The Pocket in Sioux Falls has closed. Here's what comes next for the former pool hall

The site of a former pool hall in eastern Sioux Falls will become the city’s next retail center.

Developers of the new Thompson Square retail center bought The Pocket bar on July 15 and plan to completely overhaul the property at 301 S. Thompson Ave, auctioning off the bar's pool tables as they prepare for a new direction.

The old bar will be divided into two retail spaces.

“We’ve been looking at different commercial properties for quite a while and this one came up,” Frear said.

Frear and his business partners obtained two acres of real estate with the purchase, he said, and the decision to buy was also an opportunity to obtain real estate in a prime part of town, including The Pocket’s old sand volleyball courts.

“He’s got an extra acre of land there,” said Reggie Kuipers, a commercial broker for Bender.

Crews are gutting the space and will remodel it for the businesses coming in, Frear said. The auction is set for 10 a.m. Aug. 13 at the former bar, with six pool tables and other equipment available for interested buyers.

Half of the new Thompson Square development has already been set aside for custom furniture designer Maker Built. Frear and his partners are still looking for a tenant for the other half, and hope to draw interest from a microbrewery or taproom concept.

The bar’s old liquor license will go to the new Dave & Buster’s location planned for the Lake Lorraine area in western Sioux Falls, Kuipers said.

The future is uncertain for the volleyball courts. Frear said his group may sell the land to a new buyer, or it could serve as a future development for Thompson Square.

After decades of serving customers in eastern Sioux Falls, The Pocket owner Terry Narum decided to sell off the site and the liquor license, and the business closed its doors for the last time on the Saturday before the sale to Thompson Square LLC.

“He was just ready to hang it up,” Kuipers said.