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With all of the hammering, drilling and sawing, right now the action in Boyce Greeley Building is hard on the ears. To one man, all of the noise in the historic downtown building makes the future easy on the eyes.
"This will be the living room," David Dandar, owner of Boyce Greeley, said as he used his hands to describe what the space will look like.
It was office space years ago, but soon the third floor will be high-end lofts and the fourth floor will house four condominiums. While pointing to the eleven foot ceilings, Dandar points out wanting to preserve the uniqueness of his building as best he can. Keeping a vacancy, however has not been easy; all six lofts have been rented.
"There was times when I had my doubts, yes, that that might not be the case, again you never know. Until you build it you just don't know," Dandar said.
These lofts and condos are going up fast, as are some other apartments downtown. Right now there are about 300 new units in the city and more on the way.
The units in Boyce Greeley, on 11th Street and Phillips Avenue, will open this spring and range in size and price. The smallest unit is 900 square feet and $1,100 per month. A loft double the size is about $2,000. A condo to buy starts at $557,000.
They are unique and Dandar is taking the time and effort to make them a nice place to live. It might be too pricy for the younger crowd.
"You pay for what you get and that's exciting for the people who can afford it," University of Sioux Falls Football Coach Isaiah Jackson said.
Jackson's search for an apartment has not been a touchdown.
"There was a building, I won't name it," Jackson said laughing. "One of the tenants let me in and told me not to move in because of the bedbugs. On that note I left," Jackson said.
Finding a nice apartment that was affordable took Jackson nearly three months. A new census report shows the economy is getting stronger and more people are moving. This comes after years of a sluggish housing market that caused a lot of people to stay put.
The report also shows that more young adults are no longer living with their parents and moving into apartments of their own. Jackson has been affected by these numbers, even though it has been years since he has lived at home. Because more people are moving out, he and other renters face a lot more competition for the same apartments.
Even though he said options like Boyce Greeley are out of his price range, the 25-year-old said any housing in Sioux Falls, especially downtown, is a positive sign. He hopes this will cause a ripple effect of more nice apartments that are geared toward young professionals.
"It's just a hotbed. There are so many locations where they could build," Jackson said.
Dandar agreed, but will let other developers handle creating more apartment buildings in his future.
"I've been at this building for six years, so I'm ready to wrap it up," Dandar said.
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