Sept. 4, 2025
A new entertainment district and plans for a sports complex are starting to take shape in Rapid City.
Libertyland USA first was announced in late 2023 as a destination mixed-use development that would include a resort and theme park centered around a living-history attraction.
The plan was to locate on about 300 acres on the northeast side of Rapid City on property largely owned by the Lien family, owners of Pete Lien & Sons, a fourth-generation family business in the mining, mineral processing and ready-mix concrete industry.
The concept has been scaled down some and honed in that time, now focusing on commercial development for about 50 acres owned by the Liens.
“Everyone wants this to be a year-round development, so anything I can do to increase the seasonality of the project, I wanted to do,” said Darren Sloniger, managing director of Libertyland USA LLC, the master developer, who is leading the project alongside executives from Storyland Studios.
“We needed to take this from Disney World down to Disney Village and make it something that’s financeable and year-round and attract tourists and local residents.”
Sloniger previously was president of Marquette Cos., a national developer with master-planned, mixed-use and high-rise projects across the country.
Libertyland USA is being designed by Storyland Studios, a team with experience that includes work at The Walt Disney Co., Walt Disney Imagineering, Pixar Animation Studios, Universal Studios and Legoland.
“All of the design detail will be that Americana (theme), driven by Black Hills architecture and design,” Sloniger said.
Within the development, individual businesses will own a proposed hotel, attractions, restaurants and other venues.
“I would describe it as being kind of like walking onto an island. When you walk onto it, you feel like you’re walking into someplace different,” Sloniger said. “It will be anchored to the east with a boutique hotel that will have entertainment-driven retail in the base, and then it will be anchored to the west by some larger 30,000-to-40,000-square-foot users, attractions.”
Mixed in will be a village-like setting of food and beverage, he said.
The proposed three-story, 160-room hotel will be developed by a partner to be determined. The vision is to be entertainment-driven on the first floor with attractions, including some sort of immersive theater and a family fun center, Sloniger said.
“The only outdoor attractions I’m contemplating are a 150-foot high Ferris wheel and a carousel that will be outdoors, and then go-karts and putt-putt golf for summer,” he said.
The project recently was approved for tax increment financing from the city of Rapid City.
“We definitely want to create the ‘wow’ factor here, and that’s what the TIF does,” Sloniger said. “The TIF allows us to take a solid, good project and make it great.”
Rapid City reported almost 4 million tourists last year. Libertyland is designed to offer a reason to extend a stay as travelers visit Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills area, he said.
“This is a very centrally located spot,” Sloniger said. “It’s right off I-90 in the middle of everywhere you want to go. Now there’s a place you can stay … and have this cool entertainment district that kids will love, and you can make a vacation out of it and spend money in Rapid City. The whole point is when you’re taking your family, it’s a very patriotic type of vacation.”
The goal is to break ground in the next six months.
“We’ve got to spend a significant amount of money in mass grading, infrastructure, bringing sewer and water on the spot, creating pads for all the sites, so we need to know we have enough of a critical mass to be able to proceed,” Sloniger said. “We have enough interested parties right now that the priority is to get agreements in place.”
There’s also about 130 acres remaining designed for housing, likely single-family although multifamily could be added, Sloniger said.
“That residential development will be part of the master plan called Resort Village and will have walking trails throughout the entire community. It will have a community center with a pool and pickleball courts and all that.”
The idea would be to work with multiple builders, he said.
The hope is to find synergy for the overall development with a planned Rapid City sports complex to the east on 23 acres donated by the Lien family near Fleet Farm.
Tax increment financing would fund the infrastructure needed at the site while hotels have enacted a second BID, or business improvement district, to help with ongoing operational costs.
The process started in April 2023 with a study of what Rapid City had the opportunity to capture as a market.
“Then we met with the Libertyland people … and (they said) these two things could co-exist. They could work together,” said Domico Rodriguez, executive director of the Rapid City Sports Commission.
“The synergy there is great. We looked at a couple other facilities that are sports complexes across the street from entertainment districts and did some additional studies, and that’s how we got to this point. … We’re at a really good spot and closer to development than I would have ever thought.”
The hope is for a groundbreaking next spring. The concept calls for one anchor building built by the city that would include at a minimum indoor basketball courts and indoor turf soccer fields.
“We’re going to have community forums where we figure out what needs the community has, and the final conceptual piece will come to fruition later this year,” Rodriguez said. “We just know those two things are in it, and the rest of it is still clay to be molded.”
There’s nothing nearby similar to it, he added. The hope is to host tournaments on weekends and promote community use during the week.
“We’re a tourism hub, so it all ties together,” he said. “All the things working together will make Rapid City a better place for locals and visitors alike.”
