City posts top bid for land downtown

During the June 23 Brookings City Council meeting, the council heard first reading on a proposal to spend $450 thousand on purchasing some land in downtown Brookings.
Deputy Mayor Nick Wendell said the purchase would involve land across the street from the city’s current police station: “Folks will recognize the grain elevators that are right downtown, adjacent to the railroad. Those went up for public auction last week and the city was the successful bidder in that auction.”

He said the city has no immediate plans for the land. “We wanted to acquire those elevators because of their location, of course. We’re not necessarily interested in operating grain elevators, right? But because the city does own land all around those grain elevators — and we have approved a pretty comprehensive Downtown Master Plan in recent years that really contemplates how we expand and reinvest in the core of the community — we wanted to ensure that we had some control over what happens.”

He said the city hopes to move slowly with developing the property.

“We don’t have a definite plan for what will happen there next week or next month and beyond, but when the time comes to really redevelop that district and think about what happens there adjacent to downtown, we wanted to ensure that all of that property that’s contiguous to one another can sort of be planned thoughtfully together.”
Wendell said this was a rare opportunity for the city.

“That’s sort of a once in a generation opportunity — to redevelop right in the center of town, and we just want to make sure it’s done really thoughtfully in a way that enhances our downtown.”

Second reading and passage of the proposed land purchase could come during the July 14 Brookings City Council meeting.