May 3, 2023

This paid piece is sponsored by Sioux Metro Growth Alliance.

By early next year, Lloyd Cos. plans to be manufacturing roof and floor trusses and other building components from a new building of its own – a 96,000-square-foot manufacturing and office headquarters that just broke ground.

It will be the new home of Engineered Truss Systems, which Lloyd acquired last year with a vision for growth. Finding the right location for the expanding business led the company to the Rovang Industrial Park in Brandon, where it secured one of the last available lots.

“Connectivity is what really attracted us to this location,” Lloyd chief operating officer Jake Quasney said. “There’s access both to rail and to the interstate, so we can easily get supplies delivered and deliver our finished products to building sites.”

Once the building is fully operational and reaches capacity, it will employ about 75 people.

“When you look at what our industry has experienced in recent years as well as projected demand, the need for vertical integration and controlling the supply chain is key,” Quasney said. “That’s the reason to invest so heavily here. We’re controlling as much of the process from start to finish as possible.”

With the new building from Lloyd under construction, the Rovang Industrial Park prepares to write the final chapter of a long success story.

“We’re excited about that,” said Chuck Parsons, chairman of the Brandon Development Foundation. “Lloyd bought one of the two rail lots we have, and there’s going to be good job creation. On the flip side, we’re about out of land.”

Fewer than 20 acres remain at the 117-acre development park, which includes anchors such as Henkel and Marmen Energy.

“Otherwise we’re getting tapped out,” said Patrick Andrews, development director for the city of Brandon.

“I probably get two or three calls a week on it, some more serious than others, some actively looking and others kicking the tires.”

But while the park itself was a success, the lessons learned are more broad, said Parsons, who will wind down his time at the foundation this year after more than two decades.

“In the old days, the thinking was if you put industry here, everyone will live and buy here, and they don’t,” he said.

“Instead, they’ve come because we have an awesome school district, our proximity to the interstate and Sioux Falls — those are the things that have helped us grow in 20 years. It’s like night and day from when I first moved to town and we just had a grocery store.”

It all works together, said Jesse Fonkert, CEO of Sioux Metro Growth Alliance.

“Brandon is a classic example of collaboration and public-private investment leading to great things,” he said. “The history of that development park was built on communities and businesses coming together to make something happen. It has created a fantastic regional employment base, and that extends to the quality of life that attracts people to this community.”

City planners in Brandon are busy, Andrews said.

“There are constantly people coming in the door for a wide variety of projects,” he said.

Kwik Trip chose Brandon as its first site in the Sioux Falls metro area and has said it plans to open a Kwik Star there later this year.

A new development, the Brandon 90 Plaza, is attracting interest from multiple retailers, including a location for Heartland Appliance going through city approvals.

The Encore Park mixed-use development includes Hegg Modular’s manufacturing center and future activity such as a new Fareway grocery store and an apartment project.

Sioux Valley Energy also plans an expansion of its location in the community.

“And there’s a lot of development in the works not quite ready to go public yet but will be shortly,” Andrews said. “Part of the problem is we don’t have a lot of vacant space. If you look at a map of Brandon, though, there are some ‘doughnut holes,’ so we’re looking at how we might be able to fill some of those in.”

The community also is going through a process to redesign its City Hall and potentially do a lease-to-own deal with a developer.

The next step as its development park fills is planning for the future, Parsons said.

“Because we’re out of land, we have decisions to make on our next steps,” he said. “It will depend on where and how the city wants to grow, but the next step for our board is to do some strategic planning on what our approach should be.”

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Model project: How partners came together to create big community, business opportunities