With just over 850 residents, Howard is reimagining what it means to be rural with Maroney Commons. The Commons, built with green building techniques, is a mixed-use complex with a hotel, a conference center, a restaurant, and offices that will help rural residents learn about green jobs and technology.
The story behind Maroney Commons began over a decade ago, when Howard High School students launched a successful “buy local” campaign to increase sales tax revenue in Miner County. The effort generated nearly $16 million in additional gross sales for Howard, the county seat, in its first year and inspired Miner County’s residents to engage in a community visioning process. The visioning process, combined with the growth of the wind energy industry in Miner County, led to the development of the Maroney Commons.
Although the town could have built the new facility on 40 acres of donated land outside of town, Howard residents instead chose to reinvest in their downtown by demolishing—and salvaging materials from—dilapidated buildings on Main Street, putting Maroney Commons at the center of the community. Intensive workshops gathered citizens’ input throughout the design process.
With the community’s input, Maroney Commons contains a restaurant, a community kitchen, a fitness center, retail space, a hotel, and meeting space. This multi-use community facility will provide educational, social, and business opportunities for not just Miner County residents, but rural communities all across the region. The facility is expected to create 13 fulltime jobs and bring the local economy more than $6 million per year. Profits will likely allow the building to be self-sustaining within three years.
“This is wonderful to have reused the old materials and built something that looks to the future. You have to believe it can be done—and this building will help people do that.”– Lulu Anderson, Maroney Commons volunteer
Maroney Commons has raised the bar—both through its innovative design and construction and its educational opportunities for rural residents. One of the first LEED Platinum-certified buildings in South Dakota, the building has solar panels, a wind turbine, geothermal heating and cooling, porous outdoor pavement, rainwater capture and storage, and native landscaping. Materials gathered from demolished Main Street buildings were recycled and reused during construction; the wood floor from an old gymnasium is now the floor of the restaurant, and Maroney Commons’ siding came from an old American Legion hall. Real-time, touch-screen displays of the wind and solar energy produced at the building help visitors understand these technologies.
The conference center, which holds up to 300 people, was designed for training in green energy jobs and rural health care. The facility also hosts design:South Dakota, a team of architects and community development experts who travel statewide helping residents reimagine their rural communities through design workshops. Eighty percent of South Dakota’s population lives within 100 miles of Howard, making the center accessible to many small-town residents.
Maroney Commons serves as a model for other rural towns looking to create vibrant community places that strengthen Main Streets, help residents learn new skills to compete in the 21st-century economy, and demonstrate environmentally responsible, energy efficient design. Its message that “Rural is a good investment!” can inspire other towns around the nation.
The project was spearheaded by Miner County Development Corporation and the Rural Learning Center, in partnership with City of Howard, Miner County, U.S. Department of Agriculture, American Institute of Architects South Dakota, and Citi Foundation.
Watch a video on their efforts below, or check out a photo diary of the building’s grand opening.
For more information you can visit the Maroney Commons website or contact Kathy Callies, Vice President for Advancement at the Rural Learning Center at kathy.callies@rurallearningcenter.org or (605) 772-5153.
