June 15, 2026

A 13-member task force has been named that will help guide the first phase of redeveloping the Smithfield Foods property in downtown Sioux Falls.

Falls Area Development Corporation, a nonprofit under the umbrella of the Sioux Falls Development Foundation, ultimately will purchase the 120-acre property adjacent to Falls Park as Smithfield Foods builds an estimated $1.3 billion state-of-the-art plant at Foundation Park in northwest Sioux Falls.

Falls Area Development Corporation will lead the effort to redevelop the Sanford District — named in honor of a $50 million donation from philanthropist Denny Sanford that allowed the land deal to come together.

The Sanford District Advisory Task Force will lay the groundwork for a collaborative community master planning process, starting with about a year of research into potential approaches.

The task force is “really about getting a head start knowing that everyone is going to want input into the process,” said Bob Mundt, president and CEO of the Sioux Falls Development Foundation. “And we want the process in place and want to know what we’re going to do, so when we do get control of the property and tear it down, we know which direction we want to go.”

The phase one group will be chaired by Scott Stern, president of Stern Oil Co. Inc., who served as commissioner of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development for three years under Gov. Dennis Daugaard.

“I’m honored to do it,” Stern said. “It is a multigenerational project opportunity … a wonderful opportunity, so I’m excited to do it.”

Stern agreed after Mayor Paul TenHaken approached him about taking on the role.

“We need someone who understands economic development, someone who’s known as a unifier and someone who can corral a room and bring people together, and when you look at those criteria, the list gets pretty short,” TenHaken said.

Stern had a list of thoughtful, detailed questions about the role to understand it before committing, “which reinforced he was the right guy to do this,” the mayor added.

Additional members of the volunteer task force were determined by Falls Area Development Corporation.

“We looked at representatives from the city, from the private sector and just really looked at people … who were highly involved in the community, who had access to a lot of different parts of the community, looking at neighborhood developments and what the demographic of Sioux Falls looks like,” Mundt said.

The task force members are:

• Scott Stern, chairman
• Mark Cotter, Sioux Falls public works director
• Todd Ernst, representing the Falls Area Development Corporation board
• Lucas Fiegen, representing the FADC board
• Brandon Hanson, CEO of Downtown Sioux Falls Inc.
• Vaney Hariri, at-large community member
• Shawn Pritchett, Sioux Falls director of finance
• Jessie Schmidt, at-large community member
• Keith Severson, representing the FADC board
• Jennifer Sigette, representing the City Council
• Roger Weber, representing the FADC board
• Anita Wetsch, at-large community member
• Kadyn Wittman, at-large community member

Sioux Falls-based Maximizing Excellence has been hired to serve as facilitator for the group.

“It’s a great group. They really have assembled a nice team,” Stern said. “When I looked at this, big picture, Sioux Falls was domiciled at that location with the Falls being the birthplace of the community. And to now bookend that with the development here, I think it absolutely, completely resets Sioux Falls from a retail, business development, residential, quality-of-life, placemaking environment.”

The task force is expected to spend the next year looking at case studies for large-scale redevelopment in other communities, evaluating financing options and governance for the site.

It also will look at necessary and existing infrastructure at the site as well as surrounding properties, from a potential road network to water and wastewater capacity.

“That’s all research, really, at this point,” Stern said, adding that once the potential and constraints of the site are established, the process can move forward with more directly applicable public input.

“I’m a very transparent guy, and we want to be extremely transparent,” he said. “We want to engage the public about what is the highest and best use of real estate.”

While a new mayoral administration begins in July, the idea with the Sanford District falling under the Falls Area Development Corporation allows it to transcend administrations, TenHaken said.

“We’re at the table, but we’re not at the head of the table, and we don’t always need to be the leader in every initiative,” he said.

“It’s a partnership, and that’s the piece I wanted to make sure we got done. We honestly move at the speed of government, and we wanted to make sure there was a little more nimbleness that could happen with the development of the district. It allows more creativity and flexibility with what happens there. The city has a say, but we don’t have to move at a city pace.”

The structure of Falls Area Development Corporation as a nonprofit also allows it to access funding through foundations, limit liability and leverage public and grant dollars, Mundt said.

The expectation is that Smithfield will purchase its approximately 200 acres for the new facility at Foundation Park sometime this year, and FADC has until mid-2030 to purchase the downtown site.

One outcome of the task force likely will be to determine a structure for the district going forward after looking at options in other communities, Mundt said.

“Is it an authority, a commission, does it have quasi-governmental ties, what does it look like and how is it governed,” he said. “We’ll be looking at the structure, and once we get into the master planning phase, there will be multiple opportunities for public input.”

Because the task force falls under the nonprofit entity and not a public entity, it is not obligated to follow public open meeting laws.

However, there will be public presentations of information learned, progress reports and public forums throughout the process, Mundt said.

A website has been launched to allow for initial thoughts to be submitted.

The phase one task force will recommended actions to the Falls Area Development Corporation board, which will make the final decision on how to proceed to the following phases of work.

Those are anticipated to include:

• Phase two: Master planning and community engagement, beginning midsummer 2027.
• Phase three: Property acquisition and cleanup, beginning 2029 or later.
• Phase four: Property redevelopment, beginning 2030 or later.
• The overall development is expected to take decades to fully mature.

“This is not going to happen overnight,” Stern said. “There’s going to be such an urgency to see something happen, but we’re going to be very deliberative and patient and do a lot of homework and analysis.”