Yoga Enterprise

Sioux Falls surpasses $1B in building permits – SiouxFalls.Business

Nov 22, 2021

It officially has been a billion-dollar year in Sioux Falls building activity.

The value of permits issued this year has crossed that milestone mark with more than a month left to go, easily surpassing last year’s record total of $919.6 million, which was far ahead of the previous record of $786.6 million set in 2018. In 2019, the total was $771.4 million.

At the start of the year, city leaders didn’t anticipate breaking the billion-dollar mark, said Jeff Eckhoff, director of planning and development services.

“Last year was such a jump from the previous year; we talked about $1 billion, but it was almost in passing, almost a joke,” he said.

But as the year went on, the potential became clear.

“It wasn’t like a huge project. We saw these $20-, $10-, $19 million projects stacking up, and we saw the broad sectors coming – manufacturing, medical, apartments – so I don’t know when it was, but probably midsummer we started saying it could be a billion -dollar year,” Eckhoff said.

“That became a possibility as we saw the numbers. They got crazy. Every week was a $25 million week; it was just boom, boom boom. It kept sustaining itself. It was just crazy.”

The permit that was issued today to put the city over the billion-dollar mark is a remodeling project at the Minnehaha County Administration Building for $1.74 million.

The city’s year-to-date total represents 1,017 commercial permits totaling $648.4 million and 5,800 residential permits totaling $352.8 million.

The city so far this year has issued permits for 1,735 apartment units, totaling $202.3 million, 813 single-family homes and 443 town homes.

Unlike some previous record building years, this year’s total is not dominated by one large project. Part of the new Amazon fulfillment center represents nearly $61 million, but the next largest after that is the city’s public safety training center, which was just permitted for $30.6 million.

“That’s exciting. You don’t want all your eggs in one basket, so it’s a good thing that it’s spread out,” said Bob Mundt, president and CEO of the Sioux Falls Development Foundation. “And it’s diversity across Sioux Falls, not just one spot, so that’s exciting as well.”

Here are the top 10 projects that have been issued permits so far this year:

  • Amazon fulfillment center, 6700 N. Marion Road, $60.9 million.
  • City of Sioux Falls public safety training center, 4300 E. 60th St. N., $30.6 million.
  • FedEx distribution center, 5051 W. Foundation Court, $27.1 million.
  • The Carlton apartments at Dawley Farm Village, 5501 E. 18th St., $26 million.
  • Expansion of the Lineage Logistics, formerly Win Chill, warehouse and distribution center, 5050 W. Foundation Court, $24.1 million.
  • Avera’s new east-side clinic, 1600 S. Highline Ave., $23 million.
  • City’s Edge apartments, 3601 E. Sage Grass St., $22.9 million.
  • Avera Behavioral Health addition, 4400 W. 69th St., $21.6 million.
  • The Slate at Harvest Creek apartments, 5200 S. Rateliff Ave., $17.5 million.
  • Addition at Furniture Mart USA, 140 E Hinks Lane, $17.4 million.

Three of the top 10 projects are at Foundation Park, where the Development Foundation anticipates additional building activity.

“The foresight that people had five or six years ago when they created Foundation Park for these large-scale developments is a big part of what’s going on, along with the general growth of Sioux Falls,” Mundt said. “The vision of forefathers is coming true.”

What’s ahead

The city’s building services office still has plans for 35 to 40 projects in line to be reviewed for permits. Each plan examiner is working on about that many, too, Eckhoff said. A new examiner starts next week and brings decades of experience designing and drafting commercial projects, “so we’re thrilled to get him,” Eckhoff said.

This year’s totally likely will include part of the Steel District development on the former Sioux Steel site, but not the majority of it, and it does not include the Cherapa Place expansion. The city also will be expanding its wastewater treatment plant, which is a more than $100 million project. And there are other large projects in the pipeline that can’t be made public yet, Eckhoff said.

Add it all up, and “we could have another year like this,” he said.

The coming year will bring more activity at Foundation Park too. CJ Foods is grading its site “and will get into full swing in 2022,” Mundt said, adding the plan is to sell the land for the project in early 2022, “and we’re hoping we’ll see construction shortly after that. ”

Related Articles