Downtown Debate

BROOKINGS — When the city council approved a budget transfer of $450,000 to purchase the lot with grain silos near the railroad tracks downtown last week, it cast a marker on a future downtown revitalization.

With the purchase — the city was the highest bidder when the property went to auction — Brookings now has nearly 5 acres of contiguous property at the south end of downtown to work with going forward.

The city now owns the Old Armory — as well as the parking lots to its immediate south and west — along with the old fire department, the soon-to-be-old police station, and the two lots across Front Street to the south of them.

All told, that’s 4.7 acres with which to pursue a revitalized Downtown Brookings.

“We have an opportunity here to strategically redevelop more than four and a half acres of bare ground right in the center of the city,” Council Member Nick Wendell told the Beacon in an exclusive interview.

“It’s like once in a generation, probably once in every two generations, would we ever see all of this come together at the right time.”
Wendell is speaking out in favor of the proposal after social media posts about the purchase sought to portray the purchase as overreaching or fiscally irresponsible. Nothing, he said, could be further from the truth.

“I think there’s always going to be a segment of the population that have a worldview that the public sector shouldn’t be involved with any development of any kind, and I can respect that view,” Wendell said.

“Then I think there’s another segment of the population, frankly, that would like it to seem as though every action the current council takes is controversial. And I think we’re going to see a lot of that between now and November. I think there are folks who have real motivation and incentive to make it seem as though our actions are controversial when they’re really not. And I think this is another example. So we just need to articulate why this was a good value, why it sets us up in a good position for the future to be a good partner — to really thoughtfully and strategically develop that land.”

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The City Council’s last development project has seen Aldi open and Target poised to follow suit, both on land near the interstate that the city bought and held for more than a decade. That, Wendell said, was a direct response to a survey of city residents who clamored for the national retailers. The move made good business sense for the city, as well, with the hopes that tax revenue that used to drive itself out of town would stay in Brookings.

Now, he said, the council also wants to continue its commitment to a strong, vibrant downtown.

The idea is to foster a walkable, livable community and not let development overwhelm one area along I-29, as arguably has happened in both Watertown and Sioux Falls.

“That’s a commitment we’ve made to the core of the community from the beginning. That we’re hearing the demand for national retailers,” Wendell said.

“But I’ve said from the beginning, I want us to very thoughtfully keep investing in downtown. So we tried to get in front of that with the downtown master plan. We know that one element of that is obviously beautifying downtown and continuing to invest in infrastructure there. We’ve got a mini grant program for storefronts and signage and lighting, but I think what can really help a downtown turn the corner is how you reinvest in opportunities for people to live downtown, and we see that in so many mid-size and larger downtowns: When people live there, there’s a little bit different retail mix that is possible.

“If we can make some investments now that bring some different types of living downtown, now you start to get some momentum,” Wendell continued. “You’ve got public space, a gathering space. You’ve got mixed use with retail and residential connected. You reinvest in public spaces like the fire department, and now all of those things are firing on all cylinders, over time.”

Listening to council deliberations over the last few years, a large concern has been this: As the city has grown southward it has verged on sprawl, with nearly exclusively residential neighborhoods cropping up, along with many roads that are not gridded as efficiently as they could be.

A healthy downtown engine would likely help bolster both downtown businesses and real estate prices in core neighborhoods in the older parts of town, which currently lag newer developments, Wendell said.

“From a city perspective, I want us to thoughtfully grow in all different neighborhoods and sectors of the community because if all of our residential development happens south of town on large lots, with winding streets and cul-de-sacs, 20 years from now the cost to the city to maintain those neighborhoods when we have to resurface those streets and invest in drainage and curb and gutter and snow removal and garbage pickup, all of your basic municipal services are just more expensive in new neighborhoods,” Wendell said.

“So if we can continue to reinvest in those core neighborhoods around Hillcrest and Medary and Sexauer and downtown, where your streets are grids, you’ve got open alleyways. You’ve got garages facing those alleys. I mean, everything is just more efficient. I’m not saying all of our development needs to happen in the core of the city, but if we keep sprawling out and not reinvesting in the core, not only does it make those core neighborhoods less livable and less connected, it’s just going to cost us all. And when I say all, I mean taxpayers,” he said.

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The city did not set out to buy up downtown land.

