Dakota Beverage Co. Inc. is building a nearly 100,000-square-foot warehouse and office that will bring all of its business operations under one roof.
The growing beer distributor has been working out of two locations for the past five years. Its headquarters is at 101 N. Harlem Ave.
The new warehouse, which has a building permit valuation of $7.1 million, is going up on the east side of Cliff Avenue near 54th Street North.
“It’s green as green can be for a distributorship,” general manager Bill Christensen said. “We’re utilized the energy within our building to (power) other things within the building, reusing air condition, heating and things of that nature.”
The building will take about a year to construct.
“It’s all climate-controlled, so it’s all going to be a consistent temperature,” Christensen said. “The outside is all prefab concrete from Gage Brothers, and we’ll have a design on it similar to wheat and barley, so it’s going to look pretty cool.”
Dakota Beverage has 66 full-time employees and marks its 60th anniversary this year. Christensen estimates business has grown between 3 percent and 5 percent annually over the last five years.
With more than 300 beer brands representing 12 countries, the company handles domestic, import and specialty and craft beers along with some energy drinks.
Its territory includes much of eastern South Dakota, from North Sioux City to Estelline.
“Per capita we do pretty well,” Christensen said. “We figure in our territory we have about 400,000 people, and with the growth rate we have and the beer we sell per capita, we’re doing pretty well.”