recreation space is expected in October.

“It would be vibrant; it would serve the needs of many people of all types,” Friends of the Riverline co-chair Natalie Eisenberg told the City Council.

“This vision has been carefully and thoughtfully crafted, and we will need your support to continue forward.”

If the City Council approves buying the downtown property, a business plan that would look at financing options for the convention space would be done in the first quarter of 2025.

From there, a lengthy public engagement process would begin, Eckhoff said.

Because of the diversity of the area, “the public engagement is more important than ever,” he said.

The process would involve reaching out to all adjacent neighborhoods, including downtown, and would address the cluster of social service agencies in the area.

“We need to find a way to better support those folks that need assistance and yet be able to have a good environment for businesses and our residents that are visiting downtown,” Eckhoff said.

“It’s not an easy topic to solve, and it’s one we continue to work on. … With or without Riverline, that continues to be a topic with us.”

An advisory vote would follow the public input process, Eckhoff said.

“We realize … it’s a big deal, and to move forward on this without an advisory vote would kind of be folly,” he said.

“So we really want to make sure we present the case, we bring out the facts, we give as much information as we can, and then we take it to the public after a large amount of public engagement.”

There’s no timeline for the vote, he said, acknowledging that it could stretch beyond Mayor Paul TenHaken’s administration, which ends in the spring of 2026.

“We want to make sure there’s a path forward,” he said. “So the next administration has a path to follow as they continue this process.”

The City Council is scheduled for a final vote on the 2025 budget later this month.