HURON Ted Haeder, CEO/President of Greater Huron Development Corporation (GHDC), sees notable progress in Huron over the last few years, with additional positive happenings on the horizon.
He broke down what he sees in multiple areas.
Lets start with housing. The Southtown Housing Development was completed in 2018/2019. That began with 62 lots. To date, weve sold 17 of those lots and have two of those lots in development with Governors houses, Haeder explained. We have four more (Governors houses) on order that will be here over the next two years. We have lots available in Southtown for $20,000, and that includes all the curb and gutter, everything.
He continued, We are just finishing up another development, Dogleg Court near Broadland Creek, and the all-in cost for us is about $1.1 million, so with no assistance, thatd work out to roughly $90,000 per lot. But weve got some grant money and other investment that should bring that cost down to $35,000 per lot.
He concluded, We arent trying to make a pile of money from these lots. Were really working to break even and add the tax base to the city and get more people in the town as part of development.
The city has purchased farm land to the east of the Southtown addition, but, according to Haeder, they are likely five or more years from moving forward with curb and gutter and dividing out lots in that property as they focus on filling Southtown and Dogleg.
When asked about rental housing in town, Haeder admitted that he simply isnt sure what the need in the community currently is. He explained that the most recent housing study in Huron was done in 2015, and while it has been updated internally a couple of times since then, the intention is, within the next year, to have an outside agency come in and perform another study to evaluate what is needed in the community.
He did note that one thing that has caught his attention in the last few years is the rehabbing of multiple downtown apartments. While that may just be one or two apartments in a building, it adds available living spaces and specifically adds those living spaces in a place to enhance the business in the downtown area.
On hotels, Haeder stated that there is some interest in developing a new hotel in town, but it is still in the early stages. He recalled that the most recent hotel addition to the community was built nearly 30 years ago.
At that time, our population was around 12,000, he emphasized. Weve grown by a couple of thousand people in town, and we now have more places holding big events, such as the DEX, that are attractive to those in the hotel industry.
Finally, Haeder mentioned the home that is built each year by the Career and Technical Education (CTE) students at Huron High School.
Previously, that house just went out to bid each year, and many of those homes ended up leaving the Huron area, Haeder explained. Greater Huron has entered into a partnership for those houses to now be built and placed on available lots in Huron to help spur our housing growth.
Haeder observed that the partnership that Huron High School has with multiple area schools, such as Wolsey-Wessington and Hitchcock-Tulare, to work together on CTE courses, brings potential future construction labor employees into town to really see and experience Huron as well as get to experience a trade that may shape their future job interests.
Huron has multiple businesses interested in coming to town in the manufacturing field, as well as current manufacturing businesses looking to expand, because the city has a strong reputation for hard workers in that field.
GHDC still has the Vantage Business Park and West Industrial Park with spaces for new businesses to come to town. One of the driving factors for companies interested in Vantage thus far, according to Haeder, has been railroad access.
That was part of our long-term plan when we acquired that land, Haeder said. Because we have rail access, were not competing one-for-one with a lot of other South Dakota sites because they dont have that access to offer.
Despite all of the work GHDC does to attract new business interest to Huron, Haeder said he would love to be too busy to be able to do exactly that.
If I spent my entire day working with expanding current Huron businesses, I could be busy every day, Haeder laughed. Seriously, though, the growth in the community attracts outside interest, but that same growth has been a boon for our local businesses as well.
Growth also brings in additional shopping and dining choices, Haeder stated. He mentioned that Huron has been recognized by statewide magazines and tourism for the availability of diverse shopping and eating choices in town.
Haeder points a lot of the recent success in the community back to the first Huron Rising meeting.
We came out of that with the community telling us that they wanted to see downtown redevelopment and housing development, Haeder recalled. So, we pushed hard into downtown development, and there has been significant growth there with new owners coming in to invest in downtown because a few people started doing so and showed that it works.
GHDC offered facade grants to downtown businesses that allowed for significant improvements, then worked alongside downtown business owners to provide loans for infrastructure improvements as the Highway 37 reconstruction occurred through the downtown area. Theyve also helped to fund new signs for businesses and painting on business fronts to improve the appearance of businesses downtown.
If you put it all together, weve invested nearly $1.5 million into downtown from GHDC, Haeder said. I give the Huron City Commission and city staff a lot of credit for having the foresight to work with DOT and not just put a plain road through town when they had the opportunity to invest in that area as well.
Haeder sees the town continuing to grow in all directions.
Our industrial park, Vantage Business Park, will have large-scale development coming, Haeder began. In communities our size, typically Wal-mart comes in and retail follows Wal-mart with strip malls and retail expansion, so thats likely going to continue on the South part of town.
Manufacturers will continue to expand where they can, he continued. Housing will grow in our current developments, and we have some private housing development lots that are available as well.
Our previous housing studies helped us to bring in Wheatgrass Village and Jefferson Village, Haeder concluded. This upcoming housing study will allow us to see where we need to put our efforts to continue to enhance and improve our community.
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