Riverline Baseball Stadium? Maybe? Still?
l3wis Lalley and I stumbled on to this story the same day. He told me there were some angles he wanted to take it so I agreed to hold off posting about it, and I am glad I did. Besides Lalley being an actual professional journalist (and myself a schlump) he was able to fish a story out of the owner of the Canaries who recently bought land by the Riverline District;
Through one of his many companies – True North SE Real Estate – Slipka purchased a plot of land adjacent to the Riverline District on East 10th Street. The Riverline District is the dreamscape that covers eight acres that the Sioux Falls Development Foundation optioned earlier this year with plans for an as-yet undetermined multi-use space.
In his telling of the story, his staff identified the two pieces of property that are now the Riverline site as a potential space for a “live, work, play” development that could be the new home for the team and a center of year-round recreation and commerce.
“The side of the story that has never been told, which is frustrating to me, is that we’ve only tried to do the right thing every step of the way,” he told me recently. “We stood down. The city said those two parcels, we’d like to pursue, and I said OK.”
Slipka did secure the rights to a third parcel, an irregular plot that currently is the home to Record Keepers, Inc., on South Franklin Avenue and tucked under the 11th Street viaduct.
“The way we see it is, it’s a prudent long-term play as an investor and as a business person. I had the option before the task force was even formed,” he said. “Was there an additional motive around potential future sites (for a stadium)? Absolutely, that was how we initially started the conversation a year or two prior to that.”
The land deals that have been going on are very interesting. I was glad to see Lalley was able to interview him, don’t think he had much luck some of the other players.
