Brookings Advocates for Small Business and Market Freedom

UPDATE: THE REFERAL EFFORT PASSED! NOW WE NEED BROOKINGS TO VOTE NO  WE NEED YOUR HELP TO STOP A BAD DEAL FROM MOVING FORWARD AND KEEP OUR CITY FROM WASTING OUR CITY RESOURCES.   ________________________________________________________________________ There is an active effort to refer the cities decision to a public vote. If interested in helping you can: 1) Find a petition carrier and add your signature.        - Don't know someone carrying a petition? Stop by Mills Development at 1323 Main Ave S and you can sign a petition there. 2) Carry a petition.        -The timeline is short, but we still have some days if you want to carry a petition and help gather signatures. We are well on our way, but could always use extra hands. Call 605-697-3118 to volunteer.

  The Marketplace property has proven a failed experiment over the past 10 years. And even today, the potential outcome is to sell prime interstate land to an out-of-town developer at a fraction of true market value (less than the city purchased the property for back in 2013). It is certainly not a good business decision and does not serve the best interests of the community.   In the meantime, private businesses and private developers have continued to build Brooking - bringing in TJ Max, Starbucks, Taco Bell, Hotels, expanding furniture sales, restaurants, and shopping options, and continuing to work to expand grocery and retail options. It is not the efforts of the city, but that of private industry that has been the cornerstone of success in Brookings.   The city needs to get out of the way as they have held this land hostage for more than 10 years with nothing to show for their efforts except expense reports. And now, it is again ending with another failed at...

  Located on a prime interchange corner of 1-29 and 6th St, the city of Brookings took possession of this land around 10 years ago, purchasing from the Department of Transportation. 

  Over the course of what the mayor admits in his November 21 editorial has been “at least a decade”, our city government has had agreements with 3 different out of town developers, for the 26.2 acre site they call the Brookings Marketplace.   The first was from Kansas, the second from Sioux Falls and the current one from Minneapolis.   Besides being outsiders, what does each of these have in common?   The answer is that none of them have had any out of pocket investment in this land.   No, instead they have received thousands of taxpayer dollars to fund their studies, promotions and travels.   Now the current one, reportedly a billion dollar company, wants to buy only the best of the land, at a fraction of its real value, so they can reap huge profits by bringing in some low hanging retail fruit – a gas station, furniture store and possibly a grocery is what they say.        It is time to stop this corporate welfare to outsider...