New plan puts Riverline District purchase authority in steering committee's hands

Councilors pull $8.1M from 2025 budget, adopt $773M spending plan

A three-quarters of a billion dollar budget adopted by the Sioux Falls City Council Tuesday doesn’t include funds for a land purchase where a new convention center is in the works.

Rather, councilors are moving forward with a newly-hatched plan that instead calls for using $8.1 million available in the city’s entertainment tax funds to cover the purchase of about seven acres related to the proposed Riverline District east of downtown Sioux Falls.

And the ordinance unveiled this week by Council leaders Rich Merkouris and Curt Soehl also creates a steering committee that would have final say over pulling the trigger on the deal.

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