REDFIELD About five years ago, the management team at S&S Rentals saw an opportunity to expand into the housing market in this small Spink County city known for agriculture, pheasant hunting and the state home for people with developmental disabilities.
Even though Redfield is about 60 miles southeast of Ipswich, where S&S is headquartered, the property development and management firm felt like the stage had been set for success in the city of about 2,100 people.
S&S property and risk manager Mike Hammrich said government leaders in Redfield made it easy and affordable to create new housing. The city, he said, had a regional reputation for encouraging development, made land available and paid for infrastructure to jump-start local housing growth.
The city had built some twin homes, 12 units there, and they sold those to us, Hammrich told News Watch. It was a really good fit for us.
That first successful purchase has led to further expansion by S&S, which has built four more duplexes in Redfield and has two more under construction.
In addition to Redfields efforts to clear land and simplify paperwork for developers, the city like many rural towns in South Dakota has a shortage of available housing and immense demand from buyers and renters.
Looking at the demand, and the possible lots the city made available, we were impressed with them, Hammrich said. We had so many people calling that we had them rented before we even started digging the foundations.
Those projects by S&S and the new 42-lot Prairie Winds Estates subdivision now under construction in south Redfield are manifestations of a concerted, cooperative effort to expand housing opportunities by city government, private developers and local agencies such as Grow Spink and the Redfield Area Development Corporation.
But like solutions to many major problems such as a housing shortage in an isolated rural community the road to success was paved brick by brick, or in the case of Redfield, lot by lot and house by house.
As Craig Johnson drives his pickup down the streets and alleyways of Redfield, he stops frequently to point out properties that he helped get built or fixed up during his 20 years as the founder and former director of Grow Spink, the local development agency.
Johnson oversaw the rehabilitation or rebuilding of roughly 150 dilapidated homes during his tenure.
“You can get lost in these master plans that call for 40 or 50 homes in a development. But you should do one home first and see what it costs and what it takes to get it done,” said Johnson, who retired from Grow Spink nine years ago.
During his time with Grow Spink, Johnson obtained several hundred thousand dollars in grants, used state money to redevelop so-called brown fields and obtained a handful of houses under the state’s Governor’s House Program, which is fueled by inmate labor.
The approach of starting small and building on successes is a recipe for success that can be duplicated in other small cities and towns, said Kristi Wagner, director of organizational relationships for Dakota Resources, a statewide nonprofit community building organization.
They cant do multiples (properties) that a major developer can bring because those people are not going to come to the rural communities, so those communities have to take it one bite at a time, she said.
Redfields housing development efforts have been bolstered by the vigorous efforts of two development groups that work together to boost business and housing.
Gianna Schieffer, executive director of Grow Spink, works in partnership with the Redfield Area Development Corp. (RADC) to create housing opportunities. Both organizations worked with the city to obtain, plan and prepare the land and roads for the 42-lot Prairie Winds Estates development.
Both groups also build spec houses on their own, each completing about one per year, that are then offered for sale to homebuyers at cost, Schieffer said. Grow Spink takes out loans to fund construction while RADC uses its own capital to build the homes, she said.
The ability to offer turn-key speculative homes to new residents or locals moving up in their housing needs provides work for local contractors while priming the pump for private housing development, Schieffer said.
We want to get a stronger tax base, and houses are a great way to do it because they bring in new businesses and new families, Schieffer said.
The move by the two development agencies to make lots available for sale at reasonable prices with streets, curbs and gutters already installed was an incentive that other small cities and towns are not offering, said Hammrich, of S&S properties.
Otherwise, we wouldnt have gone in and developed anything there at all, he said. Its a big plus for Redfield, and it works out well for us. In these small towns, youve got to have housing because if you dont have housing, your economy isnt going to make it.
This story was produced by South Dakota News Watch, an independent, nonprofit organization. Read more stories and donate at sdnewswatch.org and sign up for an email to get stories when they’re published. Contact Bart Pfankuch at [email protected].
Leave a Reply