SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – Sioux Falls broke ground on the new Sioux Falls One Stop building Tuesday afternoon. The building will act as a “one stop shop” of government resources and house 12 state agencies.
“Customers coming to this new state government center will have access to nearly every state need under one roof,” said Darin Seeley, commissioner for the Bureau of Human Resources and Administration.
Along with the Bureau of Human Resources and Administration, the following agencies will be moved to the new Sioux Falls One Stop building:
Bureau of Information and Telecommunications
Department of Corrections
Department of Education
Department of Health
Department of Human Services
Department of Labor and Regulation
Department of Public Safety
Department of Revenue
Department of Social Services
All of these offices are currently located at various places across the city, but will move to the new location in early 2025. Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken said one of the reasons for consolidating the agencies under one roof was to build culture amongst the state employees and make it easier for people to get multiple services in one location.
“When you can create economies of scale, with services, with resources, with utilities, with parking, with culture, with the things that will all happen when you bring all these great agencies together under one roof, one stop,” TenHaken said. “As someone who has dozens of locations all across the city, I’ll say it’s very hard to build culture amongst our city employees.”
Rapid City based company, Dream Design International, is partnering with the city and state to develop the 280,000 square foot facility. With the 12 agencies in the building, there will be over 650 state employees working at Sioux Falls One Stop.
“Hopefully this building will provide an environment that will provide for employee retention and attract more employees to the state and also provide a good environment for the taxpayer access,” said Dream Design President Hani Shafai.
South Dakota Department of Social Services Secretary Matt Althoff said the new building will challenge the Department of Social Services to reinvent how they interact with individuals who need their services.
“We hope One Stop will communicate that those whom we serve within the facility can expect to find resolution, to find the answer to their question, to find a capable person who is willing to accompany them in their quest for needed assistance,” Althoff said.
Community members raised concerns earlier in the year about how far away One Stop is from central Sioux Falls and the lack of public transportation out to its Dawley Farm location. The city has since added a bus stop right at the front of the building.
“That’s probably the one thing that people have talked about, ‘Hey, love everything about it, but are we moving the services away from the people who need them?’ Well, people who need these services are all over,” TenHaken said. “We’re going to make sure that access is good here from a transit standpoint.”
This is Dream Design’s second collaboration with the State of South Dakota. In 2022, they completed a similar project for the Rapid City One Stop, which is 100,000 square feet and houses seven state agencies.
“We’re building this building and hopefully it’ll last more than 100 years, and hopefully it’ll be here way beyond that,” Shafai said. “Hopefully, we’ll be building something that our state taxpayers will enjoy for many years to come.”
