Construction will start soon in Rapid City for a new corporate headquarters. It’s a company that hopes to employ about 200 people by 2026.
Governor Kristi Noem attended the groundbreaking and says she hopes it points to South Dakota’s unique position in the tech industry.
Property Meld provides maintenance solutions for around 600 property management companies across the United States and Canada.
Its new building will turn a vacant lot in downtown Rapid City into a two-story, 14,000 square foot facility.
Ray Hespen is the co-founder and CEO of the company. He’s also a South Dakota School of Mines alum. He says Rapid City has always struck him as the place to start a business.
“We’ve learned that people want to work somewhere where they want to live,” Hespen says. “I think, if anything, the pandemic has shown us that. Rapid City has always been a place where people want to live. We just had to create the opportunity that says, ‘Let’s create a place to work in the place you want to live.’ For us this made sense because we’re just aligning wants and needs.”
Hespen says Property Meld can support companies anywhere in the country. While geography isn’t important, it is advantageous to Rapid City, which is four to five hours away from many major metro areas.
Governor Kristi Noem says technology should be South Dakota’s next big thing.
“On the east side of the state we have cybersecurity presence and a lot of companies that are investing in that space,” Noem says. “Here, in Rapid City, the technology companies are really finding that this is a special place to be. This can be the silicon prairie. This can be a place that the rest of the country is talking about as a location to put their companies.”
Construction crews expect to start work on the foundation beginning in June.
