L.G. Everist plans major development, starting with ready-mix plant

L.G. Everist has started on a major new industrial development in Lincoln County.

The Sioux Falls company is about 70 percent complete with construction on a new ready-mix plant off the Interstate 29 exit just outside of Harrisburg on the southeast corner of the interchange.

It’s part of a broader plan for 50 acres that also could include an asphalt plant and recycling yard. L.G. Everist owns 140 total acres in the area.

The initial ready-mix plant will be able to produce 300 yards an hour and “is going to double our capacity for what we can put out in Sioux Falls,” said president and CEO Rob Everist.

The project builds on an acquisition the company made in 2020 of nearby United Concrete, a locally owned ready-mix supplier with a plant that can do about 120 yards an hour.

“So we’re replacing that and increasing our capacity, and we will repurpose that whole yard on the Harrisburg exit,” Everist said. “We’re just starting from scratch on a whole new footprint.”

It will be the company’s largest plant, said Eric Leverson, vice president of commercial materials.

“I think the future growth of the whole city is moving in that direction,” he said. “Combined with our footprint we have now and our aggregate resources, we’ll be able to supply the entire market whether it’s in the city or on the outskirts.”

The next closest plant is on East Rice Street in Sioux Falls.

“The construction business has been very strong,” Leverson added. “It’s been growing year over year. We see a little halt in some of the different segments of the construction world, but for the most part, it’s been a very strong, positive growth that I think we’ll see here for the near future and beyond.”

The development of Veterans Parkway from 57th Street to the Tea exit will drive further development in the area, Everist added.

“That whole outer loop to connect the outer ring of (Interstate) 229 between 29 and 90 is going to bring a whole other layer of development that’s going to keep pushing to the south and southeast.”

The company’s focus is on its vertical integration, which has been supported by other recent acquisitions, including Myrl & Roy’s Paving, he said. L.G. Everist now has about 440 employees from its downtown Sioux Falls headquarters to about two dozen locations of various sizes throughout the Upper Midwest and in the Denver metro area down to Colorado Springs.

“We’re running four quarries around Sioux Falls, and we have hundreds of years of rock reserves,” Everist said. “You’ve got to have the raw materials to do it, and you have to have the right locations. There are all sorts of moving parts, but we think we’re well positioned for a long, long time.”

The new plant in Harrisburg is providing an opportunity to try out some new approaches, including using shredded asphalt shingles in the base material.

“We think that’s the wave of the future, to be able to use more products that used to fill up landfills and put it into new construction,” Everist said.

The entire base is recycled material, and some of the paving on-site involves a 100 percent quartzite product with no natural sand and gravel, Leverson said.

“This is giving us an opportunity to do a lot of different experiments on that site construction that normally you wouldn’t have the opportunity to do,” he said. “The site itself is all self-contained and has its own storm sewer system, which in turn all the surface water will be drained into ponds, which will be contained and used on-site.”

The whole property will be landscaped, he added.

“It’s not going to look like any normal manufacturing site you’d normally see. We spent a lot of time and energy trying to develop something that’s pleasing to the eye and at the same time usable on our end.”

L.G. Everist isn’t focused on developing the balance of the land it owns in the area, which is closer to development in Harrisburg and likely could be appealing commercial property.

“At this point, we’re not doing any development work,” Everist said. “We could do it ourselves, we could sell it, we could build to suit, we could lease. We’re going to focus on our core business building our plant.”

Once the 41st Street and 85th Street interchanges in Sioux Falls are rebuilt and built, the next in line is rebuilding the Harrisburg exit, he said, estimating it’s likely a few years away.

“So after that, we would take a hard look at how to develop that ground if we haven’t made a decision at that point. That’s going to be good, developable commercial ground.” Read the whole story on SIOUXFALLS.BUSINESS.