SIOUX FALLS (AP) - A $15 million entertainment complex anchored by a massive pawn shop is scheduled to open on Thanksgiving Day next year across from the Denny Sanford Premier Center and Sioux Falls Convention Center.
The planned Badlands Pawn, Gold and Jewelry will be 50,000 square feet and not only a store but also a tourist attraction, entrepreneur Chuck Brennan told the Argus Leader.
Popular TV stores such as "Pawn Stars" have raised the profile of pawn shops, but Brennan said the industry is still "lacking a certain amount of flair." He wants to change that, recreating the feel of a treasure hunt. He wants the complex to the flagship for "a complete movement in the pawn industry."
"Somewhere it got to the point where it started to become a financial transaction and the showroom started losing its fun, and people were just pawning stuff because they needed money, and they weren't going for the pawnshop experience," Brennan said.
Plans for the complex also call for a metal foundry, a radio station, a tattoo shop, a deli, a merchandise shop, a gun shop and an indoor shooting range. Brennan also plans for TV shows to be filmed on site.
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Badlands Pawn is "unlike anything we've ever heard of," architect Lanny Auringer said.
The project will be in what the city has dubbed its sports and entertainment district, playing off the new events center and nearby Sanford Sports Complex. Badlands Pawn will go a long way toward encouraging other businesses to invest in the area, said Darrin Smith, the city's director of community development and public parking.
"I think what Chuck is going to do with that fits perfectly," he said. "It's definitely entertainment."
