Nov. 19, 2018

North Dakota-based Williquors is expanding to Sioux Falls.

It will bring a two-story, 26,200-square foot store to the northwest corner of 69th Street and Louise Avenue with a massive selection of products.

“This store is going to bring something Sioux Falls has never seen,” said Bill Klein, who opened the store with his business partner Troy Matthiesen in late 2014 in Bismarck.

The Bismarck store sells more than 3,500 varieties of wine, more than 900 beer selections and thousands of spirits.

Once a store in Sioux Falls opens up additional distributors, “We could probably get north of 4,000 varieties of wine in both stores and same with all the spirits,” Klein said. “And there are craft beers not available in North Dakota but available there, and same with the other direction.”

Klein and Matthiesen were partners in a company called Material Resources in the rock, sand and gravel industry but found themselves spending more time traveling than they wanted. They sold the company in 2012 but still work for it. At that time, they considered opening a smaller liquor store in Bismarck.

“As we were developing our plan, the location in Bismarck became available, and we decided to go big,” Klein said. “We toured 20-plus states and were in and out of maybe 300 liquor stores. We went from small to big and just tried to figure out how to build something that makes the customer most comfortable and happy.”

The store is designed with a large main level – in Sioux Falls, it will be 24,000 square feet – and a small office upstairs. The shopping aisles are wide enough for two carts. Wine is displayed in such a way that labels can easily be read, and shelving is designed to be low enough that the store feels open, the owners said.

“We looked at making sure we built enough for growth and expanding, picking up as many products as we can so you have the biggest selection possible,” Matthiesen said.

Other features of the store include a Pick Six section with hundreds of brews, allowing customers to sample individual products without committing to a six- or 12-pack. There’s also a growler station with 14 taps connected to an app for tracking current selections.

A classroom on the main floor offers mixology classes, and a small food section includes specialty meats and cheeses as well as caviar and salmon during the holiday season.

“We didn’t copy anyone, but we used a blend of everything we saw,” Klein said.

There now are five partners in Williquors. One, who has family in Sioux Falls, will be relocating to oversee the store here.

In Bismarck, the store is a destination, the owners said, with a regional draw. They expect a similar response in Sioux Falls.

The company has been looking at the market for a while, Klein added.

“After shopping markets that we want to be in, Sioux Falls was our No. 1 choice,” he said. “We found Sioux Falls to be a beautiful city and the growth is just perfect for us.”

Williquors will be on the same corner as Cornerstone Bank, which is planning to open next year.

“They like the development that’s occurring on 69th and Louise. They like the increase in traffic occurring there,” said Scott Blount of Lloyd Cos., who brokered the deal.

“They’re looking at the future as to how busy of an intersection this could be and decided they wanted to be right there. It will show up from the interstate, and they like that visibility.”

Site work will start soon, and the hope is to open in October 2019.