Sequitor Edge Data Center, Rapid City, South Dakota

Sequitor Edge, a Nebraska company, plans a small data center of 2 megawatts, expandable to 10, in the Black Hills Industrial Center on the south side of Rapid City, Pennington County, South Dakota. The city is now rewriting the rules it would be built under: on September 10, 2026 the Rapid City Planning Commission put off a new data center ordinance until November 5.

Sequitor Edge, based in Bennington, Nebraska, announced the project on February 11, 2026: a 30,000-square-foot building on 10 acres south of Old Folsom Road and east of Highway 79, just down the road from the Rapid City Landfill. The company's Victoria Blatchford told the Rapid City Journal it would cost about $52 million and take 14 months to build once construction starts. Blatchford said it is a colocation center for local businesses such as banks, health care providers and government agencies, with one data hall of about 240 cabinets at first and up to five halls later.

Cooling is a closed loop filled once with about 19,000 to 20,000 gallons of water, and power comes from Black Hills Energy. The company expects three to five full-time jobs averaging around $100,000.

Because the land is already zoned industrial, the project needs only a building permit, approved by city staff with no vote by the Planning Commission or City Council, Community Development Director Vicki Fisher said. At a July 29 committee meeting a resident asked the city to require a conditional use permit for large data centers, calling it "a mandatory legal mechanism designed to give the citizens of Rapid City notice, public hearings, and the right to evaluate severe impacts on our grid and water resources."

City Council President Rod Pettigrew said in February he is not "pro" data center and hopes the city gives no tax breaks, while Councilwoman Lindsey Seachris called the project "a win all the way around." Lisa Tiger of Dakota Rural Action said the group is "not anti-data center" but wants local control and transparency, and welcomed the closed-loop cooling.

Mayor Jason Salamun proposed in April that large data centers need a conditional use permit, with public hearings and studies of water and electricity. The draft ordinance would ban hyperscale data centers of 50 megawatts or more, and would allow micro data centers of up to 10 megawatts and 4,000 gallons of water a day if they are at least 500 feet from residential zoning; larger centers would need a conditional use permit, evaporative cooling would be banned, a sound study would be required, and the electric utility would have to give a letter of approval.

Fisher said after the September meeting that some residents feel the city has not gone far enough, and that "you know you've written a good ordinance when nobody's completely happy with it." Construction had not started as of July, when KOTA reported it was not expected until late 2026. The ordinance goes back to the Planning Commission on November 5 after an open house and a working session with the City Council, then to the Legal and Finance Committee and the full Rapid City Council for a final vote.