Back in March of 2013, I reported about a major project that was considering coming to Sioux Falls from Iowa.
There was some road bumps along the way;
It all started with a lunch meeting the governor’s economic development office was having with a company interested in moving to Sioux Falls. Now this isn’t your normal, run of the mill, strip mall retail center, this is a research facility that wants to spend about $60-$80 Million building a facility in Sioux Falls. Also in attendance at the lunch was an ED rep from the city, and MMM.
Huether seemed to be confused as to why there wasn’t an ‘executive’ from the company at the lunch. The governor’s ED office informed Mike, during the meeting, that the Governor has already had ‘several meetings’ with the company in the past few months.
Mike was not happy (a temper tantrum ensued), and Mike left the meeting.
I realize I always run a risk of being wrong. Sadly this time I was not. It was confirmed to me recently that this did take place, and after my post a gigantic sh*t storm happened in the Governor’s/ED office. I don’t know all the details as to why the project failed (surely not because of a silly blog post about luncheon, I mean who doesn’t love Minerva’s salad bar?!). I do know that the project is at a stand still right now.
The numbers are staggering, the company planned on spending around $200 million on the project with an annual payroll of around $10 million a year, and they were going to ask for a $11 million dollar TIF (the largest in the city’s history, Sanford Sports Complex was $9 million). An eleven million dollar tax rebate for a $200 million dollar project? Detroit is cool with that.
Not sure why the company pulled back, but I will say this, when the egos of leaders get in the way of economic development, it is time to replace those leaders.