Brandon housing project latest to get state backing

PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — A proposed housing development in Brandon will be the latest to get financial assistance through a special program offered by the South Dakota Housing Development Authority.

The authority's board members on Thursday approved a package of state and federal grants and a low-interest state loan for the River Park project that a Sioux Falls real estate developer, Van Buskirk Companies , plans west of the Big Sioux Recreation Area.

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The financing results from $200 million that state lawmakers finished earmarking two years ago for $100 million of grants and a revolving $100 million loan fund that could be used to subsidize infrastructure for workforce housing development.

Grant funding for housing infrastructure program was a mix of $50 million from state government and $50 million from the federal government's American Rescue Plan Act that Congress passed in 2021 at the request from President Joe Biden.

River Park's subsidy package includes a state infrastructure grant of $2,038,739; an ARPA-funded infrastructure grant of $982,586; and an infrastructure loan of $3,599,146 at terms of 2% interest amortized over 25 years with a 10-year payback.

River Park will take the last available state and ARPA grant funds, unless there is money returned by other housing projects that had been previously approved. The board agreed to a flexibility provision for River Park, so that the loan amount could be reduced in exchange for any ARPA grant funds that any other previously approved project doesn't use.

Total development costs for the project are $19,861,415. Van Buskirk Companies plans to develop the lots and sell them to contractors to build single-family homes and multifamily housing. The infrastructure will be designed to support 174 units of multifamily housing and 265 single-family homes.

The SDHDA board also approved additional state infrastructure grant funding of $107,340 for a housing project planned by Pierre Economic Development Corporation .

PEDCO originally had received a state infrastructure grant of $457,433 last year to help pay for the acquisition of 5.7 acres in southeast Pierre for development into 32 single-family lots. The land had been a trailer court.