Nearly 5 years in, ‘mini mall’ for veterans draws national attention for unique model

Sometimes, you might have to wait a little longer than usual for the burger you ordered at The Alliance to be delivered to your table.

That’s because the staff there knows that if a veteran seeking help walks through the door, every other customer can wait.

“If a veteran comes in who is suicidal, we don’t just give them a business card and say call 988,” Alliance executive director Brian Phelps said. “Our staff is trained to sit down and visit with people, trained in suicide prevention. I’ve had people talk in my office with tears in their eyes, who didn’t know what to do, where to get the help they need. They next day, they come back and say thank you. It’s a mission focus that we have.”

The Alliance — officially known as the South Dakota Heritage Military Alliance — opened almost five years ago, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic began shutting down businesses and organizations. It persevered, however, and now it averages 100,000 guests a year, 1,500 meetings and events annually and has given back $2.5 million to local veteran and military organizations and the community.

Its work has been featured nationally at the American Legion convention, and recently, a delegation from Arizona visited, hoping to learn the secrets of its success and replicate them in that state.

Despite that, even locally some people are unfamiliar with The Alliance and what it does, Phelps said. Others may know it has an indoor gun range, a family center with a dance hall, an events center, a bar and grill, a full kitchen that offers catering, 17 meeting rooms and a gift shop, among other offerings. Phelps describes it as a mini mall.

But all that’s not really what The Alliance is about, he said.

“We’re not in the restaurant and bar business and entertainment event business,” he said. “We tell our staff, don’t worry about people that want hamburgers; they can wait if this guy needs help. A lot of time at night, the lounge isn’t open because we’ve got an event going on. We don’t do happy hour; we’re not worried about selling beer. We’re worried about taking care of people in our mission.”

The revenue sources that fill The Alliance building on Russell Street help it operate like a “self-funded United Way,” Phelps said. The 501(c)(3) nonprofit offers a home to veterans’ groups and other community entities. Tenants range from Cornerstone Rescue Mission to the American Postal Workers Union, Vietnam Veterans of America, Midwest Honor Flight, Women of the Armed Forces, Legion of Honor El Riad Shrine, Warriors Never Give Up, Keystone Treatment Center and an insurance company.

Because veterans’ groups like VFW Post 628 and Disabled American Veterans don’t have to maintain their own buildings, it frees them up to focus on their individual missions — and to work in unity, Phelps said.

“With a confluence of all resources under one roof, that way they are way stronger than any one group,” Phelps said. “The VFW doesn’t have to worry about putting a new roof on its business. We focus on that stuff; they focus on taking care of veterans. All these groups — it’s not 1 plus 1 is 2, it’s 1 plus 1 is 3 or 1 plus 1 is 4 when these groups start talking.”

Each Alliance staff member wears a button that says, “Are You Okay?” and that, more than anything else, shows its main mission. Every year, 25 South Dakota veterans die by suicide. Nationally, the statistics are 22 a day.

Administrative assistant Rachel VanderZee joined The Alliance one month before its grand opening — also known as one month before COVID hit. Every day, depending on who walks through the doors, is a new experience, she said.

“It’s a new challenge, whether it’s a happy one or it’s a sad one,” VanderZee said. “That’s what makes it great and what makes it stressful. I come from the world of ‘it’s one team, one fight,’ and we’re all together on this one team.”

VanderZee’s husband retired from the South Dakota Air National Guard earlier this year, and her son is still in the Air Guard. Before joining The Alliance, she worked with military families as a civilian contractor. The Alliance is a grassroots approach to bringing people together, she said.

“This place is meant to bring people together to celebrate what’s great about America,” VanderZee said. “It’s unique in the fact that no one else has done this.”

“Unique” is a word that Phelps also uses frequently. The Alliance is a unique model, and the book on how it should operate is still being written, he said.

The Alliance building began as Badlands Pawn, which contained a pawn shop the size of a small airplane hangar with an event venue, radio station and a gun range. It opened in November 2015 and closed a little more than a year later.

“We believed it was built for a better purpose than a pawn shop,” Phelps said. “When it became available, some very passionate people in South Dakota came together and funded the purchase of the facility. I was one of the first employees here. I don’t think anybody really knew what this was going to turn into.”

They knew the space could be used for concerts and events, but they had no model to follow, Phelps said. And some of the building’s amenities seemed a little staggering.

“For example, we’ve got 17 restrooms that we have to deal with every day on our campus,” Phelps said. “Nobody realized the challenges of 17 restrooms.”

The staff focuses on what it calls “The Alliance experience.” Whether people walk through the door for a concert, the Marine Corps League’s birthday ball or drone racing in the family center, Phelps and the others want people to leave smiling.

“We want them to go home and go ‘wow,’ and remember what they did at The Alliance,” he said. “I greet almost every single customer coming to a concert, and I thank them when they leave. All my management staff is here to welcome and thank them for coming.”

The South Dakota Military Heritage Alliance began referring to itself by a one-word moniker when it realized some folks thought it was just for veterans, active-duty military and their families. Some had the mindset it was just a place for members of veterans’ organizations to drink $2 beers and swap stories.

“It’s way more than that,” Phelps said. “We’re taking care of each other. We’re refocusing the mission back to people, not property.”

Everyone is welcome at The Alliance, but there are two caveats.

“It’s open to anybody and everybody that wants to celebrate America and those that served,” Phelps said. “The governor loves to come here because she knows it’s safe. We don’t get the protestors; we don’t get the people that are anti-whatever. We don’t put up with that.”

Phelps is the son of a veteran and has a son who is deployed. His other son’s wife is active at the local air base. He spent much of his professional life in the nonprofit world and in the high-tech marketing sales business.

The Alliance consists of the main building, which is the former pawn shop, and a former office building to the north, where many of the veterans’ organizations are housed. It also owns the former AAA building; the hope is to eventually put a state military museum there.

While The Alliance staff and seven-person board of directors don’t prepare three-, five- or seven-year plans because that book is still being written, they are looking to the future.

Phelps offers a tantalizing clue about what might be someday, although there’s no timeline yet.

“We’ve got some really big plans we’re working on that I can’t announce yet,” he said, smiling. “But it will be a big game-changer if it happens. It’s going to change South Dakota forever, what we’re doing. We’re planning for growth; we’re very conscious of growth. But we need stability before growth.”