Jan. 20, 2025

Volunteers of America, Dakotas, is the new owner of one of the former Apple Tree Children’s Center sites.

The nonprofit recently purchased the building at 700 N. Sycamore Ave. It has been vacant since March 2024, when three of the four child care centers closed.

VOA plans to use the building as an expanded site for its day services programming, which serves adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

“We serve a special population within the community,” managing director Brian Mulder said, calling the organization a niche community support provider for those who might not receive services at other providers because of background or mental health status.

“We had been in discussion for over a year on what our next step is for our day service centers, and we explored options all over Sioux Falls, from buildings to open land.”

The new location will replace a former warehouse currently used in the area of Cleveland Avenue and Rice Street, which “was selected well over a decade ago because services looked different a decade ago,” Mulder said.

In the past, one of the ways providers offered day services involved a workshop-style setting where people would be paid sub-minimum wage or per piece for assembly things such as installation packets for clients.

“We’ve transitioned out of those services … to more community-based employment focusing on our potential to leverage vocational rehab, develop partnerships with employers in the community, to get our individuals at least minimum wage-paying jobs and just be a more productive member of the community versus a sheltered workshop setting,” Mulder said.

“We understand the sensitive need for child care in our community. We’re sensitive to that as well, but … with a growing population with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Sioux Falls, we need to meet the demand to serve them as well, so this transition seems to be a perfect one for this community.”

VOA’s more vulnerable population will continue to receive day services at 1309 W. 51st St.

At the Sycamore Avenue location, services offered will include:

• Life skills training such as cooking, budgeting and personal hygiene.
• Vocational training, designed to develop job skills and support securing meaningful employment.
• Therapeutic resources, including a sensory room, music and group therapy and individual counseling sessions.
• Social connections, with a large community room and outdoor green space.

“We were able to acquire this for under $2 million, so it’s going to be about a third of what we were looking at for a build-out or acquisition and remodel because it fit our needs perfectly,” Mulder said. “It’s on a bus route. It’s in a community center. It’s more of a professional setting building, so it just made sense to go ahead and acquire this building.”

To start, about 50 people are expected to regularly use the building.

“We plan to grow that as well,” Mulder said, adding that the bus route will help connect participants in VOA’s vocational rehab program to the building, where they will meet with their counselors.

“And we’re looking to grow our ability to provide day services to those who don’t use services.”

The building is a good fit for VOA, said Nick Gustafson, partner at Bender Commercial Real Estate Services, who helped broker the deal and also helped the nonprofit lease its location on North Cleveland Avenue 15 years ago.

“They had enjoyed a wonderful relationship with their landlord, and the space worked well for many years,” he said. “Their new building is a great match for their ongoing space needs, and I encourage the community to learn more about the programs VOA provides.”

VOA has a $580,000 fundraising goal to support remodeling the new location, with a campaign running through its annual Rise & Shine breakfast May 1.

“The amount of natural light, windows, will be a positive change for people who go there to spend their days, with a big backyard and open green spaces,” Mulder said. “It checks so many of our boxes for what we need to do.”

The plan is to move into the building in late spring or early summer.

The former Apple Tree location at 3309 E. 26th St. is still on the market, while the one at 4101 W. Valhalla Ave. has opened as the new child care center Vibrant Minds Learning Center.