RAPID CITY, S.D. — Drive through different parts of the Black Hills today and there’s a good chance you’ll come across the work of Hills View Homes. Rapid City. Box Elder. Spearfish. Communities are growing, neighborhoods are taking shape and new homes are going up. But ask owner Tanner Quinn what Hills View Homes actually builds, and his answer goes well beyond houses.

It’s stability. It’s community. It’s roots.

And for Quinn, the story behind it all started long before Hills View Homes became one of the region’s growing homebuilders.

A Work Ethic Built Early

Quinn grew up in the Black Hills, spending a significant part of his childhood around his family’s farm and ranch operations in Philip and Timberlake.

“Hard work was never optional in our family, it was just how things were done,” Quinn said.

Life around agriculture taught him patience and resourcefulness, along with an understanding of how much work goes into building something worth having. That work ethic followed Quinn into his teenage years and beyond. From middle school through high school and college, Quinn worked for his father, Marty. By the time he began thinking seriously about a career, job sites, equipment and the daily realities of running a business were already familiar.

He also spent time working in the oil fields before starting a landscaping and excavation company from the ground up. Eventually, Quinn sold that business to his own superintendents, something he said taught him as much about developing people and running a company as it did about excavation.

“Looking back, every step of that path was really preparation,” Quinn said.

Those experiences taught him how to manage crews and budgets, keep promises to customers and take pride in the finished product.

“Those are the same things that matter in homebuilding, just at a bigger scale,” he said.

Building Alongside His Father

The Hills View Homes story is also a family story.  Marty started a small construction company in Rapid City in 2000, and Tanner had a front-row seat as his father built the business. What stuck with him wasn’t simply how his father built houses. It was how he treated people.

“Watching my dad, Marty, build his company from a small Rapid City construction outfit taught me what it actually takes to build something that lasts, not just the technical side of construction, but the relationships, the reputation, and the discipline to keep showing up for people even when it’s hard,” Quinn said.

The principles went back to the family’s agricultural roots: Work hard. Keep your word. Take care of people.

“He built with integrity long before it was a brand value on a website; it was just how he did business,” Quinn said.

There wasn’t one defining moment when Quinn decided homebuilding would become his career. Instead, the road kept leading him back to the same place. He wanted to build something with his father that could carry their family’s name into another generation. Hills View Homes became that opportunity.

“Getting to build it with him, rather than just for him, has been one of the most meaningful parts of this whole journey,” Quinn said.

Making Homeownership Attainable

As Hills View Homes has grown, one mission has become increasingly important to Quinn: creating a realistic path to homeownership for the people who make the Black Hills work.

“This one’s personal because I’ve seen both sides of it, I know what it’s like to work hard with your hands and wonder if homeownership is actually attainable, and I also now sit on the side of the table where I can do something about that gap,” Quinn said.

Growth throughout the Black Hills has brought opportunity, but Quinn said home prices have also increased faster than many working families’ paychecks.

“When I see a young family, a tradesperson, a nurse, a teacher, the people who actually make this community run, get priced out of owning a home here, that doesn’t sit right with me,” he said.

Quinn also rejects the idea that “affordable” housing means the same thing for everyone. A first-time buyer has different needs than a growing family. An empty-nester looking to downsize has different needs than someone hoping to build a home that can eventually be passed down through generations. Hills View Homes intentionally tries to serve people at different stages of that journey.

“The mission isn’t really about one price point, it’s about solving the right problem for the person in front of us, wherever they are in life,” Quinn said.

Affordable Doesn’t Have to Mean Cheap

Quinn said one misconception surrounding attainable housing particularly bothers him — the assumption that lowering a home’s price means lowering its quality.

“Affordability comes from being smart about how we build, not what we build with,” he said.

Hills View Homes works to control costs through efficient floor plans, purchasing power, relationships with suppliers and trade partners, disciplined land acquisition and development partnerships designed to better control its lot pipeline. The more of the process the company can manage, Quinn said, the better chance it has of absorbing rising costs without simply passing all of them to the buyer.

“Every homeowner who buys a Hills View home should feel like they got a quality, well-built home, not a discount version of one,” Quinn said.

More Than 100 Homes and Something Bigger

That approach has helped fuel significant growth. Hills View Homes built well over 100 units in 2025 alone, according to Quinn, with developments now stretching across Rapid City, Box Elder, Spearfish and other parts of the Black Hills. Quinn describes the growth as humbling. But the number isn’t what he remembers when he drives through one of the company’s developments.

“The growth has been humbling, honestly,” Quinn said. “But when I look at what actually makes me proud, it’s not the unit count, it’s driving through a neighborhood we built and seeing kids playing in yards, seeing families who never thought they’d own a home standing on their own front porch.”

For Quinn, that’s when a construction project becomes something much more personal.

“That’s the real product,” he said. “Houses are just the vehicle for something bigger: community, stability, and roots.”

A Regional Problem Requires Regional Solutions

Despite Hills View Homes’ growth, Quinn doesn’t believe any single builder can solve the Black Hills’ housing affordability challenge. From his side of the industry, the price buyers ultimately see is influenced by numerous factors before construction of the home itself even begins. Land costs, labor availability, materials, financing rates and municipal processes can all compound.

“Very few people outside the industry see how much of a home’s price is baked in before a single stud goes up,” Quinn said.

He believes addressing those challenges requires greater collaboration among builders, developers, municipalities and lenders. 

That includes finding ways to unlock land more efficiently, streamline permitting and infrastructure timelines, and encourage greater diversity in the types of homes being built.

“This isn’t a problem any one builder solves alone,” Quinn said. “It takes the whole region deciding that attainable homeownership matters as much as growth itself.”

Building for the Next 30 Years

Growth has also changed the way Quinn views his responsibility. Hills View Homes has reached a size where he can no longer personally touch every decision. That has made building a values-based company culture even more important. Whether the decision is being made by a superintendent on a job site, someone in sales or a member of the leadership team, Quinn wants the same principles guiding it.

“That’s the only way growth doesn’t dilute who we are,” he said.

And the timeline he thinks about isn’t next quarter or next year.

It’s decades.

Quinn wants someone to drive through a Hills View Homes neighborhood 10, 20 or 30 years from now and find neighbors who still know each other, homes that have aged well and families who remain proud of where they live.

“If we’re doing our job right, these neighborhoods should feel timeless, not like a phase of growth that came and went,” Quinn said.

Building Life’s Greatest View

That long-term vision is captured in Hills View Homes’ motto: “Building Life’s Greatest View.” At first, Quinn said, it was a nod to the Black Hills and the physical views surrounding the company’s homes. Over time, it became something deeper.

“It’s not really about the view out the window, it’s about the view of your kids growing up in a home you own, the stability that gives them, and the generational wealth that starts the day a family closes on their first house instead of renewing another year of rent,” Quinn said.

The company’s impact also extends to the people building those homes.

Quinn said Hills View Homes works with nearly 200 subcontractors, banks, lenders and other partners. Behind those businesses are farmers, electricians, plumbers, concrete crews and thousands of family members whose livelihoods are connected to the work. So when Quinn thinks about the future, he’s not chasing a particular number of homes. He’s chasing generational impact.

“Building something my dad and I can be proud of, that our family can carry forward, and that leaves the Black Hills better and more attainable than we found it,” Quinn said.

Years from now, he hopes Hills View Homes is remembered for more than houses.

He hopes people remember a company that helped working families establish a foothold in the Black Hills, created neighborhoods with integrity and built a family name people could trust.

Not just during one period of rapid growth.

But for generations.