Branch Creek becoming a neighborhood

BROOKINGS — While the city of Brookings has shown steady and admirable growth over the past decade — especially in comparison to South Dakota and the nation as a whole — the two issues that threaten continued prosperity here remain access to child care and sufficient housing for workers.

And while attempts at systemic changes to aid childcare have largely been stymied in the state legislature, Brookings is in the midst of a large, local project to develop additional housing. While other towns in the state are still planning workforce housing initiatives (see adjacent story), Brookings philanthropists — along with a local contractor, local architect and local Realtors as well as the state and the city — are building 130 units of new housing south of town.

But more than houses - they are working to create a neighborhood. A place for people to live in community with each other, a place for people who want to work here but can’t currently find housing and a place for people who simply want to live in Brookings.

“I don't think of it as we're building a development,” Ann Rivlin said. “We're building a neighborhood, a place where people live and become friends and interact.”

The Branch Creek neighborhood already has residents in the midst of the second of its five planned phases. Located on the south side of 20th Street South and east of the Fishback Soccer complex, the 20-acre project aims to build a genuine community of mixed, relatively affordable homes — approximately 130 total homes — to provide churn in the local housing market and options for folks who truly want to live here.

The beginning

Rivlin and Tom Fishback have steered the project, which puts to use land that had been in their family for generations.

“It's 23 acres that our family has owned for a very long time, and it was a not terribly productive hay field,” Rivlin said. “The town was growing up around it, and Tom came to those of us who own the land and said, ‘This is a not-great hay field. It should be homes.’ And we agreed with that idea. It made a lot of sense for this to be a neighborhood, particularly with how the town is growing and how there's not a lot of available land left in Brookings.”

A city study in 2022 proved what anyone with a Zillow account already suspected: The town has precious little housing stock available, and what it does have is typically either college rentals or newer construction and at the higher end of the market. The market has a gaping hole in the middle: Starter homes, townhomes for seniors looking to downsize, duplexes and the like.

“The other family owners got on board with this idea,” Rivlin continued, “And we feel strongly that trends we've been seeing in Brookings for years have been picked up by the Brookings housing study — employers are saying we hire people but they can't move here, so we lose them. Because they don't have a place to live. And so we really wanted to think creatively about, how we have a neighborhood that provides a significant amount of housing, but it still looks like a neighborhood that developed organically, and isn't a cookie cutter neighborhood. And so that's where Branch Creek came from.”

“We saw the need, and then the housing study came along and really crystallized: This is the scarcity. This is what we need,” Fishback added. “The land has been in the family through, I guess now three generations. We felt like it was important to try, just like Bob and Van had the idea with the soccer fields, how can we put this to community use? And how can we try to provide value to the community in areas that are needed?” 

Rivlin and Fishback steered the effort through getting a $1.7 million grant from South Dakota Housing to help defer construction expenses. In March of 2024, the city OK’d a tax increment financing district to help mitigate up to $7.3 million in costs to essentially hook the neighborhood up to city services. They also selected a local contractor — Clark Drew Construction — and a local architecture firm — ID8 Architecture — as well as a pair of local Realtors — Kari Westlund and Jena Werpy — to shepherd the neighborhood’s homes through design, construction and, eventually, sale.

Using the city housing study, they tried to cover the gamut of possible homes where stock did not meet demand — among them single family houses, twinhomes and townhomes in various configurations. The neighborhood has a planned pond, and porches are in the front of the homes to encourage a community feel. 

And they are still taking in feedback. As the first units have come onto the market and sold, the project has factored that data into what houses to build more of in the latter stages.

The first phase is complete, with 23 houses already built. The project is now in the middle of phase two, with 29 more homes coming online. Twenty-two more houses are planned in 2027, which is phase four. Phase five will see 26 more homes, as well as possible commercial development — with three lots available, two fronting on 20th Street S.

The planning phase also included both a wetland study and a traffic study.

