Sept. 26, 2024

This paid piece is sponsored by Sioux Metro Growth Alliance.

Swim season 2025 can’t arrive soon enough for kids in Canton, who got a taste of what next summer will bring with the late-season opening of a long-awaited community swimming pool.

“It feels good,” said Todd Gannon, who chaired the effort for seven years – through the pandemic and resulting cost escalations.

For years, the vision has been to return a pool to a community that lost theirs to an electrical fire in 2019 — as an effort was underway even back then to replace the aging structure.

“It felt really good to see community members in the pool there. It’s fantastic and everything we’d hoped for,” Gannon said.

The pool combined with Canton’s impressive performing arts center “show that we’re really starting to see some momentum happening in Canton,” he added. “There’s an attitude of can-do within the community. If we put our minds to things, we can accomplish great things.”

That attitude and persistence also is reflected in an Oct. 2 groundbreaking that will bring a sought-after new housing development to Canton along Hiawatha Golf Club.

Jeff Tanner, executive director of the Canton Economic Development Corp., began conversations with EXP Development on the potential for residential development in 2021. It led to a joint venture between the developer and the organization to bring a wide variety of housing to more than 60 acres within the Liberty addition on the city’s east side.

“The developer is from Orange County, California, and also is doing work in the Black Hills, so they’re familiar with South Dakota and saw the potential in Canton,” Tanner said. “They believe in Canton as much as we do, and they’re now forming relationships with other local developers here who may be looking to partner on phases of the development.”

The first phase will include 20 to 30 single-family lots and potentially a multifamily project, beginning construction likely in the spring. Ultimately, the plan is for 93 single-family homes. “Everything from starter to step-up and third-tier homes,” Tanner said. “Plus, we’ll have villas, row homes or twin homes, and we haven’t ruled out the condominium market. We want to create a diverse development for a range of living options and budgets.”

The location “is great by the golf course and the hospital,” said Jon Frick, a financial adviser who has served on the EDC for more than 20 years.

“We’ve been trying to get some housing going in Canton for most of those years,” he said. “We’ve watched a lot of our retirees move to Sioux Falls in the last few years, and hopefully they can find good options here now, being next to health care and recreation, plus we’ll be able to serve more families.”

Those new residents also will have additional job opportunities in the area.

Canton’s industrial park recently hosted a groundbreaking for Dakota Specialty Solutions, a specialty agricultural science and chemical company that’s expected to bring 15 full-time jobs to the area when fully operational.

Dakota Specialty Solutions produces “innovative agricultural chemical-based products that are used to increase efficacy, efficiency and overall production in terms of row crops such as corn and soybeans,” Tanner said. “From their distribution center here, they will serve a very wide customer base nationally and up into Canada, so a huge part of their decision to build here is because we’re geographically strategically located well for them.”

The project will bring production space, office and warehousing to the industrial park and is expected to be done next summer.

That leaves just a few remaining parcels of available land, said Nick Thompson of Red Door Realty/Keller Williams, who has it listed for the Canton EDC.

There are three parcels ranging between 3.8 and 5 acres, including two that are contiguous and could be made into an 8.8 acre lot if necessary.

“We’ve had really good interest, and now because we landed a grant to add paved roads and infrastructure, we’re able to start looking at maybe expanding the industrial park to the east and north,” Thompson said.

“I think a good user is anyone who wants to be close to the interstate, and we’d love to see some employers in that would bring 40 or 50 jobs. We’ve heard from a lot of ag-based companies, electric companies, construction shops, warehouses, but we’d love something that’s going to bring additional traffic and economy impact.”

The interest is a reflection of how far the community has come, said Nancy Bitterman, community bank president at First Bank & Trust, who has served on the EDC for 20 years.

“It’s just very significant that we’re getting new construction in the industrial park,” she said.

“And then with the housing development, I think a lot of things are falling into place to make people want to come to Canton. We already have a wide variety of businesses to draw employees, but we’ve lacked housing, and now with the pool and performing arts center, we’ve helped with quality of life, which will also draw people.”

The next focus for Canton is downtown revitalization, community leaders said.

“We’ve always had good things going on with restaurants and had good amenities,” Frick said. “We’ve never felt like a bedroom community, and now we can really take it to the next level.”

Gannon already is doing his part, filling up a downtown former bank building with a travel agency, tattoo shop and tanning salon.

“We’re about 50 percent full, so we still have quite a bit of space left both for office and retail that offers nice commercial storefront space,” he said.

Ready to visit?

Fall is a great time of year to sample what Canton has to offer. Riverview Christmas Tree Farm, owned by the Gannon family, has made some major upgrades this year.

The Pumpkin Festival runs weekends through Oct. 19-20 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and will offer pumpkin and apple cannons, rock mining, a haunted trail and much more. To learn more, click here.