June 7, 2021

Design and engineering firm ISG will be moving to The Bancorp building at Cherapa Place.

The firm has outgrown the downtown office it opened in 2018 in the CNA building, with 20 employees and others who travel and work there.

The new space will be in the recently announced expansion of Cherapa Place, where The Bancorp is moving its office.

“We felt we could hire 50 to 75 in the Sioux Falls area that we felt comfortably would be great ISGers,” said Chad Surprenant, chief strategy officer.

“After being here myself for nine, 10 months, I feel that is much closer to 75.”

The firm, which offers architecture, engineering, environmental and planning capabilities, has 11 locations in four states. Surprenant’s father, Ken, is the “S” in ISG, which the founding partners established in 1973.

Surprenant joined the firm in 1993 and has helped grow it from a 10-person “mom-and-pop shop” to a 360-person firm, serving as CEO for two decades. It’s entirely employee-owned.

In the Sioux Falls office, capabilities include structural and civil engineering, survey, construction administration, water, wastewater, architecture, architectural design and development strategy.

“But we really pride ourselves on being a one-firm profit center, and that means a lot to us and our clients,” president David Doxtad said.

“And when we’re rolling out to them landscape architects from Minneapolis or a mechanical engineer from Mankato, they can see we’re bringing these folks with varying expertise in different business units. We put together the best team for each particular project, and it doesn’t depend on geography.”

Since starting the Sioux Falls office, ISG has worked with communities statewide on master planning as well as with Minnehaha County on a new highway maintenance facility. The firm also helped the community of Hot Springs design a cantilever walk over a Army Corps of Engineers retaining wall to enhance pedestrian connectivity.

Another unique project underway is a green infrastructure project with the city of Sioux Falls in the area of 28th Street and Covell Avenue.

“They had some areas of the community that had experienced significant flooding … and what we’re going to do is take the stormwater off the roadway and off the capacity of the storm sewer system and put that into bioretention cells to treat it for water quality and be a park feel programmed with native planting,” Doxtad said.

ISG also has brought its expertise to master planning sites, including the former Gage Brothers Concrete Products on West 12th Street, where the firm showed how the land could redevelop.

“We really did a conceptual master plan to give some realization to what that site could look like, laying out the different uses,” Doxtad said.

That’s how the relationship with Cherapa Place began, too, resulting in a campus that will include four buildings and a mix of retail, residential, office and recreation space.

“We were looking at Cherapa II as such an opportunity and really embracing that,” Doxtad said.

“The design propelled it in the right fashion, so it became a community, a campus of development and not just another building. It starts with a really good developer who actually values that, which is really exciting for us.”

ISG is providing the landscape architecture; architecture; interior design; civil, structural, mechanical and electrical engineering; and technology-related services for the project.

“They’ve been instrumental in this project from the beginning – their vision, their team, just their professionalism and ability has been a significant asset to us. And having them as a tenant in the building adds another high-quality office to the mix,” said Anne Haber, partner in developer Pendar Properties.

“They’re a growth-oriented business, and we’re excited to watch them expand in our community. We continue to find strong momentum from office users in coming to Cherapa Place and expect additional announcements soon.”

Considerable thought also has been given to creating outdoor spaces that incorporate low-impact, green design principles, said Steve Watson, an ISG development strategist.

“As the project enters its next phase of the design process, ISG will be working very closely with the city of Sioux Falls to incorporate nature-based, green infrastructure elements,” he said.

Those could include permeable pavements, bioretention cells, bioswales, rain gardens and more, he said, adding the goal is to make the development “a showcase for sustainability.”

ISG will move in with other office tenants in 2023. It’s initially leasing 10,000 square feet but envisions ultimately needing the amount of a full floor, which is 18,000 square feet.

“We’re probably going to be one of the fastest-growing companies in the complex, and we recognize we have to be flexible, and we’re happy to move around the facility as needed to make that happen,” Surprenant said.

The development is “probably the truest mixed-use project I’ve witnessed in this area of significant office, great opportunity for retail, residential across many different price points and probably age demographics as well, and developed in a fashion where it’s all very walkable,” he said.

“We recognize it’s a huge deal for us to be able to attract talent from an HR perspective, but we’re also witnessing clients be very excited about it. And I have every intention of moving into Cherapa myself. I want one of the condos!”

Cherapa Place announces $160M expansion