Enough Parking Downtown For Events Center

SIOUX FALLS, SD - One of the biggest concerns about building an Events Center in downtown Sioux Falls is if there would be enough parking. But the Build It Downtown committee says a recent study of the downtown area shows there's more than enough parking to support a 12,000 seat facility.

Whether a new Events Center is built downtown or next to the Sioux Falls Arena, the city says it would need more than 4,100 parking spaces.

The people who would like to see it constructed downtown say there could be enough spaces within a four-block radius and more than 6,600 parking spots within a five-block radius.

"We'd have to build some parking surface lots, but we'd have to build out at the Arena as well," Steve Hildebrand of Build It Downtown said.

Hildebrand says many of those new surface spots can be accommodated once the railroad switching yard has been relocated outside of downtown, which the city is planning to do in 2014.

If the Events Center is built downtown, the parking spots would be spread out but Hildebrand says that would be an advantage.

"Downtown actually works better because your parking is spread out and because you have so many streets going north and south and so many streets going east and west that people aren't dependent on one road in and one road out like they are at the Arena," Hildebrand said.

Hildebrand says it's a myth that there isn't enough parking in downtown to host an Events Center.

"Our hope is that this helps put to rest any debate that people have about parking for an Events Center in downtown," Hildebrand said. 

To take a closer look at the map of proposed parking in downtown, visit the city of Sioux Falls' Events Center page.