Dec. 6, 2018

Sioux Falls surpassed its record building permit total from 2017 with several weeks to go in 2018.

Through Tuesday, permits totaled $743.2 million, which broke last year’s record of $739 million. An additional $6 million in permits came in Wednesday.

“I really thought all year long we were going to make it just seeing how busy we were. There was really never a doubt in my mind,” said Butch Warrington, the city’s chief building official.

“It seems like there was a lot of commercial construction all year long. We never really had a slowdown. We had three months when we issued over $100 million – April, July and August – and the rest were still all good months. The steadiness is what I thought was impressive this year.”

The year’s major projects include the first phase of the Avera on Louise medical campus at $54.5 million, the expansion of the Minnehaha County Jail at $40.7 million and the new headquarters for Citibank at $26.8 million.

Here’s a look at other projects valued at greater than $10 million:

• The first phase of The Cascade mixed-use project downtown: $23.8 million.
• The first phase of Village on the River, a mixed-use building with a parking ramp downtown: $18.1 million.
• Silverthorne Apartments near 26th Street and Veterans Parkway at $18 million.
• West 41st Street Commons Apartments near Ellis Road: $16 million.
• Fleet Farm: $16 million.
• Smithfield holding barn: $14.4 million.
• Win Chill addition: $13.5 million.

“The one thing I think really kicked us over this year that we typically don’t see is the county jail at over $40 million, and that might be the last jail we see built in our lifetime,” Warrington said.

“We still have a lot of projects fairly good sized on the books we haven’t issued yet. They’re either under review or waiting for them to get picked up.”

Permits ready to be picked up include a new Kum & Go on 41st near Veterans Parkway and a renovation of Billion Kia in the former Lewis Drug space at 41st and Minnesota Avenue.

“We’ve got a lot to issue yet that we’re still reviewing,” Warrington said.

Projects in the pipeline include the Avera Human Performance Center and an operating room renovation at Avera, which are $12 million each; the Village Cooperative apartments in south Sioux Falls at an estimated $10.3 million; and the Hyatt Place at Lake Lorraine at an estimated $7.5 million. Other large upcoming projects include the next building at the downtown Cascade project, Avera’s Addiction Care Center, Nordica’s new warehouse at Foundation Park and the new Best Western Glo at Dawley Farm Village.

“I expect a lot of the schools to start filtering in next year,” Warrington said. “And when I see a lot of Avera stuff, that usually tells me Sanford won’t be far behind. It doesn’t always work that way but it wouldn’t surprise me.”