May 18, 2022

Storage Center is coming to south Sioux Falls.

The business, which is developed locally and managed by Ron Bowden, will bring the same footprint to the area of 77th Street and Cliff Avenue that it built on the east and west sides of Sioux Falls.

It will be a three-story, 75,000-square-foot building designed for “Class A” storage, with amenities that include 24-hour video surveillance and climate control, along with free use of a moving truck, boxes and supplies, dollies and handcarts, and online bill pay.

“The idea from day one was to kind of corner the Class A self-storage market,” Bowden said. “The first one was a real leap of faith because the concept had never been proven here that you could have three stories of storage with elevators and all that. So we have proof of concept now, and I’m trying to forge ahead as quickly as I can.”

The west-side location at 41st Street and Ellis Road is wrapping up construction with the plan of opening in July. Reservations for spaces have been going well, he said.

“We have a nice group lined up already,” Bowden said. “The thing with storage is it’s typically more of a ‘now’ type of response. When people are ready for storage, they kind of want it now.”

In addition to disruptions of life such as deaths and divorces that prompt a need for storage, customers increasingly are doing long-term rentals as extensions of their living spaces, he said.

“The market has really matured, and we’re getting more and more who are permanent tenants,” he said. “Renting an apartment or building a house is really expensive square footage, and you shouldn’t clutter it with things you don’t need on a daily basis. The buzz is declutter the living space and put it in storage.”

The south-side location will be at 7100 S. Santa Rosa Court, which is near where South Dakota Highway 100, or Veterans Parkway, is scheduled to be built. Storage Center also is located along Veterans Parkway near 41st Street on the east side.

The idea originally was to follow the highway around town, but the plan to continue it to the far west side was abandoned, so Bowden located at Ellis Road instead.

On the south side, “we will be right in the mouth of the ‘horseshoe’ — the road that goes through the development,” he said. “They’re building apartments right next to us and CorTrust Bank will be on the other side of us, so we’ll be staring right at 100.”

Dirt work has started and construction is expected to take nine or 10 months, he said.