BROOKINGS The roads that will help customers navigate to and within the Brookings Marketplace development now have official names: Pasqueflower Place and Market Street.
The decision was reached on a 7-0 vote at Tuesday nights Brookings City Council meeting, and came following a discussion that sometimes involved humor.
I just had a comment of appreciation: For those social media commenters who had other creative ideas like About Time Way and Believe It When I See It Boulevard and Cant Wait Street, thank you for sharing your excitement for this development that is finally coming to fruition, Councilor Nick Wendell said, laughing.
The development on the north side of Sixth Street just east of its interchange with Interstate 29 will be the home to a new 127,000-square-foot Target store, national grocer Aldi and a couple of smaller tenants. Construction on the site is expected to begin this spring and wrap up sometime in 2026.
The selected names were among many possibilities, with Councilor Bonny Specker pointing out that the top five names were Pasque Place, Bisbee Place, Wiyapi Place, Sunflower Place and Wheatgrass Place. She added that there were over 30 recommended names. The communitys input came from email, social media and other sources.
While humor was a part of Tuesday nights discussion, so too was serious talk about everything that went into the naming process, including considerations for the names of current businesses and similarities to the existing names of streets and avenues.
This included Councilor Brianna Doran, who inquired about possible confusion resulting from business names and street names that may be too similar for example, Medary Acres and Medary Avenue.
The reason why were having this discussion is because we do want to be intentional about supporting our local businesses as well as giving a very symbolic and meaningful name to a street of a project that has been a very long time coming, she said.
Pasqueflower Place and Market Street will both branch off of LeFevre Drive once its extended north of Sixth Street into the Brookings Marketplace development. The former will be built between the Aldi and Target stores, while the latter will connect the development to 32nd Avenue to the east.
Councilor Holly Tilton Byrne also wanted the public to know how the top five name-choosing process worked, which was then detailed by Councilor Bonny Specker:
- The process included making a list of the recommended names along with the rationale for those recommendations.
- That list was then sent to each councilor, who picked their top five in order.
- The councilors first selection was assigned five points, their second selection was assigned four points and so on down the line.
- The numbers were totaled and, voila!, the overall top five list emerged.
Specker said the top two names Pasque Place and Bisbee Place were really close, vote-wise. The name Bisbee originates with the person who is said to have homesteaded land in the Brookings Marketplace area, but Specker said she wasnt able to find any documentation to that effect.
In the end, it was Tilton Byrne who made a motion for the names Market Street and Pasqueflower Place, which was seconded and then wholeheartedly supported in a 7-0 vote.
She said the Brooking Marketplace land has been known as such since the city has had ownership of the land, so hence the name Market Street. As for Pasqueflower Place, she said its a way to honor South Dakotas official flower.
Doran liked the name, too. I do think it is a meaningful name that represents our state and a blossoming opportunity that we are bringing to the community, she concluded.
Contact Mondell Keck at [email protected].
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