Visit the merger of Rapid City and Main Street Square, beneficial for long-term success

RAPID CITY, SD (KOTA) – Main Street Square has been an essential part of Downtown Rapid City since it opened in 2011. To ensure success for years to come, Visit Rapid City is merging with Main Street Square.

Main Street Square, located in downtown Rapid City, is known to host various events, from the Great Downtown Pumpkin Festival to outdoor ice skating. As the city’s premier events destination and a major economic driver, Brook Kaufman, CEO of Visit Rapid City, says making Main Street Square sustainable in the long term is critical to its success. One way they can do that is through a merger.

“Our board and their board started communicating a few months ago and said, ‘What does this look like if we do things together? What cost savings can we achieve? What kind of synergies exist?’” Kaufman said.

Kaufman says about $250,000 will be saved by sharing the same office space and resources. She says the savings they will generate will be used to enable more events on the square and improve events already in place.

“We even saw it this year, when we had more capacity, that they were able to add more event days. Year-round, whether it’s rentals or events that Main Street Square owns, this really gives us the opportunity to focus on the things that the community sees. Then we can take that money that Main Street Square has and really put it into events, into communications that Main Street Square was built for,” Kaufman said.

Kaufman said the transition has been great so far and residents are very excited about the energy Main Street Square has brought in recent months.

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