Downtown building ready for big redevelopment

Oct. 14, 2019

It’s one of those buildings that somewhat fades into the downtown landscape – but it’s about to get a whole new life.

The building at 200 S. Main Ave. most recently was home to audio recording business Earsay, which moved to a smaller space in south Sioux Falls.

“We’re excited about the potential,” building co-owner Kent Metzger said. “The building has been in my wife’s family for over 40 years. Her father operated a print shop, so when I came into the family in the late 1980s, he was operating his shop. And I always thought about the possibilities.”

As a former employee at Raven Industries who now works for a Canadian manufacturer, Metzger’s time working downtown made an impression on him.

“I was always kind of a downtown guy and wanted to do something from an ownership standpoint downtown,” he said.

“So we purchased the building, and we’re really excited about the redevelopment.”

He has been making initial improvements to the space, including a new roof, to get it ready for showing to potential tenants. It’s being marketed through Nelson Commercial Real Estate.

“It’s not at a point where it’s optimally set up for showing, but the right guy can have the vision and see past that,” Nelson said. “We’re getting it to a point where we’re starting to tell a story.”

A rendering by Koch Hazard Architects shows how the building could be repurposed. It has 1,144 square feet on the main floor plus a full basement.

“The cool thing is it’s going to have over 13-foot ceilings on the main level, which you don’t find very often,” Nelson said. “It’s got interior brick walls painted various shades of green and white, and you’d kind of like to think the next user might want the exposed brick walls, so we thought maybe we’ll sandblast one of the walls to show how cool it can be.”

Next year also happens to be the building’s 100th birthday – making an opportune time for its next stage in life, they said.

It originally was built as a service station.

The next tenant could be anything from a professional office to a restaurant or bar. The building can accommodate rooftop seating and could add a three-season porch off the main level to double seating capacity, Nelson said.

“Craft beer or a bar in general, a restaurant with an alcohol component, by and large seems to be where the bulk of the interest is,” he said.

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Downtown building ready for big redevelopment

It’s one of those buildings that somewhat fades into the downtown landscape – but it’s about to get a whole new life.

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