Dec. 9, 2021

This paid piece is sponsored by South Dakota Biotech.

Here’s a sense for how innovation, technology and entrepreneurship are combining in Rapid City: A new building offering office space for startups is nearly filled with tenant commitments months before it’s ready for anyone to move in.

“It’s incredible,” said Joni Ekstrum, executive director of South Dakota Biotech.

“I spent some time recently in Rapid City and was so impressed by the economic activity, partnerships and innovation occurring there. This is definitely an up-and-coming market for our industry and many others.”

The newly opened David Lust Accelerator Building is a symbol of all three: economic activity, partnerships and innovation.

At 40,000 square feet, it sits in downtown Rapid City three blocks from the campus of the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology.

The vision is twofold: combining affordable leased space for growing companies while becoming “a one-stop shop for business growth and business development,” said Mitch Nachtigall, ecosystem development director at Elevate Rapid City.

The building is also the headquarters of Elevate Rapid City, whose 15-person team includes the chamber of commerce and economic development organizations for the community and focuses on business retention and expansion, public policy, marketing and events. There’s also office space for the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and the Ellsworth Development Authority.

That office space is done, but the balance of the building is finalizing design, with build-outs scheduled to be done next spring.

“We are tech-specific, so we look for startup or satellite companies to move here, and we are below market rate, so we help offset some overhead costs while providing mentoring opportunities, workshops, training and networking opportunities to get companies off the ground,” Nachtigall said.

And there has been plenty of interest.

“Our pipeline has been full of prospects,” Nachtigall said. “We have a significant amount of leasable space committed, and we’re also able to offer wet lab and industrial space, which we think we will be attractive to biotech tenants.”

Many future tenants of the building have strong connections to South Dakota Mines.

“It’s hard to find a tech-based company in Rapid City that doesn’t have ties to the school in some way, shape or form,” said Joseph Wright, the school’s associate vice president for research and economic development.

“We’ve seen a number of successful startups launch. We’ve seen a number of engineering consulting companies locate here. We’ve also seen a number of School of Mines graduates come back and start working remotely. During COVID, we saw a number of folks locate in the Hills who had a connection to Mines at one time and wanted to come back because of the remote opportunities offered. They love the Black Hills. It’s hard to get it out of your blood.”

The university welcomed its second-biggest freshman class in history this fall, and the culture on campus helps drive innovation.

“Our faculty are three times more inventive than the national average,” Wright said. “That rubs off on our students. There are so many programs and opportunities for students to innovate and create.”

The drive to create is so powerful here, nearly half of students are estimated to have a 3D printer in their dorm room.

“The students are incredibly innovative, which is a reason they’re highly sought after,” Wright said. “The real challenge is creating opportunities for them to stay should they choose, and that’s why we’re excited about the new space that Elevate is creating. What it does is continue to build out a bigger vision of connecting the campus with the downtown and really building an innovative corridor there where high-tech companies come and locate.”

The Accelerator Building includes several meeting and common rooms where everyone from interns to founders and economic developers can connect.

While much of the work here will focus on advanced or additive manufacturing, that sector has applications in bioscience as well.

“The product coming out is widely applicable,” Nachtigall said. “The same things the biotech world is interested in, John Deere and Boeing are interested in, so there’s a lot of application.”

Elevate Rapid City also has contracted with Mark Brown, who previously led the USD Discovery District in Sioux Falls, to help grow its bioscience sector.

“In our first incubator on campus, he recruited a consortium of out-of-state biotech companies and built a biotech interns program. We will move them into our new facility when there’s space available,” Nachtigall said.

There is also synergy between Monument Health and the work at South Dakota Mines and the accelerator building, he added.

“They want to get more into research, so it seems like there is momentum right now.”

Combined with other economic drivers in the region, including the B-21s coming to Ellsworth Air Force Base and the Sanford Underground Research Facility, Rapid City now is in a position to grow strategically, they added.

“We’re in the phase of managing growth,” Wright said. “As a community, we’re switching to how we manage growth in a way that helps us realize our full potential. We’re recruiting companies and being aggressive, but we’re focusing on those are going to help us create something extra that will accentuate what’s already occurring here.”

To learn more about the David Lust Accelerator Building, click here.