Out of Space, School District Finds Construction Partner to Get Project to Finish Line

This article was originally published by Jodi Schwan of SiouxFalls.Business.

The day after Jeff McAreavey joined the Tri-Valley School District’s school board, the board voted to change the construction manager hired to build Tri-Valley High School.

A project envisioned for years and approved by voters was stalled, unable to get the numbers to work to start construction.

“We were in massive cost overruns,” McAreavey said. “And when Journey Construction, a division of Journey Group, came on board, they did a lot of efficiencies and got us back in check. We knew others who had worked with them, and we were told if there are problems, Journey Construction is upfront about it and brings solutions.”

The project began not a moment too soon for the fast-growing district, which has been using a building that has been expanded multiple times in its nearly 45-year history.

“The last expansion was in 2008, and it was to the point we couldn’t add on anymore, and it was time for something new,” McAreavey said. “We were down to using closets for copiers and kept having to move people around the building.”

Now, Tri-Valley is less than six months away from moving into its two-story, 130,000-square-foot high school, which will open with about 300 students but has room for about 500.

“You look at all the developments coming into our district, and we’re going to need the space,” McAreavey said. “This way, we’ll have several rooms available that aren’t being used, and we have a lot of room to grow, plus we have room to add onto the building if needed.”

For Journey Construction senior project manager John Reiser, overseeing this work is particularly personal.

“My kids go to Tri-Valley,” he said. “So it’s been a fun experience working with the board and the patrons to bring it to life. The existing school is well overdue for an upgrade and expansion to maximize their space.”

When Journey Construction took over the project, “within two months, we gave a new budget, we bid out all 55 bid packages, and we were already starting dirt work after they had sat nine months unable to start,” Reiser said.

“We started the main project work in spring 2023, and because of bringing us on late, we had to set an estimated opening date of Jan. 1, and we’re on track to meet that. So the move will be done over holiday break, and students will be able to start 2025 in their new school.”

Not only is the estimated $44 million project on track, “we were able to bring back some of their original additional scope,” Reiser said.

The new school includes modern features such as reading stairs, or stadium seating, allowing common, flexible space for studying or socializing.

There’s also a 500-seat performing arts center, “and the sound system is going to be amazing, so we’re excited to see what the kids do with it,” McAreavey said.

“Plus, the new seating in the performance gym will be nice, and we’ll get a digital scoreboard and bring it all up to date.”

The school serves students from Crooks, Colton, Lyons and northwest Sioux Falls, “so it becomes a hub or key gathering space when bringing school-age kids together,” Reiser said.

“We appreciate what this means in the community and just continued to innovate and better our practices to make it happen.”

That included a strategic approach to right-sizing bid packages, understanding the subcontractor market and utilizing technology such as clash detection modeling to ensure the building’s mechanical and electrical systems don’t interfere with each other.

“We know everyone is still very busy around Sioux Falls, so we made sure we were carefully planning and staying on top of the schedule,” Reiser said.

“And now, things are going really well.”

Throughout the project, Journey Construction regularly has communicated updates, offered tours and brought options for solutions if any issues arose, McAreavey said.

“When Journey Construction came on board, everyone actually felt comfortable again like we were going to get this done and have a good project, and that’s what’s happening,” he said. “We’re right where we need to be. The community is getting excited about it. We’ve had teachers in there taking tours, and they’re all saying it looks fabulous.”

Working together with Journey Construction has enabled the school district to arrive very close to the complete project that was envisioned originally.

“It’s never fun to cut stuff, and now a lot of what we had cut out, we ended up bringing back because of the cost savings we were able to achieve,” McAreavey said. “So it’s working out in the end.”

“We’re honored to be part of Tri-Valley’s history in building this new facility,” Reiser said. “It’s an incredible opportunity to contribute to a place that will inspire and support future generations.”

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