Belle Fourche looks to build housing numbers as new company moves to city

BELLE FOURCHE, S.D. — A big company is looking to bring its business and headquarters to Belle Fourche.

Albany Farms, a California business that manufactures Ramen Noodles, will bring 900 jobs to the city.

Belle Fourche development officials saying that talks with the company revealed that the city’s location was a big attractor.

“We’re at agricultural community and they have an Ag based product they produce,” said Hollie Stalder, the Executive Director of Belle Fourche Economic Development. “We have a great transportation network here and the rail system was something that was very important to them.”

But a bigger question still looms.

Belle Fourche recently finished a housing study in January of this year. That was before, as Stalder points out, an influx of people and Albany Farms moved to the area.

Now a housing issue remains.

However, Stalder also says that there is a way out.

There’s currently over a dozen land development areas for developers to purchase from local land owners. That aligns with goals of alleviating a worker shortage that’s impacting many other towns and cities.

These are challenges that the Belle Fourche community will look to to think outside the box to fix.

“It might be nice incentives for employees,” Stalder said. “There’s lots of ways that you can do it, but we’ve got to get creative and help that to happen.”

The good news is, the company says they will complete the process in phases over the next few years, giving Belle Fourche time to prepare for the new community members.