Yellow and Blue helping shape red hot Sioux Falls construction boom
How hot is the Sioux Falls construction scene?
The region’s economic hub set an annual record for building construction value by Aug. 5. In 2021, Sioux Falls set a record with $1.1 billion in permitted construction value. That was up 20% from 2020. In late November 2021, Sioux Falls hit $1 billion for the first time ever. In 2022, Sioux Falls hit $1 billion by the end of July.
Graduates of SDSU are major drivers in Sioux Falls’ booming construction scene. They’re found in every field, including engineering and design. Representing their fellow grads in this photo taken at Falls Park are, from left, Mike Ralston ’09, preconstruction services manager, and Jerry Fromm ’01, president, both at Henry Carlson Construction; Levi Pfeil ’16/M.S.’18 and Brian Skrovig ’14/M.S.’16, both architects with CO-OP Architecture; and Matt Hohn ’08, vice president of construction services with Mammoth Sports Construction.
“The growth Sioux Falls has had in the last few years is unbelievable, and I don’t see it slowing down any time soon either,” said Jake Weber, a project manager with Puetz Design + Build, one of hundreds of SDSU grads helping to create a new skyline in the fast-growing city.
Aaron Eich, a senior project manager with Journey Construction, said, “Every project I’m involved in has SDSU grads, mainly in the management and design perspective. We don’t ever have a project that doesn’t have an SDSU grad on it.”
Sioux Falls has become a magnet for those schooled in construction, engineering, design and virtually every other construction-related field.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported a 2020 population of 192,683 and a 2021 population estimate of 196,528 compared with 153,888 in the 2010 census.
Weber, a 2019 construction management graduate who grew up in Parkston, said, “Everything that is coming to Sioux Falls is mindboggling. There is something new in every area of Sioux Falls. One thing gets finished and another is rolling. What Sioux Falls is doing is wonderful, bringing in multiple franchises and local businesses as well as bringing people from all over the United States to this area.”
$42m Sanford Sports Complex
Matt Hohn, vice president of construction operations for Mammoth Sports Construction and 2008 construction management grad, said, “The governor has played a really big role in inviting a lot of people to the state for many reasons and it’s definitely held true. There has been a lot of big business that has moved here.
“There are a lot of big projects on the horizon. You read the newspaper and another $400 million project is coming around, a $500 million project, they’re moving dirt on Phase III of another development. Something like that is in the news almost every day or weekly with companies moving here or starting an office here or expanding.”
Mammoth, which started as an artificial turf company and expanded to construction, wrapped up the $42 million Sanford Sports Complex at the north edge of Sioux Falls in late August.
The 173-acre site, of which 83 acres are developed, has 1.7 million square feet of artificial turf on five baseball fields, five softball fields and eight multipurpose soccer/lacrosse fields. Construction started June 15, 2021, just after Hohn joined Mammoth after working in large commercial construction in Kansas City and Manhattan, Kansas, after graduation.
Mammoth also replaced the infield for the Sioux Falls Canaries, built new football and softball fields for Augustana University and has several high school projects under contract.
Contributing to community
“They’re all unique, but the Sanford Sports Complex has a special place because of its complexity, and it’s one of a kind. It was the largest turf project in the nation at the time it was bid,” said Hohn, a Tri-Valley High School graduate. He noted the site is 5 miles from where he grew up and where his parents still live.
“I know this project is going to affect my community; it is going to affect my kids (ages 4 and 2) for years and years to come,” said Hohn, who also lives in that quadrant of Sioux Falls.
He said part of what makes his work significant is the sense of contributing to the community. “Hands down, one of the best parts of the job is having that pride, that sense of community … You’re affecting a family, you’re affecting a group of students in a way they haven’t been affected before. There’s a tangible benefit to doing construction. There’s something to be seen when you’re all said and done.”
Sioux Falls in ‘unprecedented territory’
Jerry Fromm is president of Henry Carlson Construction, a position he has held for six years. The 2001 construction management graduate said construction in Sioux Falls is in “unprecedented territory.
“From residential projects to small commercial projects, to large projects, to mega projects like the Amazon distribution center. It’s not just one sector of the industry, but it’s up and down the spectrum that is seeing unprecedented growth. That brings labor challenges, and we have had to find different sources of people, different ways to attract talent. The laborer, journeymen and supervisors all have seen significant pay increases in the last 18 months.”
For new housing unit construction, Sioux Falls ranked fifth in the nation for small metros according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Zillow, which was analyzed by the Inspection Support Network. Sioux Falls had 36 new housing units authorized in 2021 per 1,000 existing units. It was the highest ranked Midwest city and one of only two on the list of 15.
Janet Merriam, a construction management faculty member, said the program has seen 95% job placement in the past 10 years.
Fromm, who has experienced Sioux Falls’ growth for the last 22 years after growing up and going to school in New Ulm, Minnesota, said Henry Carlson has 170 employees with 18 field leaders and project managers with construction management degrees from SDSU, which is more than 50% of its management positions.
An SDSU grad on every project
Eich, the Journey senior project manager, is a 2007 graduate from the manufacturing, engineering and technology program, not a curriculum designed to produce building contractors.
“I jumped into the construction industry without having a construction background, but the diversity of the different degree opportunities opens you up for several avenues,” said Eich, who met one of the vice presidents of Sioux Falls Construction (now Journey Construction) when he was a sophomore in college.
About six months before graduation, he reconnected with Journey, interviewed and was hired.
Eich, who was raised on a farm near Epiphany and graduated from Hanson High School in Alexandria, said, “Now more than ever, how manufacturing relates to construction is huge with lead time and understanding people’s manufacturing processes. We’re working with 30 to 40 vendors at any given project. Understanding that (manufacturing) side of things is important.
“Today with prefabrication, using manufactured pieces is becoming a more common construction practice. A lot more stuff is being built in the factory rather than being put together piece by piece in the field.”
Architects find success
While SDSU has been enrolling construction management graduates since 1994, it is relatively new at bringing architectural graduates into the construction industry.
Brian Skrovig, an architect with CO-OP Architecture in Sioux Falls, was in SDSU’s first class to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture (2014 and 2016, respectively).
The Colton native and Tri-Valley High School graduate joined CO-OP in May after six years with a New Haven, Connecticut, firm that did a wide variety of international commercial work.
Skrovig said, “I worked with people from Yale, Cornell, Penn State, schools with established architectural degrees. I came from an architecture school that was brand new. My education allowed me to collaborate with individuals in the architectural market and not be behind because I went to a small land-grant school in a relatively rural area.
“I was able to work at a design architecture firm that works around the world. I never ever felt like I was lacking because of my education. In fact, I kind of felt the opposite sometimes.”
Connected to community
Jacob Ricke, an architect at JLG Architects and a 2019 master’s degree graduate, said, “The day I started, there hadn’t been a graduate from (SDSU) architecture so I couldn’t look at someone and say I know Dave who graduated from architecture 10 years ago and look where he ended up. The things that have happened at the SDSU architecture department have been really impressive and rewarding.
“The impact you can have in South Dakota is just as much as if not more than in other places because of the scale of our communities and the connections we all have towards South Dakota.”
Dave Graves
