RAPID CITY, SD – Ground is broken, old buildings have been demolished, and a project superintendent is on site – the Rapid City Chick-fil-A projects are well underway.

Two Chick-fil-A sites are coming to Rapid City, both expected to open early next year – one on the east/north side at 1902 Lacross Street by Interstate 90 and the other on Jackson Boulevard at the former Sonic Drive-in location.

On Wednesday, project engineer for the Jackson Boulevard site Edward Gutierrez of WH Bass, Inc., said the project demolition started last week, and construction will get underway next week.

Gutierrez said once storm, water, and sewer is in the ground and concrete is poured, the structure will start to take shape with an anticipated completion date in December.

WH Bass, out of Duluth, GA., built the first Chick-fil-A stand-a-lone location in Hateville, Georgia. Over the course of the past four decades, they’ve been one of the main contractors as the business expands.

“The owners of the two companies actually work pretty closely together,” Gutierrez said. “They basically built the company around building Chick-fil-As and have been doing it for about 30 years now.”

Locally, the Jackson Boulevard Chick-fil-A location was officially announced after Rapid City Planning Commission approved parking plans at the location. The first location on Lacrosse was announced last summer.

In February of this year, Rapid City Mayor Jason Salamun said Rapid City was the second location where the company entered a new market with more than one location.

Gutierrez said WH Bass would manage the Jackson location and a local contractor would manage the Lacross location build.

“Chick-fil-A has asked us all to work together to achieve their goal and the general contractor here has been generous with their talent in an effort to build the store,” Gutierrez said. “It’s been really nice.”

While the Jackson Boulevard location will be only the restaurant, several restaurants and a tire center will be developed along with the Chick-Fil-A at the Lacrosse location near the interstate. That development was assisted by the Marshall Heights TIF which also helped pave the way for the north side police station and the extension of Luna Avenue.