March 17, 2024

If he hasn’t already reached that point, I promise you there will come a time in the not-too-distant future when the last thing Mayor Paul TenHaken wants to be asked is “So what do you think you’ll do next?”

The post-mayoral path is far from a clear-cut one in this community, but in recent weeks, I’ve concluded there’s one role that will need to be filled if TenHaken and the Friends of the Riverline District are to make a new convention center downtown a reality.

Someone needs to start breaking down governmental barriers to see if we might be able to address multiple needs with one effort.

Let me back up a bit.

It’s hard to listen to the experts in the convention and trade show industry, and my own common sense, and not realize how visitors to Sioux Falls would gain the best overall experience at a modern convention center that’s easily walkable to our steadily improving downtown.

Charlie Johnson, whose Chicago-based firm Johnson Consulting has been hired by the city to study options and need for a new facility, put it bluntly when I talked to him.

“I call convention centers the community’s living room … and your living room is a little off-center today,” he said. “You’ve done some pretty extraordinary things in your downtown already. … You’re missing out and sending the wrong message to the broader world.”

Imagine if you flew into the Sioux Falls Regional Airport, took Minnesota Avenue to Russell Street, went to the Sioux Falls Convention Center for an event, stayed in a hotel nearby and flew out. I cringe at the impression that visitor would have of the broader Sioux Falls community.

But I also struggle to picture recent events such as the Sioux Falls Farm Show and more recent Sioux Empire Sportsmen’s Show (Side note: Maybe time to modernize the name on that one?) loading massive pieces of farm equipment, boats and campers into what could be a multistory downtown facility.

I could, however, see shows like that locating in a new wide-open multipurpose building at, say, a new fairgrounds.

Why wouldn’t it make sense for the city and Minnehaha County or even Lincoln County to look at shared opportunities for new facilities that could accomplish multiple objectives as both are considering future needs? It turns out, that’s happening elsewhere, Johnson told me when I brought it up.

“Fairgrounds are upgrading, and they are very relevant for the ag shows, the farm equipment shows, the manufacturing equipment shows, even the Sysco Food Show. If you have multiple facilities and you have a common brain thinking about them, you now have a portfolio,” he said. “But if you don’t look at it that way, you have competitors within your own market, and that’s bad.”

So who’s the common brain? Who’s the one who can work with the counties on potential ag-related shared space, who can talk with the school districts as the city explores recreation space to ensure a collaborative approach to reach kids and who can engage with the business community about how we can help optimize this future public investment?

To that last point, Johnson shared with me that the most successful visitor facilities are ones in communities where economic developers and tourism organizations work together to attract industry events that mirror the community’s targeted industries.

“Your strategy is go after your economic sectors,” he said. “You’re strong in health care, retail, manufacturing, etc., so you bring in shows that match those verticals that you’re in.”

This should be happening today, but certainly with a new facility to sell, our business community has to become partners with our visitor industry, helping with event lead generation in our respective industries and engaging with those groups that hold events here.

Of course, to make it all happen is going to require one of two things: access to a new funding source or hard choices in prioritizing city and county projects. I had to stop myself from cutting off Johnson as he started telling me all the creative ways local governments have used to fund such facilities.

Not so much in Sioux Falls, which is “resource poor as far as being able to fund this,” Johnson agreed after I shared the city’s limited authority — that’s putting it mildly — to pursue any additional revenue sources. That’s a conversation for a different time, but the fact remains that in the context of everything else that a growing community — and region — requires, adding to our portfolio of public facilities is going to be a heavy lift.

I’m not saying TenHaken — or anyone — would want to take on the job of coordinating it all. But, as the old saying goes, if it’s not someone’s job, does it become everyone’s afterthought? With investments this big potentially on the horizon, we can’t afford to let opportunities to maximize them become an afterthought.

After record-breaking trade show, new Convention Center planning begins