Aug. 3, 2020

Two hundred acres on the east side of Sioux Falls will be turned into single-family homes, apartments and some commercial development over the next several years.

The property on the southwest corner of 26th Street and Veterans Parkway is being called Sundance Village and is being prepared for the first stages of the development, which will include apartments plus 40 acres of residential lots.

Harr & Lemme Real Estate Inc. is developing the residential side of the project, which is estimated at up to 85 lots for homes.

“It’s nice topography, cul-de-sac type lots,” said Joel Ingle, real estate and development associate. “We’re anticipating more of the mid- to higher-level homes.”

The property is among the last large pieces of undeveloped land in the Sioux Falls School District and is located close to Rosa Parks Elementary. It has been owned by the Kappenman family for decades.

“The Kappenman family was very forward-thinking over 10 years ago when they annexed and zoned their property for future development,” said Ryan Tysdal of Van Buskirk Cos., who is marketing the site along with Ingle. 

Harr & Lemme plans to purchase land in four phases over the next six years, for a total of up to 350 homes once it’s fully built out.

“They should go fast,” Ingle said. “We’re hoping to have some of it buildable before winter, but we’re awful close. We have a lot of work to do between now and then.”

The balance of the development includes:

• 2 acres of office land on 26th Street across from Rosa Parks Elementary.
• 7 acres of commercial land, which can be subdivided, on the southwest corner of 26th and Veterans.
• 20 acres of commercial and office land at 33rd Street and Veterans.
• 12 acres of multifamily land west of 33rd and Veterans.

The entire development includes three-quarters of a mile of frontage along Veterans Parkway and is zoned commercially for uses that include retail, restaurants, hotels, medical clinics and offices.

“We’ve spent the last several months working with the city and engineers to get all the information we need to begin marketing the development for sale. It’s encouraging that we are already negotiating on four parcels within the development,” Tysdal said.

“Having Dawley Farm Village to the north and Harmodon Park to the south really positions Sundance Village well. It’s in the center of the activity, which is attractive to families looking for a new home as well as those searching for a new commercial location.”

Tysdal compared the development’s potential to the nearby Copper Creek neighborhood.

“The close proximity to the big retail at Dawley instantly made Copper Creek one of the fastest-growing neighborhoods of the 2000s,” he said. “People like the idea of living 60 seconds from a Target store.”

Sundance Village joins a number of other east-side developments in recent months, he added. With the planned connection of Interstate 90 to Veterans Parkway later this year, the area is projected to have traffic counts similar to Louise Avenue, Tysdal said.

“We’ve had over 500 acres of development land sell on the east side in the last 18 months,” he said. “The east-side growth was planned and predicted by former Sioux Falls planning directors Steve Metli and Mike Cooper, and, like clockwork, the developers are showing up.”