Armory project off

BROOKINGS — A project began in 2019 to redevelop the Old Armory in Downtown Brookings is headed back to the drawing board after the plan the city selected ultimately could not secure financing.

The city of Brookings formally made the announcement in a Sept. 3 news release.

“The City of Brookings and Linchpin Corp. have mutually agreed to terminate the development agreement for redevelopment of the Armory property in downtown Brookings.

“Linchpin’s plans for the historic building had included event space, a restaurant and an upscale hotel.”

“We recognize this is disappointing news for many in our community who shared our excitement for the vision of transforming the Armory into a vibrant destination,” City Manager Paul Briseno said in the statement. “At the same time, we believe it is important to acknowledge the tremendous effort and commitment demonstrated by the Linchpin team throughout this process.”

Linchpin was a group put together by Angie Boersma, founder and principal architect at ID8 Architecture in Brookings.

She worked on the project since 2019, gaining formal city approval in 2023. Ultimately, though, costs — rising building costs and the cost to remediate the historic building — proved too much.

“We had some various proposals, and this goes back to before COVID, but a couple other ones. Angie’s was the one that we really liked more than anything,” Mayor Ope Niemeyer told The Beacon in an interview. “It was a great idea, putting a motel downtown and that kind of thing, and the numbers she had were good — she had checked all the boxes, except for the financing, and we kind of rode the horse for a long time.”

The idea was to remodel the Armory into an event space, then build a boutique hotel along with a parking ramp on the west side of building, where the 72-hour parking lot sits now.

The Armory, which was originally built on the south end of Main Ave. by the Works Progress Administration in 1937, was acquired by the city from the South Dakota National Guard in 1976.

According to Niemeyer, the city and Boersma worked together to try to find solutions to the problems with the project, but it ultimately became untenable.

“Their commitment to the Armory and to downtown Brookings never wavered,” Niemeyer said in the statement. “They pursued every reasonable path available in an increasingly difficult development environment.”

The release said that Boersma and Linchpin would be reimbursed by the city for expenses they incurred that the city would have had to bear normally — namely remediation for asbestos and mold problems in the Old Armory that caused it to be closed in the first place. The City will begin evaluating options after the Brookings City Council approves the mutual termination agreement at its Sept. 8 meeting.

Fresh start
With the project officially done, the City Council will quickly return back to downtown development.

Since 2019 when the project began, the city has consolidated land holdings around the area.

The city has acquired the former Dakota Service parcel as well as the elevators. With that space added to the existing police and fire station land that will soon come open and the parcel for the Old Armory and the 72-hour parking lot, the city has plenty of land and space for projects — and, Niemeyer says, a strong interest in helping maintain a strong downtown.

“We’ve been successful getting Target and Aldi and another Kwik Star out by the Interstate,” but that doesn’t mean that we have to forget our downtown,” Niemeyer said.

“We tried very hard to make this work, because I think a lot of people like the idea of a hotel downtown, it was certainly appealing,” Niemeyer said. “But we may have to go a different route now. So, we’ll see what happens.

“We want our downtown to be vibrant. It’s the heart of the city, and we want to make sure that we stay on top of that.

“We’ve had some people approach us already, and so we’ve got some opportunities. And if there’s other ideas out there, we’re more than happy to discuss them,” Niemeyer said. “It’s not a situation where things are stuck like they are now. We’re seeing a lot of growth and seeing the city get better and seeing a lot of things go well, and I think this will be exciting moving forward,” Niemeyer said.

Linehan is the Beacon’s managing editor and welcomes story tips and comments at BrookingsBeacon@gmail.com