The Kilbourne Group is making the case that the expensive-to-run and underutilized Fargo Civic Center would thrive as the city's new convention center. The developer, founded by former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, leads a group vying to build the long-desired facility downtown.
A Convention Center Committee recommended that the Fargo City Commission select brewery and city market Brewhalla as the winning site among four finalists. But Kilbourne’s plan, which they say would inject much-needed economic vitality into downtown Fargo, came in second place — and could still be chosen in the Commission’s final vote, which could come as early as Tuesday, May 26.
Prairie Public's Erik Deatherage spoke with Kilbourne Group President Michael Allmendinger about their convention center bid.
Interview Highlights
Highlights have been edited and shortened for clarity. For the full interview, listen above.
WHY SHOULD KILBOURNE GROUP BUILD FARGO’S CONVENTION CENTER?
MICHEAL ALLMENDINGER: This is a great opportunity for the city to be figuring out where the next convention center should be. And I would just like to give a shout out to Visit Fargo-Moorhead, Charley Johnson, Shirley, and the full committee that put in over a year's worth of work to figure out where this should go in the city. And they've went through a good process.
We believe that the downtown Fargo location has four main key differentiators. First of all, is that this is the historic center of our city, and we have a great walkable district for people to experience. When people come to Fargo, they're going to be able to go to the convention, leave and be in the middle of our entertainment district. We're going to have boutiques. There's hotels already established. There's new hotels. It's just going to be a great experience for them.
Architecturally, the building is awesome, because we're using the historic Civic Center and adding on to it to reutilize that building, we do have a budget that allows us to bring in some great historical features of what we believe is a strong connection for people to realize what downtown Fargo is and why Fargo is here.
HOW ARE YOU REUTILIZING THE CURRENT CIVIC CENTER?
ALLMENDINGER: If you look at any store or any building on Broadway and the original stores that were in those buildings, they've adapted through the years, right? They used to be warehouses, they used to have storage on the first floor, and now everything is different.
The same applies to the Civic Center. This site is our civic quad. We have city hall, library. The Civic Center's been great. How many people have enjoyed a Class B Basketball tournament in a Civic Center, right? And now that has moved on to larger places and now this is a great spot for a convention center.
When you look at the core — what we call a core and shell of the Civic Center — it has a 36-foot high ceiling and it has a very large open volume on the inside. So we're gonna keep the width of the Civic Center and simply just extend it to the south.
And that, luckily, meets the formula and the program requirements for the new convention center.
WHAT HOTELS WILL ACCOMMODATE THE CONVENTION CENTER?
ALLMENDINGER: There are three hotels that will be part of the Convention Center. The Jasper Hotel that's existing [inside the RDO Tower], and the Radisson Blu, connected to the skyway.
The new hotel, Moxie — what we're planning on doing is actually building it on the existing police station site. The architecture team is looking at a reuse of the police station with an addition or a demo of the police station, and then build a brand new hotel there.
The top floors of the Radisson would most likely be additional Radisson Blu rooms with a rooftop on there. Now, the ownership of those floors are by the office tenants and the businesses there, so it's undetermined whether they're going to want to relocate or not.
HOW WOULD A CONVENTION CENTER HELP DOWNTOWN BUSINESSES?
ALLMENDINGER: The Convention Center coming into downtown Fargo will absolutely help every business in downtown, because it's going to bring guests and visitors that are going to be interested in the culture of Fargo.
They're going to experience the food, the beverage, the shopping, and that is going to help them. Right now, when you talk to most of the retail businesses in downtown, they have a lot of guests that come from out of Fargo -- a high percentage of them do. When people come to Fargo-Moorhead community, they often come to downtown Fargo to visit.
And that is where a lot of their business comes from. Of course, they have locals shopping as well, and repeat customers. So I think that will just absolutely add a larger customer base for all the businesses in this district.
HOW INVESTED IS SECRETARY DOUG BURGUM IN KILBOURNE GROUP?
ALLMENDINGER: He's not a part of the Kilbourne Group business in any way right now. He purposely, intentionally, and ethically went through the Senate hearing process and signed a document that he is not involved in the business of Kilbourne Group.
I think it's like any evolution of a business. Kilbourne Group was born from Doug's vision 20 years ago, and we have been building off of what the community vision was set back in 1990, early 2000s.
WHAT DISTINGUISHES YOUR CONVENTION CENTER BID FROM BREWHALLA?
ALLMENDINGER: I believe that the site and the location is the perfect size for the program that was sent out for the Convention Center. So, the building works well. And that's unique to find a location in the heart of your city, especially the walkable district.
Number two is that within half a mile, there are 900 parcels of land, 600 different property owners, and over 200 businesses already existing. So just think about the impact it's gonna have broadly across so many different community members that have really believed in downtown Fargo through these years. This will help give them a boost. And a boost is needed right now.
And then I guess third is that I believe that downtown Fargo location will allow the city of Fargo to compete for the conventions and attract them to Fargo, which is ultimately the most important part because this is a city project and the city needs to run that business. And for that to be successful, I think we'll be able to compete really well for that business.
