Rendering by VanDeWalle Architects LLC

Sept. 7, 2018

It has been a big undertaking to turn the former Ming Wah building into Escape 605’s newest escape room and ax-throwing location, but crews are making progress.

“It’s completely gutted. It will be beautiful once it’s done and look really fun. The theme in there is more of a rustic glam, lumberjack contemporary,” co-owner Amy Stockberger said.

The hope is to open sometime in October, she said. Signups for winter leagues downtown will start soon. Fall leagues have started at the Escape 605 location on Westport Avenue, which also added ax- throwing.

“It’s doing really well. People are getting in and loving it. We have two nights of leagues starting next week. They’re eight weeks with the championship on the eighth week. We have 16 teams in each league and a championship between the two days. We have fun promos, free drinks for the winners each night, and we’ll do medals for the championships,” Stockberger said.

The downtown location will have six lanes with 12 targets and two escape rooms. The themes will be unique to Sioux Falls. One is about the Prohibition era and the other is about the Dillinger bank robbery.

“We’re having those planned out right now,” Stockberger said. “The downtown community has given us so much love already. It’s been really awesome the outreach and excitement we’re getting from businesses down there. We’re going to partner with PAve to do some really fun things, and we’ll have other good partnerships to promote both our businesses. We’re excited about that.”