Sioux Falls councilors want proof another parking ramp project won't go belly-up

City settled for $500K in March to make last private developer go away

The city of Sioux Falls spent more than $20 million constructing a seven-story parking ramp at 110 S. Mall Avenue. (File photo)

Sioux Falls City Hall next month will officially begin searching for a new private partner to develop around the newest downtown parking ramp after its last push for a multi-use facility fell through in 2019.

But city councilors Tuesday said they still haven’t been briefed about what mistakes were made the last time the mayor’s office selected a group of developers who’d promised to deliver the now-defunct Village on the River project. That partnership soured and was the center of a years-long saga that finally came to end with a half-million dollar payout by the city earlier this year.

“That was an incredibly painful and embarrassing thing that happened, and I don’t want to see it happen again,” Councilor Greg Neitzert said after the Council learned during an informational meeting at Carnegie Town Hall that Mayor Paul TenHaken’s office will formally begin soliciting a new developer. The city hopes to use the parking ramp as the core to a commercial, office and residential project at 110 S. Mall Ave.