USA, SD: Severance Brewing Co. heading to downtown Sioux Falls

A new brewery is heading to downtown Sioux Falls with plans to open next summer in a mixed-use development near the Big Sioux River and Falls Park, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reported on September 6.

Severance Brewing Co. is the first commercial tenant announced for The Cascade, the massive apartment complex being built by Lloyd Companies on North Phillips Avenue between downtown and the falls.

The city’s newest beer-maker is the brainchild of four friends from the Sioux Falls area, who hope to sell their concoctions in a fast-changing part of the city.

“We came upon The Cascade and the timing was just kind of perfect,” said Mark Stavenger, co-founder and taproom manager. “The more they told us about it, the more we liked the location.”

Stavenger is one of the partners behind the brewery, joined by his wife, Jennifer, her childhood friend Melissa Heckel and her husband and the business’ head brewer, Scott.

Scott Heckel is also Severance’s CEO. He started pitching around ideas for a brewery last summer, years after his first attempt to open a beer business in downtown Sioux Falls got caught in red tape at City Hall. Heckel toyed with opening a brewery in 2011 in the space now occupied by Mackenzie River, but city officials wouldn’t grant the business the paperwork needed to serve beer, Heckel said.

“We’re at a point now where we think we could think this work,” he said.

Severance will serve non-traditional styles alongside favorites such as IPAs and sours. Stavenger said the plan now is to have a dozen taps, with one reserved for rotating through various seasonal brews.

Partners loved The Cascade location because of the potential for attracting new customers. The two-building $43.5 million complex will have 200 residential units. The Levitt Shell outdoor amphitheater, also slated to open in summer of 2019, will draw people from across the community and developments such as plans for the downtown Sioux Steel site will continue to add to Severance’s future clientele, Scott Heckel said.

“The opportunity to capture that foot traffic that’s going to be down there,” Heckel said.

06 September, 2018