TEA, S.D. (KELO) — Within the next ten years, a person will be able to go from Sioux Falls to Tea and back, never realizing they’ve left one city and entered another.

This is the prediction of C-Lemme Companies’ Joel Ingle, who spoke with KELOLAND News Tuesday about the company’s Bakker Landing development.

On the face of it, this doesn’t seem too surprising a prediction. After all, there are places such as W. 85th St. and even W. 93rd St., where Sioux Falls nearly touches the industrial parks that are overseen by the Tea township. But while Sioux Falls has been expanding steadily for some time, this particular area hasn’t been seeing the same growth.

“Well it really hasn’t,” said Ingle on the subject of growth in between Tea and Sioux Falls. “That’s kind of been the interesting part.”

Ingle says C-Lemme bought 130 acres in the development around 2007 as a long-term investment property. In 2017, they purchased the southern half of the development, adding another ~140 acres, bringing the total to around 270.

In all, Bakker Landing, named for the family who sold the land to the company back in the 2000s, comprises the area bound by Hwy 106 to the south, I-29 to the east, S. Sundowner Ave to the west and W. 85th St. to the north.

This is of course not an empty area at this point, with plenty of more industrial-type businesses taking up lots on the south end of the lot, as well as south of Hwy 106.

One of the keys to future development noted by Ingle will be a new I-29 interchange connecting W. 85th St. across the interstate, which will allow people to not only enter and exit the development from I-29, but also pass directly from southern Sioux Falls into areas overseen by Tea.

“That’s the gamechanger,” Ingle said. “Having an interchange there, you’ve got another gateway into Sioux Falls.”

As it stands, Ingle says the development is actually already a little more than halfway full. “We’re roughly — in terms of what we’ve developed and sold — we’re roughly 50% of the way done,” he said, adding that the announcement of the new Orthopedic Institute puts them another 20% further.

Like the Orthopedic Institute, much of what is already spoken for in the development is yet to actually be built.

So what will we see once these places actually begin to rise from the ground? According to Ingle, there will be much the same as what you’ll see in any major development property in the area. There will be fast food, there will be hotels, there will be medical, there will be professional spaces and there will be retail.

With so much of the development already filling up, how long until the entire thing may be complete? According to Ingle, it could be sooner than anyone expected.

“At this point, things have moved and absorbed a lot faster than we anticipated,” Ingle said. “I think where we’re at, we’re probably in that 3-5 year timeframe with the remainder of the development.”