Rapid City's Main Street Square has been open for almost a year now.
And there's no doubt it's been a hit, with fountains, free movies, concerts, and events.
"It's just boosted our business," says Michelle Pulling, owner of Alternative Fuel. And she isn't the only one noticing the boost. "I've talked to other business owners and they too have noticed that."
Alternative Fuel has recently opened its second location at Main Street Square.
Pulling says it usually takes some time for a new business to get going, but not in this case. "I know definitely a lot has to do with what's going on here at the square and there's people out here all the time, it's such a beautiful location that businesses just, when we opened the door it was like, 'boom,' so it's just good."
"I think we have generated quite a bit of foot traffic down here and downtown," says Megan Karbowski, Executive Director at Main Street Square. "Even if we had that 60 to 70 thousand people come down here, at the end of the day they've been the right people for downtown."
That's a summers worth of foot traffic, equal to the population of Rapid City itself.
And all those people aren't just staying in the square, they are walking blocks away.
"It's doing just as well, our new location as well as the main location which has been there almost 6 years," says Pulling though skeptic at first. "At first we thought it might pull some of our regular customers away from that location but it hasn't. We just gained more customers and more friends."
And that success is expected to continue.
"I don't anticipate much of a slow down time, perhaps even busier with everything right here at the square," says Pulling.
"The most important thing we want to have is an impact on the downtown area," says Karbowski.
Other businesses around downtown say the square is doing exactly what was expected.
Prarie Edge says foot traffic is up more than 25% from last year.
