Aug. 4, 2022

This paid piece is sponsored by Sioux Metro Growth Alliance.

Construction has started on a new industrial park south of Sioux Falls at Interstate 29 and U.S. Highway 18.

Eparts, an e-commerce business specializing in selling aftermarket spare parts primarily for farm equipment, plans to kick off construction at the park by building a 100,000-square-foot distribution center on the north side of Highway 18.

Eparts is the first company committing to the new I-29 Ag and Industrial Park, an effort that has involved a lot of collaboration regionwide.

“We’re based in Hudson now and renting a couple other facilities, including a warehouse in Iowa that’s pretty full, and we continue to expand,” said Brandon Van Beek, who started the business in 2017.

“We’re very motivated to get into a larger facility to accommodate our growth. Our hope is to be operational within the next two years, although so much is up in the air due to supply chain issues and sourcing materials to build.”

Sioux Metro Growth Alliance began working with him to try to find another location.

“We looked in our metro region communities, and they weren’t completely finding what they liked,” president and CEO Jesse Fonkert said. “With this opportunity, it required them to develop the property, so we then worked with them through that process and connected them with the players on the public and private side needed to make this happen.”

One of those was Midco, which had just started expansion into Worthing and decided to extend its fiber for 2 miles to reach the industrial park.

“So we now have a partnership with I-29 Ag and Industrial Park to make sure they have fiber to the site,” Midco director of government relations Andrew Curley said. “They were very excited about the possibility, and we were able to time it out so we’re ready when they’re ready.”

Midco’s service is “a big step to getting the infrastructure up for large-scale businesses to come into rural areas,” Van Beek said. “We see it as a great step for the whole region.”

The park itself is 155 acres and owned by a group of local investors. Grading and road work has begun, with the goal of having the park infrastructure built out by the end of the year.

Eparts likely will have some company as a number of businesses have already shown interest in the site.

“We hope to see the value-added ag economy pick up in the near future,” Fonkert said. “Highway 18 is expanding, and there’s a lot of potential to locate in this area. And it provides an opportunity for businesses that may not find Sioux Falls a good fit, yet still be minutes away from the Sioux Falls metro area.”

The partnership with Midco also was key, he said.

“With them extending fiber to the site, it just provides enhanced service and makes business development easier going forward,” Fonkert said. “Any chance we can give communities and people who live in Worthing, Canton, Lennox to lessen their commutes and work closer to where they live is a win-win.”

The estimate is that up to 100 people could work at the park within the next five years.

“I think it’s going to be a regional employment center,” Fonkert said.

“It really complements what’s happening in the surrounding area, and we see it as a fit for warehousing, light industrial and value-added ag. I think there’s opportunity to look at sewer investment here given the state and nation’s emphasis on infrastructure, and we’re lucky we have entrepreneurs like Eparts and others looking to invest in this area so we can attract more businesses.”

Development of the park also is being supported through utility service from Southeastern Electric Cooperative, South Lincoln Rural Water and financing from American State Bank.

“It takes these foundational partners to allow development at this scale to move forward,” Fonkert said. “And it demonstrates that Lincoln County is willing and ready to make things happen that support business growth.”

The remaining land is listed with NAI Sioux Falls and brokered by Dennis Breske and Marcus Mahlen.

“The I-29 Ag and Industrial Park offers an option for industrial owner-users and developers that doesn’t currently exist or is very hard to find in the Sioux metro area,” Mahlen said. “To have this much build-ready light industrial land so close to Sioux Falls with great proximity to I-29 is an asset to the marketplace. We would expect to have interest from several different types of uses, ranging from manufacturing, wholesale distribution and flex buildings for smaller users as well.”

To have an anchor like Eparts kicking off the development also helps show what type of building product the developer is looking for, he added.

“They are implementing user-friendly covenants and restrictions that will produce a nice building product and development for the long term. We are excited to be a part of the development and to continue our tradition of being economic development-friendly brokers facilitating industry and commerce in and around Sioux Falls.”