After many years as a blank canvas, a long-standing parking garage in downtown Sioux Falls is receiving a local artist’s touch.
The city-owned seven-story parking ramp on East 10th Street will have an art mural painted on its side. Sioux Falls artist Walter Portz will create it.
The mural incorporates several key elements of Sioux Falls, including the Levitt and St. Joesph’s Cathedral. It also includes a nod to other local artists' work that can be seen around downtown Sioux Falls.
The parking ramp was initially intended to anchor a multi-use development including a hotel and retail space. Those additional projects have been dormant since 2019 when a contract dispute between the city and the developer halted the project, leaving the parking ramp as a massive gray wall of concrete near the core of downtown.
Critics of the project say painting the parking garage could be a sign of the city giving up on the larger project. Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken challenged these critics saying Portz' art will not only display local artistic talent but could potentially attract the right developer.
Matt Paulson is the founder and CEO of MarketBeat, the company sponsoring the mural. MarketBeat made a donation of $30,000 to the Washington Pavilion which in turn hires Portz for his art.
“At MarketBeat, we support investments in local art and downtown to add to its vibrancy, and this mural is a clear fit with our community priorities. I look forward to watching Walter’s vision come to life in downtown and hope the Sioux Falls community enjoys the artwork,” said Paulson.
Portz estimates that the seven-story mural will require about 15- to 18 five-gallon buckets of paint.
Portz said this is his largest mural by far. After the priming is complete, he expects the mural to take him about a month.
