BROOKINGS (10-26-26) — Menards would like to come to Brookings.
Deputy Mayor Nick Wendell said the Brookings City Council will take action on that tomorrow (Tuesday, October 27)… “The action that we’ll consider at Tuesday night’s meeting will sort of set the stage for Menards to come to Brookings. We’ll be going through the process now to help them acquire land north of the existing Target location, on the east side of the Interstate there to put up their very first location here in Brookings.”
The city owns almost 30 acres of land just north of the Marketplace development, where Target and Aldi went in. Wendell said the council will vote on selling that land for roughly $5 million… “That is the going rate. That is the most recent appraisal that the property has received, and yeah the action that we’re considering Tuesday night will allow us to transfer the land to the Brookings Regional Growth Alliance. They will work through the process of selling that property then to Menards, or the organization or corporation that oversees Menards.”
Wendell said the land in question is not technically part of the Brookings Marketplace development… “The city for a very long time has owned the land north of what is now Target, and we sort of hoped that this would build a bridge to develop that land. Very optimistically, we hoped that would come along over the next couple years — but we are thrilled that it is happening already. And I think that it just speaks to the vitality of the Brookings market, the vitality of what national retailers are seeing in our community and consumer behavior, and so this land is actually further north of what was that Marketplace discussion and it’s just additional retail development on top of that.”
Wendell said Menards made the decision on this particular site… “They know their traffic counts, and they know how they’re going draw consumers into their store and down their aisles. And no matter what we share with them about where there’s residential expansion and where we see opportunity in our community, they’re making the decisions based on what they know in like communities, and it’s hard for us to kind of move them to other corners of the community, even if we’d sure love to see expansion there. That will come, but I think Menards made a well-informed, thoughtful decision about building north of Target and we’re very excited to have them.”
He said this is all about keeping people shopping in Brookings… “We do all sorts of retail leakage studies. We know if we don’t have certain retailers in Brookings, residents and folks from neighboring communities are going to travel to Sioux Falls and to Marshall and to Watertown to shop — which means those retail dollars leave our community. And we also know that when they stay here, we’re generating revenue — sales tax revenue — and most of our municipal budget is dependent on sales tax revenue.”
He said the Brookings Menards probably won’t open until 2029… “They’re looking at probably Quarter Three or Quarter Four of 2029, so it is a bit into the future. But there’s a lot of work that will happen between now and then. We’re confident that they’re going to hit those targets and we’re going to have a store open at least by Q4 of 2029.”
The vote to sell the land comes tomorrow (October 27) during the Brookings City Council’s scheduled 6 p.m. meeting, in the third floor chambers of the Brookings City/County Government Center.
— Brookings Radio News
