March 14, 2023

Two new businesses are moving into an east-side retail center, and a third is expanding.

The East 10th Street retail center will include an expanded Pizza Ranch and will add Planet Fitness and Dollar Tree.

The two national tenants will convert the former Vern Eide Body Shop back into retail space. The building originally was home to Sunshine Foods and then converted for auto use. Vern Eide occupied the building until purchasing the former Shopko property to the east.

The renovation will include a new building facade with new storefronts for Planet Fitness and Dollar Tree.

The building is owned by Rod Woelfel, who completed a similar project for Harbor Freight Tools and Dollar Tree in a renovated former grocery store on West 12th Street about six years ago.

“Rod has a knack for finding new life in these old buildings,” said Woelfel’s broker, Ryan Tysdal of Van Buskirk Cos. “He’s willing to put up the cash and take the necessary risks to bring these projects to fruition.”

Pizza Ranch’s expansion will include a larger FunZone arcade.

Franchisee Aaron Hansen has been a partner since the location at 3809 E. 10th St. opened in 2008 and has owned it outright since 2016.

“When we took it over, Kmart closed shortly after, Shopko closed awhile after that, so you felt like you were losing people in the area,” he said. “Now, we have retail back and Runnings beside us, and the others coming in, so it will be good to have more of a presence there with people on the go.”

His expansion will double the size of the arcade, going from 13 games to 25, and add a 20-seat party room.

“We’re excited,” Hansen said. “We have a lot of the newest games that are out there.”

That includes a virtual reality game, a “glo” version of Skee Ball and a version of Mario Kart.

The hope is to be done in early May, he said.

The entire retail center project has taken about four years to put together, said Tysdal, who brokered the deals.

“We actually negotiated the Planet Fitness deal and came to terms in late-February 2020. When COVID hit just a couple weeks later, it upset the whole apple cart,” he said.

Retail leasing ground to a halt for much of 2020 after that, Tysdal added. “In late-2021, Planet Fitness came back to the table, and we wrapped up the deal.”

Planet Fitness will occupy 18,000 square feet next to Pizza Ranch. The fitness chain also has a location on West 41st Street.

“Then we had multiple offers from national retailers for the remaining 10,000-square foot east end cap, which Dollar Tree ended up winning out on,” Tysdal said. “Seeing such strong interest from numerous national retailers is a testament to the strong retail market we have in Sioux Falls.”

This will be the seventh Dollar Tree in Sioux Falls.

The discount retailer’s continued growth in the Sioux Falls market is a result of the success it has experienced, according to Tysdal.

“The $1.25 price point and the wide variety of their product mix has made Dollar Tree a go-to retailer in shopping centers across our city,” he said.

Interior demolition is underway to deliver a shell to the tenants. Exterior construction is planned to begin next month, with the tenants finishing their spaces during the summer.

“We’ve seen a resurgence of retail activity on East 10th Street,” Tysdal said.  “With Runnings backfilling the former Kmart, plus the addition of the Starbucks retail center next to George Boom (Funeral Home), along with Flyboy Donuts and Scooter’s Coffee and Black Hills Federal Credit Union – we continue to see a re-energization of this legacy corridor.”

Planet Fitness and Dollar Tree expect to be open for business by the end of the year.