What's New in Sioux Falls This Fall: Openings, Growth and Events

Fall is here, and there is a lot happening in and around Sioux Falls. New restaurants are filling in downtown's Cherapa Place, a food manufacturer is building one of the biggest plants in the city's history in northwest Sioux Falls, and the surrounding communities of Brandon, Harrisburg, and Tea are growing right along with the metro. If you are buying, selling, relocating, or just curious about where this city is headed, here is my rundown of what is new and what is coming this fall. I'm Jennifer Krosch, a Realtor with eXp Realty, and I keep an eye on these things because they tell you where a community is going.

What's new to eat and shop?

The biggest restaurant story of the past year is downtown. Cherapa Place, the mixed-use development on the east bank of the Big Sioux River, has filled out with three new food destinations. Cafe Breadico, a bakery and deli from the Breadico family, opened there in September 2025. Rivage Oak Kitchen followed on September 29, 2025 with a South Dakota-inspired menu built around ingredients like pheasant and bison. And Pomegranate Market opened in November 2025, giving the district a specialty grocery and deli anchor. Together they have made Cherapa Place a genuine food-and-errands stop, not just an office building.

Around the rest of the city, a few other recent openings are worth knowing. KPot Korean BBQ and hot pot opened on South Louise Avenue in February 2025 and has been busy ever since. The Lodge Bar and Grill opened at Jacobson Plaza on April 30, 2025, replacing the former Olive Garden space with a lodge-style restaurant near the airport. And in The Steel District, the sports-bar concept Big Sioux Burger rebranded as Big Sioux Diner and Dive, the Steel District's answer to a classic neighborhood diner.

Coming soon, keep an eye on three things. Breakfast chain Over Easy has three Sioux Falls locations in the works, with the first expected at Dawley Farms in 2026. A Mexican seafood restaurant, La Playita, is planned for an east-side spot. And on the retail side, the new Foss Fields development at Sixth Street and Veterans Parkway is adding Five Below and Ross Dress for Less to a lineup that already includes Hobby Lobby, Sierra, and Petco. That stretch of the east side is becoming a real shopping destination.

What big projects are under way?

The headline industrial project is CJ Schwan's at Foundation Park in northwest Sioux Falls. The Schwan's Company is building a $500 to $550 million, 700,000-square-foot production facility for its bibigo Asian food brand on 142 acres. It broke ground in November 2024 and is expected to employ roughly 600 to 650 people when running. The company also opened a downtown office with about 50 employees in September 2025 and hired its plant director in early 2026 as the plant moves toward opening. For a metro this size, a facility like that is a big deal, both for jobs and for the families those jobs bring to the housing market.

On the health care side, Avera Health is in the middle of the largest building project in its history: a $245 million investment that includes a six-story women's and children's tower at Avera McKennan Hospital and a three-story medical office pavilion at its campus on South Louise Avenue. Sanford Health has its own projects around the metro as well. The two health systems are the region's biggest employers, and when they build, it is usually a sign that patient growth is real.

The overall numbers back up the feeling of a city under construction. Sioux Falls issued more than $1.2 billion in building permits in 2025, its second-best year on record, and the first quarter of 2026 came in at about $212.7 million. The metro is home to about 220,000 people and adds roughly 4,000 to 6,000 new residents a year. The Forward Sioux Falls IX campaign is raising $18 million over five years for workforce attraction and economic development, which is the long game behind all the growth.

What's happening in the surrounding communities?

The growth is not staying inside city limits. In Brandon, the announcement of "The Heights at Brandon" in December 2025 brought plans for a mixed-use development near City Hall that would include a hotel, apartments, restaurants, retail, and office space. Brandon also doubled the capacity of its water treatment plant in 2025, the kind of infrastructure upgrade that has to happen before homes and businesses can follow.

Harrisburg continues to be one of the fastest-growing family suburbs in the state, with hundreds of acres in residential development. Commercial growth is following the rooftops: Tires and More opened at 912 North Cliff Avenue in August 2025, giving the southern corridor another local business.

Tea had a big 2025 by the city's own numbers: roughly 500 new residences and more than $34 million in building permit value. The new Tea Commerce development at Gateway Boulevard and Sundowner Avenue offers parcels from one to ten acres for retail, office, and mixed use. And the long-awaited interchange project that has been talked about for years began construction in December 2025, a major win for a town whose residents commute into Sioux Falls daily.

Hartford launched "Envision Hartford 2025," a five-year community and economic development initiative running through 2030 to attract new businesses and residents. And in Lennox, Lennox Ace Hardware is expanding by roughly 4,000 square feet to serve the growing community, while Lennox Lumber Company opened a new showroom and warehouse. These are small-town projects, but they are exactly what tells you a community is investing in itself.

What should you do this fall?

If you want something to do this very weekend, September 25 to 27, 2026 is stacked. The CINCH Playoffs Rodeo runs at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center, with $1.5 million in purses plus free pre-shows and concerts, and SiouxperCon, the area's comic and fan convention, runs the same three days. I know a few families who plan their whole October around these two events every year.

For the whole season, the Country Apple Orchard near Harrisburg runs its fall festival every Friday through Sunday from early September through the end of October, with U-pick apples and a couple dozen family attractions. The Heartland Country Corn Maze outside town is open through the end of October. As Halloween approaches, downtown Sioux Falls lights up with family events, and there is usually a bar crawl in the historic district on Halloween night. Then the Shakopee Festival Arts and Crafts Affair comes to Sioux Falls November 20 to 22, 2026, a good early-holiday-shopping stop.

What this means for buyers and sellers

Here is the realtor's perspective on all of this. Projects like the CJ Schwan's plant and the Avera tower do not just make the news, they bring families. Six hundred and fifty new jobs at one facility means scores of households looking for a home, many of them relocating from out of state and starting their search with questions about schools and neighborhoods. That is exactly the kind of demand that keeps the Sioux Falls housing market moving even when mortgage rates are high.

It is also a reminder to watch the suburbs. Tea's interchange, Brandon's mixed-use plans, and Harrisburg's residential acres are the reason buyers keep finding new construction outside the city limits at prices that often beat a comparable home inside Sioux Falls. If you are thinking about where the value will be in five years, the communities investing in roads, water, and commercial development are the ones to study.

And for sellers, the downtown and east-side energy around Cherapa Place, The Steel District, and Foss Fields is good for resale values in those parts of town. New restaurants and shops make a neighborhood feel established, and that shows up in buyer demand. My honest advice is the same as always: buy the neighborhood you want to live in, and let the city's momentum work for you. If you would like to talk about what any of these changes mean for your search or your home's value, I would love to walk it through with you.

FAQ: What's New in Sioux Falls This Fall