LISTEN: Mark Bjornstad and Mike Bullinger’s conversation with The Flag’s Steve Hallstrom
FARGO, N.D. – Developers trying to build a convention center near Brewhalla in Fargo say their site is the best of four locations being considered by the City Commission because it’s a public, private partnership.
The other sites city officials are considering are the city quad near City Hall and areas near the Fargodome and Scheels Arena.
Drekker Brewing and Brewhalla president and co-founder Mark Bjornstad said the Brewhalla option has a universal management model. His group would manage the convention center and hotel along with catering and activities.
“All costs and expenses and revenue is managed appropriately across the whole site. You don’t have a caterer that doesn’t want to work with the hotel or convention center. These are the problems that were identified with struggling convention centers across the country,” Bjornstad explained on “The Steve Hallstrom Show” on The Flag.
The convention center will be funded with a 3% lodging tax voters approved in November 2024. City leaders say it’s expected to raise $3 million per year.
Bjornstad said the building the city’s Downtown Engagement Center is moving to at 2001 First Avenue North becoming the Resource and Recovery Center is his company’s old offices. They’re across the street from where the proposed convention center is at.
Cityscapes Development President Mike Bullinger, who’s part of the plan to build the convention center near Brewhalla, said the lease for that building is for two years. The center would move out of that building before construction on the convention center would be finished.
“We’re kind of helping them out to figure out where they eventually want it to be. I think they’re going to be looking for state funding to build a facility,” Bullinger said.
