The city of Brookings is moving forward with a plan to revitalize a historic downtown building.
On Tuesday night, the city council unveiled plans to transform the Brookings Armory into a "multi-use cultural hub," according to a press release.
The project will renovate the 86-year-old building, creating an event space, a 73-room hotel and a restaurant.
The city has a development agreement for the project with Linchpin, a company focused on rural economic development.
“I hope the first time people walk into The Armory and the hotel that it's an experience of surprise and delight," said Angie Boersma, President of Linchpin and Founder/Principal Architect at ID8 Architecture. “I hope that they are excited about the transformation and that they get a chance to see it through new lenses, perhaps very differently than their initial perception of the building was.”
The Brookings Armory was constructed in 1937 as a Works Progress Administration project. It served as home to the Brookings U.S. National Guard until 1976, when it was converted to be used by the city's parks and recreation department.
City leaders said the project is an investment in the broader Brookings community, and the cultural hub of downtown, specifically.
“I think it's going to be an absolutely before-and-after type of project,” Deputy Mayor Nick Wendell said. “We will remember downtown Brookings before The Armory was revitalized, and then we'll look forward to what it was like after The Armory project was revitalized.”
