Once-abandoned mansion project inches forward as threat of demolition looms

Property owner vows to start project over if Sioux Falls destroys 8,000-square-foot house that towers over Prairie Hills neighborhood

Vitaliy Strizheus has gone back and forth with the city of Sioux Falls over a construction project that’s been starting and stopping since 2013.

The city of Sioux Falls is facing a dilemma: Tear down a nearly-finished mansion in an upscale neighborhood where homeowners have watched construction start and stop for a decade, or give the aspiring mansion owner yet more time to get the Prairie Hills fortress finished.

City Hall last month won a years-long legal battle against Vitaliy Strizheus and his property at 6800 S. Westfield Trail that started with code violations and seemingly ended with a notice-to-demolish order being upheld by the South Dakota Supreme Court last month.

But while the city has the right to raze the partially-completed, 8,000-square-foot house — 11,000 square feet if the basement gets finished — the code infractions and the lack of progress at the southern Sioux Falls construction project appear to have been resolved. At least in reality.

And with Strizheus, who can’t be forced to sell the three separate lots he stretched his project over, vowing to start the project over from the beginning should the city take down what he’s already dumped more than $4 million into, neighbors are caught in the middle.

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