City awards 2 new liquor licenses
Aug. 19, 2024
A current bar and restaurant and a future one will be able to use new on-sale full-service liquor licenses, thanks to winning bids submitted to the city of Sioux Falls.
The city received four bids for the two licenses.
Second Session LLC bid $450,001 for a license, which is the ownership group for Firehouse 42, the development along a manmade lake on the northeast corner of 12th Street and Ellis Road.
The plan is to use it for Session Ale Works, which opened this summer, said Eric Ward, a member of the development’s ownership group.
“The bid process was very similar to what we normally do for publicly bid construction jobs,” said Ward, who also is chief financial officer of WS Construction Management.
“We reviewed what others have paid for licenses in the past and figured, just like everything else, prices have gone up. So the last bid had three different bids for the same amount, so we added a dollar to make sure there wouldn’t be a tie in case someone else had the same bid. Obviously, we overbid, but we felt the license was worth what we bid on it.”
Magic Number LLC bid $382,081 to win the second license.
That’s a partnership between Brandon De Jong and Patrick Nelson, who also own The Hello Hi in downtown. They plan to use it to open another bar in central Sioux Falls in 2026, De Jong said.
“While we are excited to be able to move forward with our business plans, the costs incurred simply to have the ability to serve liquor is a massive financial strain,” De Jong said.
“A great city is made of great small businesses, and that includes bars. The current sealed bid process is not small-business friendly, and I’m afraid that’s going to impact the type of establishments we see opening in the future.”
He said he’d like to see the city move back to a waitlist model “but with more vetting and stricter regulations on usage and resell” while discouraging bidders who ultimately don’t intend to open an establishment and see the license as an opportunity for resale.
