Fargo Convention Center Project Committee eyes timeline for proposals – InForum

FARGO — Fargo’s quest to achieve a new convention center and hotel complex will likely involve a two-part request-for-proposal process that could get under way in late April.

That’s according to officials who attended a Fargo Convention Center Project Committee meeting held Friday, March 14, at Fargo City Hall.

Mallari Ackerman, director of sales for Visit Fargo-Moorhead and a member of the committee, said an initial request for proposals could be issued by the end of April.

Fargo Convention Center Project Committee members as well as city commissioners and city staff attend a meeting of the committee on Friday, March 14, 2025.

Chris Flynn / The Forum

Officials said would-be developers would then have about a month to submit responses focusing on factors such as location of the project, information about the team bringing forth the idea, and concept drawings.

The first group of respondents would be narrowed down to a smaller list of potential developers who would be asked to submit more detailed proposals, according to Ackerman and Jim Gilmour, Fargo’s director of strategic planning and research.

Charley Johnson, president and CEO of Visit Fargo-Moorhead,

has said Fargo needs a convention center with at least 70,000 square feet of meeting space

to attract large events that have gone to other cities, such as Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and St. Cloud, Duluth and Rochester in Minnesota.

Johnson suggested such a convention center would be connected to a new hotel with 150-200 rooms.

During Friday’s meeting of the convention center committee, officials talked about a potential price tag for a convention center/hotel complex of between $40 million and $45 million, with that amount covering the cost of land and construction.

Also discussed at Friday’s meeting was a planned trip by committee members and others to the River’s Edge Convention Center in St. Cloud and the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester.

Tour participants plan to leave Fargo early on Monday, March 24, with a return trip set for the afternoon of Tuesday, March 25.

In visiting the facilities, Ackerman said officials will be looking for aspects and features that could be useful in planning Fargo’s convention center, as she said the St. Cloud and Rochester communities share similarities with the Fargo-Moorhead area when it comes to market factors and demographics.

Fargo City Commissioner Denise Kolpack raises a point during a Fargo Convention Center Project Committee meeting held on Friday, March 14.

Chris Flynn / The Forum

Fargo City Commissioner Denise Kolpack shared with committee members that she recently visited a convention center in Louisville, Kentucky, and was impressed by how the facility created for visitors a strong sense of what Kentucky and Louisville are all about.

Kolpack said at the point local proposals are brought forward an important question to ask developers would be how their project might do something similar for Fargo and the surrounding area.

“How does it reinforce the uniqueness?” Kolpack said.

Gilmour said an important aspect of any proposal submitted is the degree to which a developer has secured rights to a potential location for a project, noting the city is looking for developers with “site control.”

Kolpack suggested it may be worthwhile for the city to consider proposals that have attractive aspects to them even if control of a proposed site still requires some nailing down.

Dave Olson is a reporter, photographer and occasional videographer. He graduated from Minnesota State University Moorhead with a degree in mass communications, and during his time at The Forum he has covered many beats, from cops and courts to business and education. Currently is writing business stories, but jumps on daily news as needed. He’s also written about UFOs, ghosts, dinosaur bones and the dwarf planet Pluto. You may reach Dave at 701-241-5555, or by email at dolson@forumcomm.com.



Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.

Aggregated From –
Source link
We do not take money from any political parties. We do not endorse In_dia’s ruling party BJP and In_dia’s Prime Minister’s position on keeping In_dia a closed market, ambiguous economy, and keeping India as a heavy taxing country so no one from outside world wants to do business here. It’s like denying In_dia its right in the world…
BJP Government also discourages small and local media, coming down on them heavily regulating and using lawful actions along with soft threats from demented bureaucrat extremists and other extremist groups. On one hand, the mainstream media in In_dia is getting rich and on other hand the local small media is being strangulated. So if not automated or required, We do not willfully publish any content from In_dia or pertaining to that country.
“The parasitic left-wing media and their bottom-feeding cronies have devolved into nothing more than freeloading scavengers, desperately leeching onto every possible news outlet to vomit their hatred for President Trump, Elon Musk, the GOP, and whatever shred of sanity remains in this world. If this portal ever falls prey to their filth—if any of their fraudulent, brain-dead propaganda worms its way into our automated news curation—then it’s open season on these slime-covered hacks. These sewer-dwelling propagandists, along with their PR lackeys and shadowy intelligence handlers, keep trying to smear us with their garbage. Like disobedient pets, they need to be dealt with. And dealt with they shall be—right here on Khumaer.us, the personal news battleground of Khumaer Bayas. Let’s expose them for the lying vermin they are!”
Comments (0)
Add Comment