Most people who build a home in a new place discover, too late, that they have become the general contractor of a project they did not intend to run. They are managing architects, lenders, permit clerks, subcontractors, decorators — each of whom reports to no one but them. The work falls to the client by default.
We offer a different arrangement. One retained partner handles every step from the first site visit to the day you move in. You describe what you want. We build it. Your involvement is as active or as arms-length as you prefer.
The service is comprehensive by design: land acquisition, architectural plans and construction drawings, construction financing, permit procurement, daily on-site management of the build, and interior decoration through to a fully furnished home. Nothing is handed off to the client to manage. Nothing falls through the gap between one professional and the next.
The work is done in the Northern Black Hills of South Dakota — specifically the Spearfish area, where we know the land, the county, the subcontractors, and the market. We built 2111 Vantage Circle from plans drawn by the late Laguna Beach architect Mark Singer, and we know what it takes to execute at that level in this place.
Everything that follows depends on what the land will allow. Views, aspect, slope, access, utilities, county zoning — these are not variables to be resolved after purchase. We help you find the right parcel before you commit to it.
We know the Northern Black Hills land market: what is available, what is priced correctly, where the views are, and where the complications are. We handle site selection criteria, introductions to sellers and brokers, due diligence, negotiation, and purchase. If you arrive with no land at all, that is where we start.
Architecture in the Black Hills is not a generic exercise. The terrain, the light, the climate, and the views are specific — and they reward plans drawn to them rather than imposed on them.
We work with architects to translate your brief into a full set of construction documents: perspectives, elevations, and floor plans. We manage the design process on your behalf, from the first conversation about how you live to the completed drawing set delivered to the permit office. The result is a building that belongs to its site.
2111 Vantage Circle — designed from plans by the late Mark Singer and completed in 2023 — is the proof of what is achievable here.
Construction financing is its own discipline, distinct from the permanent mortgage most buyers are familiar with. The draw schedule, the inspection requirements, the conversion to permanent financing at close of construction — these are not complicated, but they require someone who knows the sequence.
We guide you from pre-approval through the full construction draw period and into permanent financing at completion. We have relationships with lenders familiar with the Northern Black Hills market and with construction projects of this scale. You are not navigating this alone.
Permit procurement in Lawrence County is manageable — but it requires knowing who to call, what to submit, and how long each step takes. Delays at the permit office become delays on the job site.
We handle every application: building permits, septic, well, driveway access, utility connections. We file, we track, we follow up. The client never touches a form.
The difference between a well-built house and a problem house is almost always supervision. Not occasional visits. Not weekly check-ins by phone. Daily presence on site, from first pour to final walk-through.
We manage subcontractor selection, scheduling, quality control, and budget tracking. Problems that emerge on Tuesday are resolved by Wednesday, not reported to the client and left to compound. You receive regular photo and video updates; we are present so you do not have to be.
Construction completion is not move-in ready. Furniture, art, window treatments, appliances, lighting, linens — the appointments that make a house a home are a project in their own right.
We take that project off your hands as well. We work with you on a decoration brief and then execute it: sourcing, procurement, installation, and arrangement. When you arrive, everything is in place. The experience is not a construction site handoff. It is a door opening onto a finished life.
2111 Vantage Circle — with its commissioned dining table, its Albert De l’amour metal print, its Corita Kent serigraphs, its Hopi carvings, and its Nambé collection — is what that looks like in practice.
South Dakota levies no state income tax, no capital gains tax, no estate tax, and no inheritance tax. The state abolished the rule against perpetuities in 1983, establishing itself as the country's original dynasty-trust jurisdiction; subsequent legislation has extended that position with some of the most durable trust-privacy provisions in force anywhere in the United States.
The consequence, for families of substantial means, is that South Dakota has become the working domicile for a disproportionate share of American family capital. A residence built here places you inside that jurisdiction as of closing.
The Northern Black Hills compounds this. Spearfish is a small city of roughly fifteen thousand, served by Monument Health — the first health system in South Dakota to enter the Mayo Clinic Care Network — and by Black Hills Airport, which makes private travel a matter of minutes rather than hours. Mount Rushmore, Sturgis, Spearfish Canyon, and hundreds of miles of trail are at the door. The pressures characteristic of the larger American cities have not arrived here, and those who move here tend to do so deliberately.
This section describes the legal and tax framework of the State of South Dakota. It is not offered as advice and is not a substitute for counsel from qualified trust, tax, and estate professionals engaged by you.
We work with a small number of clients at any given time. If you are considering a project in the Northern Black Hills, we welcome the introduction. Please complete the form below; we will respond personally, usually within an hour.