Sept. 16, 2019

The new Sanford Event Barn is ready to start hosting events for the health system as well as external customers.

The 10,000-square-foot barn-style event venue is on the Sanford corporate campus in northeast Sioux Falls. It will debut this week as attendees at a welcoming event for the Sanford International will have a chance to tour it, and it will serve as a weather-related backup plan for the crowd.

“It was born out of the fact that we were renting third-party venues for our events,” said Bill Gassen, Sanford’s chief human resource officer, who oversees facilities, construction management and development.

“It looks wonderful. We could not be happier. They did a fantastic job both externally and internally. The finishes often make or break you, and we couldn’t be more pleased from the ground up with what the construction crew has done.”

The general contractor was Fiegen Construction Co.

The one-story venue will accommodate about 300 people seated and 400 in a less-formal configuration.

It includes a bar and stage, along with walls that open and close to divide the space as needed. There also are smaller meeting rooms set up inside, and a kitchen is designed to accommodate external catering.

There’s also a few seating options outdoors.

The first event will be Saturday and will help celebrate a South Dakota National Guard retirement involving a Sanford employee. The health system and its staff will receive preferential booking and rates.

“We’re really excited to see the doors open and host the first event there,” Gassen said.

Sanford will contract with a Sioux Falls-based third-party operator to handle the external bookings, he added. Details will be announced in the coming weeks as the venue opens for reservations.

“We’ve been surprised with the level of interest in the community,” Gassen said. “At this point, we need to get through the Sanford International and a couple employee events, and then we’ll begin opening it up for external events.”