By Rosemary McCoy

Rather than opening a second location on the other side of town, Salon Artist Suites owner Diane Lorang decided to look next door.

She bought the vacant lot at 3500 W. 51st St. and built a “retro-modern-looking” 3,400-square-foot building that holds 12 spa and salon suites. It also includes a glamour room that bridal parties can rent to get ready for a wedding.

“I always try to be ahead of the game,” Lorang said of the feature that’s more common in bigger cities. Several bridal parties have used the space already.

The spa suites in the new building also are new to Sioux Falls, Lorang said. Providers of services such as massage, esthetics, hair removal and acupuncture will be able to lease one of the seven suites and share the shower area for their clients.

Her first tenant is hairstylist Brooklin Pirrung of Studio Meraki.

Lorang started her expansion project a couple of years ago. She reached out to architect Ward Whitwam, who is in his 90s, to help design the building because she admired his work. Earlier this year, Whitwam, known for designing the concrete tipis at South Dakota’s interstate rest areas, received the Governor’s Award for Distinction in Creative Achievement. Gene Murphy of Architecture Automated Inc. also worked on the project, which was built by Kruetzfeldt Construction.

Lorang gave the hairstylists who rent space in the original building at 4401 S. Racquet Drive the option to move into the new building first before marketing those five suites. No one took her up on the offer.

“We have such a great group there,” Lorang said of the stylists who work in the 12 original suites. “They wanted to stay together.”

Many of them have been at Salon Artist Suites since it opened 11 years ago. At the time, Lorang was looking for a room for her hairstyling business and couldn’t find one, so she decided to bring the concept to Sioux Falls.

Since then, other businesses using that model have opened here.