March 14, 2023
Two new businesses are moving into a shopping center to the east, and a third is expanding.
The East 10th Street shopping center will feature an expanded Pizza Ranch and add Planet Fitness and Dollar Tree.
The two national tenants will convert the former Vern Eide Body Shop back into retail space. The building was originally home to Sunshine Foods and was then converted for automotive use. Vern Eide occupied the building until purchasing the former Shopko property to the east.
The renovation will include a new building facade with new storefronts for Planet Fitness and Dollar Tree.
The building is owned by Rod Woelfel, who completed a similar project for Harbor Freight Tools and Dollar Tree in a renovated former grocery store on West 12th Street about six years ago.
“Rod has a knack for finding new life in these old buildings,” said Woelfel’s realtor, Ryan Tysdal of Van Buskirk Cos. “He is willing to put up the money and take the necessary risks to bring these projects to success.”
The Pizza Ranch expansion will include a larger FunZone arcade.
Franchisee Aaron Hansen has been a partner since opening the 3809 E. 10th St. location. in 2008 and has owned it outright since 2016.
“When we took it over, Kmart closed shortly after that, Shopko closed a while after that, so you felt like you were losing people in the area,” he said. “Now we have the retail back and Runnings next to us and the others coming in so it will be good to have more of a presence there with people on the go.”
Its expansion will double the size of the arcade, going from 13 games to 25, and add a 20-seat party room.
“We’re excited,” Hansen said. “We have a lot of the latest games that are out there.”
This includes a virtual reality game, a “glo” version of Skee Ball and a version of Mario Kart.
That is expected to happen in early May, he said.
The entire mall project took about four years to put together, said Tisdal, who brokered the deals.
“We actually negotiated the deal with Planet Fitness and settled at the end of February 2020. When COVID hit just a few weeks later, it upset the whole apple cart,” he said.
Retail leasing then stopped for much of 2020, Tisdal added. “At the end of 2021, Planet Fitness came back to the table and we closed the deal.”
Planet Fitness will occupy 18,000 square feet next to Pizza Ranch. The fitness chain also has a location on West 41st Street.
“We then had multiple offers from national retailers for the remaining 10,000 square foot cap on the east end, which Dollar Tree ultimately won,” Tisdall said. “Seeing such strong interest from many national retailers is a testament to the strong retail market we have in Sioux Falls.”
This will be the seventh Dollar Tree in Sioux Falls.
The discount retailer’s continued growth in the Sioux Falls market is a result of the success it has experienced, according to Tysdal.
“The $1.25 price point and the wide variety of their product mix has made Dollar Tree the preferred retailer in our city’s shopping centers,” he said.
Internal demolition to deliver shell to tenants. Exterior construction is scheduled to begin next month, with tenants completing their spaces over the summer.
“We’ve seen a resurgence of commercial activity on East 10th Street,” Tisdall said. “With Runnings filling in the former Kmart, plus the addition of a Starbucks shopping center next to George Boom (Funeral Home), along with Flyboy Donuts and Scooter’s Coffee and Black Hills Federal Credit Union – we continue to see a re-invigoration of this heritage corridor.”
Planet Fitness and Dollar Tree expect to be open for business by the end of the year.