Sept. 7, 2021

A commercial development along a man-made lake that incorporates a boardwalk-style feel is planned for the west side of Sioux Falls.

The concept on the northeast corner of 12th Street and Ellis Road is being brought forward by WS Construction Management, which was founded by Eric Ward in 2008.

“It’s our first complex development with multiple buildings going in,” said CFO Eric Schofield, who joined the company in 2018.

“We like that it’s on the west side. We see an opportunity to bring more services and easily accessible services to the west side and hopefully create more of a destination feel rather just a bond of buildings. The lake helps us accomplish that.”

The lake takes up much of the 40-acre property south of Family Park, leaving about 12 acres for building.

“I think you can expect to see something that’s a little bit edgier or has a certain style that isn’t completely common,” Schofield said. “We want it to be a destination as well as a place people can do business and be happy and hang out and feel comfortable.”

WS Construction has worked on other larger commercial projects, including the new Pet Supplies Plus, All American Gymnastics Academy and Ransom Church. It specializes in agriculture-related construction such as large barns for hogs, turkeys and chickens and has worked on a number of area school projects.

With the Firehouse 42 development, named for the nearby city fire station and Highway 42, the plan is to develop in potentially six phases, beginning with uses that could include a coffee shop, small offices and child care.

Future phases are designed to include more retail, offices and at least one full-service restaurant. It all incorporates seating along the water and green space.

“We’re really open to it as long as it’s a good business and good people we think will be a fit,” Schofield said, adding the hope is to offer both office and service-related spaces as well as businesses that cater to a younger crowd.

The development will bring “kind of like a boardwalk feel to that area, which I think will be pretty cool,” city urban planner Albert Schmidt said, adding the city is recommending the area be a planned unit development for pedestrian-oriented businesses.

“It’s going to connect, so we can do some shared parking and save space for important uses like new buildings.”

The city “thought from the beginning this was a great location for this,” he added. “Across the street is single family. We really think this is a good spot for this, and it should go well. It’s not the easiest development in the world, and we tried to walk through it with them because of the flood plain and the water side of things. They’re putting together something nice.”

The hope is to start foundation work as soon as city approvals are done this fall, so the first tenants can move in by the end of next summer, Schofield said.

“I think it’s a very cool thing we’re trying to do for the west side,” he said. “It’s a challenge, and we have belief in it, so we’re going to go after it and see what happens. It’s not just a cookie-cutter approach by any means.”