Centerville Tackles Housing With Innovative Resources

CENTERVILLE, S.D. – For many towns, regardless of its size, housing is a top priority. Centerville is no different. The town has been growing for awhile now and is continuing to do so.

The small, quiet community is located about 45 minutes southwest of Sioux Falls. Their location certainly doesn’t stop the town’s growth and with that development comes the need for additional housing.

For the town, it is their development corporation that has been instrumental in helping them expand. Because of the demand, in the last five years, the Centerville Development Corporation (CDC) has purchased and cleared five dilapidated homes, completed two rehab housing projects and built and sold three spec homes. They also financed and built two homes and bought and sold two lots where new homes were privately built. The homes built during this time ranged in price from $215,000 to $280,000.

Executive Director of the CDC, Jared Hybertson, explained it is the development corporation taking the lead on housing development, although other community groups are actively involved in different aspects too.

Economic development is not all about recruiting and expanding businesses; housing efforts play a vital role for a community to see economic development success. As the CDC continues their housing efforts, they also continue to work to find ways to improve their business environment.

Part of Centerville’s interesting dynamic is its location. The town of almost 900 has a workforce that commutes 30 minutes or more, daily.

“A bedroom community is a negative term to some, but others embrace it,” said Hybertson.

And Centerville is one of those communities that are seizing the term. On top of the already multi-million dollar home projects that Centerville has done, its biggest project to date just got underway. A new housing development on the south edge of town has the development corporation striving for success. A 14-acre plot of land was purchased and when all is said and done, will hold 28 new homes.

Hybertson said that while they would like to find a developer to work with on this project, the CDC is also looking to construct some homes within the new development. Getting infrastructure to and within the development will be needed prior to any home construction and the development corporation is working on funding which will cost about $1.25 million for water, sewers, and utilities.

A housing study, done in 2020 for the town, projected that Centerville could gain up to 17 houses by 2024.

Hybertson said that as of today, Centerville has already gained five new homes.