Committee unveils $15 million arena proposal

The Mitchell City Council received a proposal Monday evening at City Hall for a $15 million, 5,280-seat arena.

The design features enough retractable seating to provide nearly 30,000 square feet of floor space.

“We have a design that meets all of our needs,” said Councilman Allen Lepke, chairman of the council’s Events Center Building Committee.

The council expects to discuss the proposal further at its next meeting, March 16.

The Events Center Building Committee has been working on the proposal since September. The goals of the committee were to design, with the help of Puetz Corporation, a building that could seat at least 5,000 people and provide up to 30,000 square feet of floor space for $15 million.

The seating and floor-space figures are the minimum needed to attract more events to the city, committee members have said. The $15 million figure is said to be the amount the city can afford to spend on a new arena without raising taxes.

Local voters rejected a proposed property tax increase in September 2007 that would have helped fund the construction of a $25 million, 7,000-seat arena. That bigger arena would have been located along the state Highway 37 bypass in northern Mitchell. No location has been selected for the new proposal, but committee members have said the building could fit in most any city-block-sized space.

Lepke said Monday evening that the committee has discussed a possible joint venture with Dakota Wesleyan University and Avera Queen of Peace Health System, which have been considering building a wellness center. Some council members and the mayor expressed an interest Monday in researching the issue further.

There was little other discussion of the new proposal Monday, partly because it was a surprise. The item was not on the agenda, but was instead announced by Lepke during the portion of the council meeting set aside for citizens’ input on non-agenda items.

The current effort to expand Mitchell’s arena space began with the South Dakota High School Activities Association’s March 2005 declaration that the 3,200-seat Corn Palace is too small to host state tournaments. The Events Center Building Committee considered renovating, expanding or adding onto the Corn Palace but decided that none of those options could meet the seating and floor-space levels necessary to bring new events to the city.

The proposed new arena would not replace the Corn Palace, but would instead serve as a second and separate facility.

Tags: event center, news