Yankton’s Housing Development is Community Development
When communities talk about growth, the conversation often turns to jobs, businesses, and new opportunities. But in Yankton, one of the clearest paths to long-term economic growth has started with something more foundational: housing.
Since 2015, Yankton Thrive has borrowed a total of $5.4 million through Dakota Resources’ Capital Investment Fund, using flexible loan capital to help move major housing development projects forward. That support has played a role in Yankton Thrive’s ability to respond to community needs, leverage other funding partners and create new housing opportunities for individuals and families who want to live and work in the Yankton area.
For Yankton Thrive Executive Director Nancy Wenande, the work began with a clear need.
In 2013, a housing study showed that the Yankton community was facing a critical shortage of available homes. Two years later, Yankton Thrive partnered with Dakota Resources for the first time to help construct Westbrook Estates, an affordable housing development designed to meet that need.
The impact was direct. Westbrook Estates added 144 apartments, 25 townhomes and 56 single-family homes to the community. Within roughly 30 months, all of the lots in the development had sold.
But as Yankton continued to grow, the need for housing did not disappear.
An updated housing study completed a decade later in 2023 showed that Yankton was still facing a housing shortage. With that information in hand, the Yankton Thrive Board of Directors made the decision to purchase an additional 80 acres and begin planning a new development called Garden Estates.
The project was designed in two phases, with the first phase focused on building out 28 acres for 89 single-family home lots. After retiring the organization’s Westbrook 1 debt early, Yankton Thrive once again turned to Dakota Resources for support in helping get the new development off the ground.
“The timing of financing on this project was critical,” Wenande said. “South Dakota Housing had grant funding available, and we needed to create a capital stack that allowed all the pieces to come together.”
To move Garden Estates forward, Yankton Thrive needed to make significant investments in engineering and infrastructure. Dakota Resources financing helped support that early-stage work, giving the organization the ability to keep momentum while coordinating multiple funding sources.
Yankton Thrive has been a borrower from Dakota Resources for many years, investing in housing infrastructure and development. Housing development continues to be a priority for Yankton Thrive. Photo courtesy of Yankton Thrive.
Like many large-scale community development efforts, Garden Estates came together through partnership. The City of Yankton worked with Yankton Thrive on the creation of a housing tax increment district. South Dakota Housing allocated grant funding to the project. Dakota Resources provided a low-interest loan package. Yankton Thrive also brought capital from its YES4, or Yankton Economic Success #4, campaign to help complete the funding package.
Together, those pieces helped create new affordable homeownership opportunities in Yankton.
“Large-scale community projects don’t happen without utilization of partnerships,” Wenande said. “We are blessed to be in a community that appreciates entities collaborating and leveraging resources for the greater good.”
For Dakota Resources, Yankton Thrive’s use of loan capital reflects the kind of steady, strategic community development that creates impact over time.
“Housing has been the focus for Yankton Thrive over the last several years,” said Terri LaBrie, Director of Community Lending at Dakota Resources. “The reliability of the capital Dakota Resources can provide — flexible capital at reasonable rates and terms — is important. Having a trusted partner they can turn to is key.”
The first phase of Garden Estates was successfully completed in spring 2026, adding 89 single-family home lots to the community. For Wenande, those lots represent more than a single project. They are the beginning of decades of future housing development in Yankton.
“If your community wants to grow, you need to create and fill rooftops with individuals and families to live and work there,” Wenande said.
Those rooftops help support a broader cycle of growth. As Yankton has continued investing in housing, Wenande has also seen growth in the community’s retail options, including the recent addition of Hobby Lobby, Marshalls, and Five Below. While housing alone does not create community growth, it gives communities an essential foundation for attracting people, supporting the workforce and creating the conditions for future investment.
Yankton Thrive understands that community development is rarely quick work. It requires planning, patience, strategy and partners who are willing to invest in long-term outcomes.
“We know and understand that community development is playing the long game,” Wenande said. “You must be strategic and methodical when it comes to planning. Dakota Resources has helped Yankton overcome some challenges which will create new opportunities for decades to come.”
Since 2015, Dakota Resources’ lending partnership with Yankton Thrive has helped the organization move from one housing development to the next, responding to current needs while preparing for future growth.
For Wenande, that partnership has made a lasting difference.
“Yankton is a better community because of our partnership with Dakota Resources,” she said. “The confidence and trust that Dakota Resources had in our plan made Yankton a more robust and healthy community.”
Through Westbrook Estates, Garden Estates and the partnerships behind them, Yankton Thrive is showing what it looks like to invest with the future in mind: one development, one partnership and one new rooftop at a time.
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