With the Neilson Reise Arena in Bemidji closed down since the initial wave of COVID-19 in 2020, the Parks and Recreation department is left with one question: What should it do with the building now?

Tours of the building have been taking place so groups bidding for the feasibility study can understand the area they would be working in.

292 Design Group is a business that has worked with the Parks and Recreation department before. They are also one of the organizations interested in conducting a surface-level facility condition assessment of the building. Currently, the main goal is to understand what the department can fully garner from the closed building.

“What would we need to do to the building to reuse it, because we have groups that are saying ‘it could be fine, we could just go in and do some tweaking to it, it could be fine,'” said Marcia Larson, Bemidji Parks and Recreation Director. “But we kind of feel like we really need to bring in some consultants to look at it, kind of look at the higher level. So, what we need to do to bring it to ADA [standards], what would the building code do.”

The Parks and Recreation committee decided to recommend a facility condition assessment of the Neilson Reise Arena to the Bemidji City Council. A possible work session is planned to be scheduled in May at the earliest as a feasibility study can take six to eight weeks to conduct.

By — Mary Balstad