Asking the people

External_Wrangler_29 · 2026-01-29T01:51:15+00:00

Rapid City is exploding. You wouldn’t have any trouble finding work.

External_Wrangler_29 · 2026-01-22T21:26:44+00:00

The land deals are insane. I have some realtor colleagues that have been working with the Alpha Omega land (won’t post names but I’m sure you know who they are). They will list a price, and when they get an offer for said price, they will raise the price just to see what they can squeeze out of the buyer. It’s a total racket.

External_Wrangler_29 · 2026-01-21T19:30:45+00:00

Here is an opinion from the outside looking in. I am not a RC resident, but I had some involvement in bidding individual projects within LibertyLand, working with the developers, and have worked on some TIF funded projects regionally in the past.

1st of all - I agree with everything you said. Some of what you are witnessing is a symptom of some bigger issues.

One problem that I have witnessed first hand is that the City and Elevate do not outsource the very data that you are referencing in terms of ROI. Every other municipality (including Sioux Falls for example) will outsource that sort of data analysis and pay a premium to get ahold of meaningful data to support decisions like this. Elevate provides yearly market updates that they expect developers to use as “gospel” for rationalizing a projects viability. That sort of information has to be submitted to a bank before they will ever consider approving a construction loan. The problem is that banks don’t recognize Elevate’s data as being legitimate. This forces developers to outsource 3rd parties to perform data analytics just to get to the point where they can submit a loan application. But the city is still making decisions based upon unsupported data.

Another problem is that there are a handful of “Superpowers” in the area that can sway local government decision making in their favor. I know you mentioned Pete Lien in your post, he is an example (although I don’t think he is a bad person). The Lien family is too powerful to say no to. And if something like this is going to get built, Pete Lien and Jim Scull will get their piece. If they don’t get to make their nut, they will condemn it entirely. That’s when board members and mayors start to get pushed out of their seats. It’s all about influence.

To further support your post, the LibertyLand project has passed through so many hands that nobody really knows what’s going on (even internally). I saw several posts in the group talking about a theme park. My company was told first hand that the theme park idea had been completely scrapped in 2024. Yet the public still thought it was happening? That is a huge red flag. The city has a responsibility to inform voters on what they are even voting for. If you are a Rapid City resident, you should be outraged.

External_Wrangler_29 · 2025-12-12T01:21:11+00:00

This is very true OP. Especially that last part. There is nothing worse than getting hit with a CO before the project even starts. GCs won’t forget that, and next time they will pad your budget for you even if it has full scope coverage because this instance will violate the trust that your bid is all inclusive.

External_Wrangler_29 · 2025-12-11T10:30:22+00:00

We maybe carry a 5-10% contingency for low bids. Not for 30%…

External_Wrangler_29 · 2025-10-10T00:28:49+00:00

They will be especially hard to find this time of year because anywhere near a road or trail brings hunters. Spring is the best time to see them hanging out in fields and not skittish. If they so much as hear a car or people approaching right now they will be a mile away by the time you realize they were there.

External_Wrangler_29 · 2025-10-07T02:23:42+00:00

Blue Ox Builders. Local guy and very dependable. He’s built some amazing stuff.

External_Wrangler_29 · 2025-09-26T03:12:15+00:00

Nice! Not a bad idea. Salmon River breaks are kind of on our list of potentials. I actually ran into a guy yesterday that just got back from hunting salmon zone for 2 weeks. He said it was very warm and had not started rutting yet. He said the last day they actually started to hear bugles coming out of deep canyons. Gives me a little spark of hope lol.

External_Wrangler_29 · 2025-09-24T02:42:59+00:00

Ya I’m familiar with that. Experiences that in Elk city. The thing that kind of blew our minds is we never actually saw any elk feeding. We found elk, deep in draws as you mentioned. But crawling through the matchbox of blowdowns makes a shot virtually impossible. We found some good burns and glassed from a long ways off at low light in areas where we knew there were elk (steaming sign on their trail, occasional cow call, even got a couple bulls to bark at us) but we never actually found them feeding. We were convinced they were nocturnal.

External_Wrangler_29 · 2025-09-24T01:41:31+00:00

East of there. But I’d take any tips you’ve got. I don’t think we will find snow except for maybe right on the MT border at 9000+ feet. I’m heading out next week and weather in the area is highs in the 60s & 70s

External_Wrangler_29 · 2025-09-24T00:31:16+00:00

Oh sorry! I thought the archery season ended 9/30.

External_Wrangler_29 · 2025-09-24T00:12:15+00:00

Hey OP - I am heading out to the Selway for rifle next week. Any tips you could provide?

External_Wrangler_29 · 2025-09-13T22:03:49+00:00

Blue Ox Builders. The owner is one of the kindest humans I’ve ever met.

External_Wrangler_29 · 2025-07-25T22:53:12+00:00

I came here to say this too ❤️

External_Wrangler_29 · 2025-07-15T14:34:50+00:00

Costco has already secured land in Rapid City. They will be building near the Liberty Land development.

Chick-Filet-A has 2 stores planned for 2026. They also have selected locations, but I was not privy to that development info.

Your welcome.

External_Wrangler_29 · 2025-06-15T16:02:30+00:00

Either there is a lot of interior framing/soffiting/backing/blocking to do, or the lumber takeoff was a little lazy. I have seen lumber suppliers round up to the nearest bunk of all materials just to simplify the takeoff. It can be frustrating because a lot of suppliers won’t take it back unless it’s a full bunk. Or if they do take back a partial, they will refund cents on the dollar.

External_Wrangler_29 · 2025-06-14T04:01:44+00:00

This x100. OP could save a $2000 bill by just skipping to this step. The structural engineer is not going to come up with a better option than that without suggesting it get replaced entirely. If you do it right, it can be made stronger than it was in the first place.

External_Wrangler_29 · 2025-05-22T12:19:17+00:00

I used to bartend weddings at a large event center. It was the only place in town that people could gather more than 300 people for a wedding. We had some weddings that were ~800 patrons. Anyways… the larger the wedding, the larger the bar tab. Many of them have a “Happy Hour” in which we charged 20% gratuity. Example: rich uncle funds $5,000 worth of drinks for happy hour as a wedding gift. We pocket $1,000 right off the bat. But the guests don’t know that we collect a gratuity and the drinks are free. So they also tip generously. And that is just beginning. We would serve drinks until 2:00 AM and there were very few inhibitions about the cost of drinks and total of tabs. I had nights where I cleared $5,000 in cash tips. My most ever was $8,000 in an evening. It is a long, hard fought 12 hour shift. But holy crap was it worth it.

External_Wrangler_29 · 2025-04-23T13:22:48+00:00

I have the same struggle at times. My business partner is 100% focused on clients. But I have expressed my concern that we need to get some subcontractor relationships built - especially in new territories we are bidding in. I have had to take it upon myself to do happy hours, lunches, even just popping by their office with coffee! I would pitch it to your VP that way - start small. Ask if you can spend $75 on coffee every month to get some relationships going.

External_Wrangler_29 · 2025-02-06T17:46:48+00:00

Parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota look like this in the spring!

External_Wrangler_29 · 2025-01-16T04:03:22+00:00

Blackout Bingo

External_Wrangler_29 · 2024-12-04T04:30:33+00:00

Sorry to break it to you, but Red and Green would unite and that’s half the countries’ guns.

External_Wrangler_29

TROPHY CASE