May 15, 2023

The growth of southeast Sioux Falls has reached 69th Street and Sycamore Avenue.

Empire Cos. is planning a 74-acre development on the southwest side of the intersection, which was recently constructed by the city of Sioux Falls.

The area ultimately will tie into the expanded Veterans Parkway, which will intersect at 69th Street, and the city will pave from Sycamore to Veterans.

“So we feel like it’s got a good location relative to the new parkway coming through, and also we like that area of town,” vice president Brady Hyde said.

“We have some residential in there, a fair amount of multifamily and some commercial along Sycamore.”

The goal is to start the multifamily development later this year. Hyde estimates there would be about 150 units to start and ultimately up to 500 units in a combination of town homes and potentially a center-load building.

The owner-occupied residential likely will be twin homes and town homes, he said.

The development builds on Empire’s residential development west of there at 69th Street and Southeastern Avenue, which has gone “very well,” Hyde said. “We’ve continued to have success through 2022 and into 2023 in that development. We like that location, and the market seems to like it as well.”

At 69th and Sycamore, the plan also calls for some commercial development, which Hyde predicts will be neighborhood retail.

“Hopefully with the parkway coming, we’ll have rooftops and people living there to draw people off the parkway,” he said.

Adjacent to the Empire land, Allen Homes is grading property for development  — likely a mix of eight office lots as well as owner-occupied town homes, according to owner and general manager Dalton Allen.

The plan is to break ground later this summer.

The city is planning for the intersection to be a neighborhood employment center, similar in scale to the intersection of 41st Street and Sycamore Avenue.

Ronning Cos. owns property on the north side of the intersection. The remaining land is family-owned, and much of it isn’t served by sewer infrastructure yet.

“It (sewer) can be 200 feet away and one can be developed and one’s in a hold pattern,” Hyde said.

The heavier commercial activity in the area likely will be at some of the key nearby intersections as Veterans Parkway is built out over the next four to five years, he added.

“I’m assuming some will attract hotels, gas stations, neighborhood restaurants and strip malls and bank locations.”