Jeff Erickson takes notes during a state Banking Commission meeting in Sioux Falls on Dec. 22, 2025. Erickson is the chairman of the state Board of Economic Development and also a member of the corporate board of CJ Schwan’s, which has benefited from state aid approvals totaling $69 million during the past four years. (Photo by Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)

The chairman of a state economic development board not only sits on the corporate board for a company benefiting from millions in state aid but also has connections to the company’s landlord.

As reported Friday by South Dakota Searchlight, Jeff Erickson is the chairman of the South Dakota Board of Economic Development and a member of the CJ Schwan’s corporate board. While he’s held those positions, CJ Schwan’s has benefited from a total of $69 million in state grants, loans and tax rebates pledged or paid during the past four years. The money is helping CJ Schwan’s build a 650-employee, $550 million food production plant in northern Sioux Falls.

Erickson abstained from the state board’s discussions and votes on aid for CJ Schwan’s, and he told Searchlight for last week’s story that he has “not financially benefited in any way” from the project.

After the publication of Friday’s story, Searchlight received a tip that a company connected to Erickson owns the downtown Sioux Falls office building where CJ Schwan’s is housing some of its employees while the northern Sioux Falls plant is under construction.

Company that hired state’s former head of economic development benefits from $69 million in aid

Searchlight confirmed in public records that the office building at 200 E. 10th St. is owned by Riverview Holdings, and that Erickson was listed as the original manager of Riverview Holdings when it was incorporated in 2001. In a 2017 financial interest statement filed with state government — the most recent one available from the Secretary of State’s Office — Erickson described himself as a member of the corporation.

Searchlight asked Erickson how to reconcile his earlier statement about not financially benefiting from the CJ Schwan’s project with his ties to a corporation owning the building where CJ Schwan’s is housing employees.

“I recused and abstained as required by law. I had no control or influence over CJ’s source of a home for its Sioux Falls headquarters,” Erickson said in an emailed statement.

Erickson’s 2017 financial interest statement also listed CJ Schwan’s as one of numerous businesses supplying him, his spouse or his children with more than 10% control or more than $2,000 of annual family income.

Searchlight has asked the Secretary of State’s Office why it does not have a more current financial interest statement from Erickson, but the office has not responded. State law says all appointees of the governor subject to state Senate confirmation must file a statement of financial interest before their confirmation. Board of Economic Development members serve four year-terms, and Erickson was reappointed and confirmed by the Senate this year.

State Rep. Erik Muckey, D-Sioux Falls, is one of four nonvoting legislative members of the state Board of Economic Development, serving alongside 13 citizen appointees, including Erickson. After Searchlight informed Muckey of Erickson’s ties to the building housing CJ Schwan’s offices, Muckey called for better “public disclosures of private benefit.”

“We cannot make informed decisions with public funds if it is clouded by undisclosed conflicts after decisions are made,” Muckey said Monday in a statement. “Legislative reform is necessary now.”

South Dakota Searchlight also reported Friday that CJ Schwan’s employs Steve Westra, who led the Governor’s Office of Economic Development when that office first pledged assistance for the CJ Schwan’s project in 2021. Westra left state government in May 2023, and his LinkedIn page says he began working as a vice president for CJ Schwan’s in May 2024.

One year is the legally required waiting period for former state employees to benefit from a contract they were involved with, or to enter into a new contract with the state.

Sen. Tim Reed, R-Brookings, another nonvoting legislative member of the state Board of Economic Development, said in Friday’s story that “the optics” of Westra’s transition “are absolutely terrible.” Reed told Searchlight on Monday that he plans to introduce legislation this winter that would increase the mandatory waiting period to two years.

State aid approved to benefit CJ Schwan’s has included about $38.7 million in grants to the Sioux Falls Development Foundation. The grants reimbursed the foundation for land it transferred to CJ Schwan’s, for costs including the construction of an on-site wastewater treatment facility, and for gas-line infrastructure that will benefit CJ Schwan’s and the rest of the industrial park where the project is located.

CJ Schwan’s has also been approved for up to $15 million in rebates of sales taxes paid on construction and equipment, and for a $15 million low-interest loan to help with construction costs.

CJ Schwan’s is part of CJ Group, which is publicly traded in South Korea and disclosed revenues of about $30 billion last year. The CJ Schwan’s plant in Sioux Falls will include production lines for the bibigo brand of steamed dumplings and egg rolls marketed to the food-service industry, the company said last year, plus a warehouse, distribution center and office space.