This small eastern South Dakota town is well known for its deep agricultural roots, its popular Fourth of July celebration and its regionally famous bakery specializing in bi-colored “zebra donuts.”

But now, Centerville has a new claim to fame: The town of about 900 people located 40 miles southwest of Sioux Falls has become known as a statewide leader in downtown redevelopment.

The successful effort to buck the trend of declining Main Street districts in small South Dakota towns has been fueled in part by a progressive approach to development by local leaders and a sense of entrepreneurship by local business owners.

But the redevelopment of Centerville has largely been driven by implementation of a strong vacant building ordinance that has become a model for other municipalities across the state.

“Vacancies in the central business district are a detriment to your city,” said Jared Hybertson, economic development coordinator in Centerville. “I hear from a lot of other communities looking for guidance because this is a prevalent problem across the state.”

Not a good look for downtowns

A decade ago, Centerville had 14 vacant storefronts in a downtown that encompasses only a few square blocks.

Some properties were occasionally used as rentals, a few served as storage for junk or remnants of former business and others were simply withering toward condemnation. The look was one of decline that was not enticing to potential new visitors, residents or business owners.

“I was frustrated at the number of vacant buildings we had,” Hybertson told News Watch. “Perception-wise, as a small town, you’re either growing or you’re dying, and there isn’t much in between.”

In 2017, the Centerville City Council passed the vacant buildings ordinance that uses a registration system, building inspections, warning letters, threats of fines and eventual fines to prompt property owners to shape up or sell their buildings to make way for new opportunities.

With the power of the ordinance in hand, Hybertson and a team of committed local officials and business people have ushered a major turnaround in the downtown.

Over roughly the past decade, the Centerville Development Corporation has undertaken efforts to either buy and rehabilitate or buy and tear down nearly a dozen dilapidated or deserted buildings, many of which are now occupied by new businesses.

Centerville has new additions downtown that include a women’s clothing boutique, a salon, a tattoo parlor, a discount retail store, two restaurant locations and a historic building converted into a combination museum/art gallery/visitors center. Plans are in place for further redevelopment projects that include loft housing and an event center.

The new businesses have made Centerville more of a destination for visitors, strengthened the overall economy and led to increases in sales tax revenues.

“It’s really been a joint citywide effort,” Hybertson said. “The ordinance definitely allows us to give property owners a little push to get something done with those properties.”

Building a model for downtown rebirth

Many rural communities in South Dakota have suffered population and economic downturns over the past few decades.

Cities with numerous vacant downtown buildings can suffer from a sense of general decline that can turn away visitors, new residents and potential businesses, said Paula Jensen, a vice president of the community development group Dakota Resources.

“We see what the end game is if we don’t pay attention to this,” she said.

Jensen said it is unlikely that downtown districts in small towns will return to the days decades ago when people gathered frequently to sell agricultural goods, buy all the things they need and make personal connections.

But attracting new commercial, retail and service businesses to a downtown can spur overall community growth, Jensen said.

“This isn’t going to take us back to the 1950s when everybody came to town on Wednesday and Saturdays to sell their eggs and their cream,” she said. “But the very purpose of maintaining Main Streets is getting business owners into those buildings to rejuvenate downtowns and make them lively places again.”

Jensen said downtown revitalization is a long-range project that requires a big and constant commitment and that replacing vacant storefronts with new businesses is just one part of the effort.

“This isn’t just putting flowers on Main Street to beautify it,” she said. “It’s making a decision to incrementally improve their Main Street and show that they’re in it for the long haul, so people will want to establish a business there.”

Jensen said Dakota Resources works to share and promote successful ideas that are replicable in other communities across the state. To that end, the Dakota Resources welcomed Hybertson to a community meeting it hosted in Murdo last fall where he gave a slide presentation on the vacant building ordinance to community leaders from around the state.

Building relationships to revive buildings

While the ordinance gives Centerville a mechanism to address vacancies, it still takes a great deal of patience and negotiation to get properties sold or redeveloped. Hybertson said.

He and city officials use the ordinance as a cudgel tempered by genuine kindness and a willingness to communicate with and compromise with owners of vacant properties. The approach is somewhat of an iron fist in a velvet glove.

“It’s really about fostering a relationship and building trust because a lot of times these owners just don’t know what to do with their buildings,” Hybertson said.

The effort to convert an aging historic building into the museum/community center provides a good example. The Sioux Falls owner of the building had tried but failed to start businesses there and was hesitant to give up the property.

After numerous discussions with Hybertson, she agreed to sell for $6,000. With about $100,000 in grants and another $100,000 from the development corporation, the renovated building that is now a central gathering place and tourist destination.

“It creates a good vibe because a vibrant downtown makes everyone feel better about their community,” Hybertson said.

A good idea, but tough to implement

Other towns are following Centerville’s lead, but implementing policies that impose on private property owners can be a tough go in South Dakota.

“It can get tricky and controversial when it comes to property rights,” Hybertson said.

He acknowledged that it takes patience, resilience and sometimes a bit of luck and good timing to make the ordinance effective. Even after improvements are made, maintaining a profitable business is a challenge in small towns, as evidenced by the recent closure of a Mexican restaurant and a coffee shop in Centerville.

“Sometimes it feels like one step forward and two steps back,” he said.

Officials from the city of Hurley contacted Hybertson and ultimately enacted a vacant building ordinance in October 2024, but the policy has not been implemented yet, said city finance officer Marcy Hillman.

Hurley is a town of 385 people located 30 miles southeast of Sioux Falls, and it has struggled to maintain a vibrant downtown, Hillman said. The city has no grocery store and lost a salon that operated downtown but celebrated the recent reopening of the Hurley Bar & Grill, she said.

The town has a handful of vacant buildings downtown, but it has been difficult to enforce its ordinance because Hurley has only four city employees and relies solely on Hillman to perform many of the municipal tasks.

“There’s a lot of towns in South Dakota in the same position as us,” Hillman said. “Our council wants to get something going downtown, but it’s challenging when you don’t have someone who can focus just on that.”

A passion for clothes and community

Christen Cunningham is a benefactor of the effort to find the best use of existing buildings in downtown Centerville.

A few years ago, Cunningham and her husband left Colorado to move back to the town where her parents and grandparents lived, and she bought a building she has converted into a thriving women’s clothing store.

Christen & Company boutique is located in a building formerly used by the late beloved town historian Sherree Dee Schmiedt to store artifacts and collectibles from Centerville’s history. Many of those remnants of local history were moved into the museum/community center a few doors down the block after the renovation was complete.

While the boutique is not operating in a storefront directly influenced by the city’s vacant building policy, Cunningham said her business is an example of the benefits of a community-wide effort to inject energy into its downtown.

“It’s creating room for opportunity,” she said. “To this day, people tell me they can’t believe this boutique is operating in Centerville.”

The spirit of re-use may continue, as Cunningham has plans to renovate the second floor of the clothing store into short-term rental units, and she has purchased the former bowling alley next door and hopes to convert it into additional space for the boutique or possibly an event hall. Meanwhile, her daughter has moved to Centerville and is operating a beauty salon down the block.

“I like that you can actually talk to people here and realize how connected you are to one another,” she said.

By focusing on downtown redevelopment, and finding new uses for existing structures, Centerville has become a place that is embracing its roots and celebrating its past while also fostering a bright future, Cunningham said.

“The biggest blessing is the relationships we’re making here, because we’re not just selling clothes,” she said. “My mission is to make women feel important and valued and that they’re seen so they feel better when they leave than they did when they came in.”

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This story was originally published by South Dakota News Watch and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

Bart Pfankuch/south Dakota News Watch, The Associated Press