BROOKINGS — Efforts to develop 10 acres of Brookings Marketplace land are back in full swing after an endorsement from voters in Jan. 30 special election, but the process took a bit longer than developer Ryan Companies wanted.

That was the gist of an update provided by company representative Patrick Daly, vice president of development, to the Brookings City Council at Tuesday night’s meeting. Oh, and the tidbit that an Aldi grocery store in the city remains a very real possibility.

“They remain very interested in the project and continue to move down a path with us,” he said.

Daly said they’re also working with other commercial prospects for the project. “Nothing today that I can necessarily share with respect to the details just due to some confidentiality agreements that we’re under.”

If all goes to plan, the goal is to begin site work later this year and, at this time next year, to have construction of buildings underway, Daly told the City Council.

When asked by Councilor Bonny Specker about when other tenants would be able to be announced, Daly replied, “My sense of things is probably sometime over the summer and, with any luck, it’s early summer and not late summer.”

Backing up a little bit, Daly said the referendum halted Brookings Marketplace-related work until voters made up their minds — which they did, backing the revised 10-acre development plan in a 1,255 to 708 vote.

“The referral process really caused us to abruptly have to pause all project activities, just given the uncertainty about where the project was heading back in November,” he said.

Daly continued, “As such, we were really pencils-down for almost a few months and all of our project partners, both internally and externally, were also pencils-down while we were waiting for the referendum to work itself out. When the vote came back in favorable … we were anxious to fire up the engine and get everybody re-engaged and get back on track, but not all of our project partners were necessarily ready to jump in as quick as what we were.”

He added, “Re-engaging those teams who had stepped aside (from) this project to be able to work on other projects, it took some time for everybody to be able to jump in again.”

Daly told the City Council that, due to changes in the scale and scope of the project, they’ve effectively had to start over with thing such as civil design, traffic studies, etc.

“All of which has taken more time than anticipated,” he said.

The hope is to be before the planning commission in May, with another appearance before the City Council later that month.

“The good news is, that as I stand before you tonight, we are in a good place and we are firing on all cylinders,” Daly said.

In other business on Tuesday, the City Council:

• Heard a presentation on capital improvement projects planned for this year. While not as extensive this year as last year — when the second segment of 22nd Avenue South was being reconstructed — motorists can still expect some disruptions to their travel plans. The website https://brookingscommunityconstruction.info/ will be the hub containing everything motorists need to know while tootling about the city.

• On a 7-0 vote, awarded the bid for this year’s chip seal project to Bituminous Paving Inc. for the low bid of $523,490. That was approximately 5% lower than the engineer’s estimate of $550,000.

• Approved Ordinance 24-008 on a 7-0 vote. The ordinance removes drive-thru services as a permitted special use in the Business B-2A Office District zoning.

• Supported a resolution, formally known as RES 24-033, on a 7-0 vote. The move will allow the Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department to apply for the Land and Water Conservation Fund 2024 grant cycle.

Funds, if received, will go toward the initial phase of a proposed project at the Fishback Soccer Complex that will include a large destination playground, splash pad and restrooms — all designed with accessibility in mind.

• Agreed, on a 7-0 vote, to a tax increment financing memorandum of understanding with Solventum, a company spun off from 3M, regarding the Brookings plant’s ongoing expansion, which is valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

It’s expected that the TIF application itself will come before the City Council sometime in July, with the approved memorandum defining the roles and responsibilities of the city and Solventum regarding the TIF application.

— Contact Mondell Keck at mkeck@brookingsregister.com.