About ‘affordability’

The project took pains to make sure it would develop into and remain a neighborhood.

For example, the houses are deed restricted to remain owner-occupied. There will be a homeowner’s association with a monthly fee — but that will also cover lawn care and snow removal. In addition, the maximum price for a home there will be restricted to the top end of the state’s number for eligibility for the first-time homebuyer program — currently $410,000.

Fishback said he knows that some people’s initial reaction will be that “affordable” and “$410,000” don’t belong in the same sentence.

“You can tell from the increases in the South Dakota first-time home buyers price, that the cost of building homes has skyrocketed,” he said. “That's just what that indicates. They're not saying,’ Hey, people can afford this.’ They're saying, ‘This is what it costs to build a house,” Fishback said. 

In other words, the prices are as low as they can be — even with the Fishbacks, the city and the state all kicking in something.

“I really want to emphasize, we would not be able to do this if we didn't have the TIF and if we didn't have a grant from South Dakota housing, both of which only cover infrastructure costs, like the actual construction costs aren't covered by TIF. So that was a huge help, and there is no way we'd be able to build 130 homes without the city and the state,” he said.

Nothing is currently priced that high, either. Single family homes start at $295,000 and top out at $375,000. Townhomes range from $227,000 to $255,000 and twinhomes start at $280,000 up to $340,000. And it’s important to remember that while the project is focused on helping people own these homes in Brookings, the churn in the market should help the whole community.

A local retirement-aged couple downsizing to a townhouse will free up a different home in town. A young family starting out in a standalone home in Branch Creek keeps them in town, rather than relocating somewhere else. That helps Brookings sustain the steady growth that makes it the place we all want to live.

“We know that some people will buy these homes that could pay more for a home, but usually those people are leaving a larger home,” Rivlin said. “So we wanted to do our best to make it affordable, but we also wanted to create some churn in the housing market. And we feel like the homes that we're building at Branch Creek are appealing for all different sizes and styles and price points. So we're getting the first time home buyers, we're getting the young professionals. We're getting the families, but we're also getting people who are looking to downsize and move into a smaller, lower maintenance home that then frees up their larger family home for someone else.”

Making more Brookings

Both Rivlin and Fishback stress this is very likely to be their only foray into real estate development. But despite a long and hectic project schedule, their excitement for the new neighborhood shines through. They both genuinely seem to simply want to add more of the town they loved growing up in.

And now that folks live at Branch Creek — only four homes remain on the market from phase one — they’re just now getting to see the good part.

“It's exciting that it's a real, active place,” Fishback said. “Before winter came, you'd see kids with their fishing poles and bikes and you see a variety of people there. Which feels great. That's what we were going for. That's what I think about, whenever we hit a bump. Okay, we got to figure this out, but once we do — it's people's homes.”

The first of the phase three homes will be available in the spring, with some repeating models that have shown high interest in the first two phases, plus new offerings for the neighborhood.

“I am really confident that we have gotten people in homes who otherwise they would not be able to have their own home, and I feel really good about that,” Rivlin said. “And I feel like there are people who are looking ahead to their next phase of life, and we've been able to get them in homes that work for that. They're ready to downsize, they're ready to travel, they don't want to worry about shoveling their snow.”

And if real estate is all about location, the Branch Creek neighborhood surely has a bright future. Close to the soccer complex, nature park and bike trails — as well as the new splash park — the new houses will sit squarely in the middle of the booming growth of South Brookings

“I's really neat. There were a number of closings this month, but after one of them, our Realtor had circled back with the owners, and they said,‘This is a dream come true for us.” Fishback said. “And that was awesome, which it should be. 

“A home is such an emotional purchase. It’s where you make your memories, it's where you spend most of your life. And we want it to mean something. These aren't — I hate calling them housing units. They’re homes. They aren't numbers to us, they're people’s homes, and that's important to remember.”

Linehan is the Beacon’s managing editor and welcomes tips and comments at BrookingsBeacon@gmail.com