It has owned the Old Armory, the 72-hour parking lots, and of course, the fire and police stations, for decades.
That issue came up at the last council meeting when Zeno Wicks pressed the councilors on what demolition costs would be for the silos and why the city outbid a resident who likely intended to use the lot as currently intended — to store grain.

Council Member Wayne Avery pushed back on the notion Wicks advanced, that the city was costing itself money by purchasing the land now.

“I think it’s a long-standing thing in real estate. You need to buy something when it’s for sale,” Avery said. “If it fits into our plans for the Downtown Brookings, this was the time to acquire it because this was the time it was for sale. So we have it. There’s other uses for it that generate revenue. It doesn’t necessarily need to be torn down. It’s just part of our downtown master plan that fits into our goals. So I think we had good, sound reasoning when we went after this piece of property.”

The opportunity to buy the two adjacent Front Street parcels — along with the new planned fire and police stations freeing up that city-owned lot and building — led the city to make the investment now.

Wendell also emphasized to The Beacon that far from being fiscally irresponsible, the council’s long view has led to those new police and fire stations being largely paid for out of current funds. The new fire station will be entirely funded by money the council has set aside, and after the decision was made to build a new police station on land the city already owns — near the Dacotah Bank Center — the bond for a new police station is estimated at under $5 million.

“We’re really proud of that because those are the types of facilities that most communities have to bond and take on a real debt burden to make it happen,” Wendell said.

Wendell is correct on that count. For example, on Nov. 5, 2024, Codington County voters passed a $29.65 million bond measure to build and renovate court facilities, a county jail and law enforcement facilities. In 2025, the Aberdeen City Council approved a $20 million municipal bond ordinance to construct a huge, 86,000-square-foot public works facility. The council utilized a standard ordinance rather than putting the bond to a public election.

“We’re looking at more than $20 million in new public safety facilities, and we’re not going to bond more than $5 million of it,” Wendell continued.

“And that’s good for everybody. We’ve been saving those dollars. We’re in a position where we’re not going to have to add tremendously to our debt load to make those investments happen. And that didn’t happen by accident. We didn’t have a ton of surplus revenue. We’ve just been really thoughtful about squirreling away dollars over the last several years.”

Council Member Brianna Doran made a similar point at the council meeting, stressing that downtown revitalization was a core mission of the council’s — both in their long-term planning and response to residents.

“In a lot of our meetings over the last few years, we have talked about how we can create a really intentional connective downtown, connecting it to our neighborhoods, connecting it to other park spaces, creating that economic revitalization in the area as well,” she said. “So it might seem in the short-term like kind of a large investment… we really are looking at how we can connect the community with our downtown.”

The Council also operates with a ten-year plan, Wendell stressed, while maintaining one important axiom: If it must be done, it’s usually cheaper to do it now rather than wait.

Witness another land purchase the city recently made, securing the parcel adjacent to the current landfill even though the current dump should suit the city’s needs for 15 or 20 more years.

“Every year that passes, I mean, whether it’s the cost of materials or labor or acquiring land, nothing’s getting cheaper,” Wendell said.

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It’s clear Wendell sees the land purchase as the continuation of a conversation — and the very beginning of a project — rather than a wedge issue with which to rile voters ahead of a fall election.

“I would invite folks to dig in a bit deeper. The co-op purchase is a great example. There’s some really great public documents, some really great plans. And I would like to think Brookings is the kind of place that can really make something happen,” he said.

In a Facebook post, Wendell shared some examples of downtown projects from mid-sized towns in the Midwest that had incorporated old silos into mixed use spaces, some with art painted on them, some as merely design features themselves.

Council Members Lisa Hager, Doran and Avery also mentioned similar projects at the council meeting.

“It doesn’t mean we’ll be able to fulfill all of them, but this isn’t just throwing a dart at a map, either,” Wendell said. “This is, OK, this is going to come available, and how does it put us in a good position to actually fulfill these plans? In the case of the downtown master plan, hundreds and hundreds of residents gave us feedback through surveys, at open houses and in one-on-one meetings. That’s folks who live all over the city. Some that do business downtown, some that live downtown. I mean, we got as much feedback as possible to construct that plan, and this is really about honoring the feedback we got from literally hundreds of Brookings residents.”

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