An events center could open this summer in the former Beaver Lodge Banquet Hall, less than a year after a Sioux Falls real estate developer purchased the property.
Rick Gourley renamed the facility SpringBrooke Events after the brook that runs through the 89-acre former Beaver Creek Golf Course.
“I am very excited about the project and I firmly believe in it,” he told Rock County Commissioners May 21.
“We’re hard at work, hoping that we are going to have the event center (first).”
Gourley’s plan is unfolding in phases.
The first phase reopens the events center, which has been undergoing extensive remodeling in recent months.
Gourley said the entire main floor is dedicated to hosting events.
The previous golf shop and former bar and grill have been relocated to the walkout ground floor.
“What seems like a hot commodity around the country are these events centers,” he explained.
SpringBrooke Events can comfortably seat about 400 or more people, depending on the table placement.
Included in the new events center design is a separate room designated as a “bridal suite” for use during the hosting of wedding receptions.
As the developer, Gourley is working with interested individual(s) to lease and operate the business.
“It’s going to be a pretty facility,” he said.
SpringBrooke Golf & Grill is still in the design stages, with plans to open in the lower level of the events center.
“The concept will be the pro shop and grill center, which things are kind of in place there,” Gourley said. “We’ve got to build the kitchen first.”
The golf course may not open until 2020.
He said he is committed to reopening the former golf course with some modifications. The existing course was built below and on top of a rolling hill.
“The concept would be to have all the course down below … that creates 10 to 12 acres of more development (on top of the hill),” he said.
The development will be located directly north of Interstate 90, previously where the last two holes of the Beaver Creek Golf Course ended.
Gourley envisions either commercial or retail buildings in that area or developing multiple housing options, which he has completed in Sioux Falls.
Three lots have already been sold since Gourley purchased the property and another two or three are being negotiated or discussed, he said.
“I brought a lot of naysayers into the fold to believe that this is a great, doable project,” Gourley added.
A recreational vehicle park may also be included in the final plans, potentially located north of the golf course with access from County Road 4.
Gourley’s optimism for his project has been boosted by the construction of the Highway 100 bypass currently under construction west of Brandon. The bypass allows about a 20-minute trip from Sioux Falls to Beaver Creek.
Commissioner Gary Overgaard welcomed Gourley to Rock County.
“It’s nice we’ve got someone from South Dakota who wants to come over here to Minnesota to do some business rather than the other way around,” he said.
The Beaver Creek Golf Course, Drivers Restaurant and Beaver Creek Banquet Lodge was planned and built between 1999 and 2002. It operated until the housing crisis of 2007-8, when the home sales that were reducing the business’s mortgage payments stopped.
“The business model was relatively sound,” Gourley said.
Today’s business climate and community support may allow Gourley’s venture to be more successful.
“I really believe the community here will really support this, and with the new housing being built, we expect continued interest,” he said.