City details next steps for downtown parking ramp development, improvements
July 26, 2022
The Sioux Falls City Council will be asked to give some guidance to city staff before a downtown parking ramp moves ahead with a development partner.
The ramp along 10th Street east of Phillips Avenue is operating, but a private development with it never materialized.
The city of Sioux Falls and Village River Group, which at one point planned to co-develop a parking ramp downtown that would have included a hotel, agreed to a $500,000 settlement earlier this year after the project never came together.
The city terminated the development agreement in 2019 after what officials said involved multiple defaults on the part of the developers.
The plan is to solicit interest in a new private development this fall, but first the council will be asked to provide input that can be used to guide the process, chief of staff Erica Beck said at the council’s informational briefing Tuesday.
“We feel that ultimately because of the history of this site, despite it being exceptionally developable, it has some controversy,” Beck said, adding the goal is to educate potential partners about the capacity of the site and the opportunity it presents.
The Village on the River proposal originally involved two hotels, an AC by Marriott and an extended-stay Residence Inn, but it was scaled back to just the AC. It also included space for office, retail and event uses.
The city’s public parking board will meet Aug. 9 to discuss plans for the property, and there will be meetings between city officials and partner organizations related to economic development.
“We want their help in identifying potential opportunities for this site moving forward, and they are key partners to help us do that,” Beck said.
In September, the City Council will be updated on those conversations as well as a downtown market analysis that is in progress, along with recommendations for announcing and marketing the opportunity for developers to submit proposals.
The private sector has shown interest in potential partnerships when the city is ready to move forward, Beck said.
“Those are folks that are here locally, hoteliers, developers, but there are folks (out of state) … that see this as an incredible opportunity,” she said.
The council will be asked to weigh in on its development expectations for the property as well as thoughts on related air rights — essentially giving a private entity the right to build on top of a structure it does not own — along with the appetite for potentially selling the entire property or some type of lease.
“That’s the type of information the development community wants and expects us to provide,” Beck said.
“We need to have a conversation about that, so be thinking about that.”
A decision also needs to be made about whether any incentives will be offered to a potential development partner, she said.
“There are always incentive requests when it comes to downtown development,” Beck said. “We have held strongly in the past that this site does not necessarily fall within the same category.”
The thinking in the past has been that “this is a great developable site,” she added. It has an existing structure and does not require remediation, but the need is to be “clear with the development community what all of you find palatable with regard to incentive requests and what you do not.”
In the meantime, the city is moving ahead with aesthetic improvements to the ramp. That includes a temporary mural on the facade and installing a plaza for walking, sitting, informal games and small performances.
Grading has started around the plaza, and paving is expected to start early next week. The Sioux Falls Arts Council will be working to secure artists and a community will approve the work before moving forward. The hope is to install the art on the wall of the ramp while the weather still allows this year.
