More housing, business opportunities coming to Rapid City

RAPID CITY, S.D. – Expanded housing and business opportunities were approved Thursday by Rapid City’s Planning Committee.

On the housing side, approval for the second phase of the Tallgrass Apartment Complex right behind Menard’s East North will add to the existing buildings and parking.

“There’s three buildings there currently. The full development, when fully built out, will have 10 buildings. Phase two was to add the second set of three,” Planning Projects Division Manager for the Rapid City Community Development Department Sarah Hanzel said. “Some of the development is existing there today. There’s three buildings with a clubhouse and the phase two that was on the agenda today will bring 153.”

The business front of the talk centered on bringing in a TIF–Tax Increment Finance District. The TIF will serve a means of paying for a new downtown development, specifically the proposed Park Hyatt hotel, housing and retail building.

“There’s a critical component of that which is called the base valuation, and that’s the level of property taxes that are received prior to a large investment being made,” Hanzel said. “So, throughout the life of the economic development tool, the taxes are going to be collected and distributed at that same level of the base valuation. However, once the investment is made, the value of the property is going up, and so the revenues are also going up.”

The plan is for the Park Hyatt is to be located at the corner of Saint Joseph and Sixth Street.