Every August, the town of Sturgis, South Dakota, fills with the sound of loud engines and crowds of leather jackets. While the Sturgis Rally embodies much of the atmosphere surrounding it, there is a new energy entering the town that has started building the community in a unique way. The complete transformation of a 1950s hospital building into a business hub and a place to gather has revamped the town. 

 The Massa Berry Building in Sturgis, was named after Dr. Lawrence Massa, who was an osteopathic doctor. This building was built to serve the community and take care of the people’s needs, and that mission still stands true today.

John Strand and his wife, Erica Spurrier, who now own and run several businesses inside the Massa Berry Building, never imagined that they would one day become entrepreneurs. 

“Our original goal and dream in life was that Erica was going to be an engineer, and I was going to be a university professor — as you can see, none of that happened,” Strand said.

Spurrier grew up in Casper, Wyoming with plans to attend the University of Wyoming and study architectural engineering. Strand grew up right down the street from the Massa Berry Building in Sturgis. He also attended the University of Wyoming and studied political science as well as international studies. This is where their paths crossed and their relationship took root.

While their original plans may not have worked in their favor, the success that followed them made it all worthwhile. Their endeavors into the world of business started with the creation of  Black Hills Information Security (BHIS) in 2008-Cybersecurity company that focuses on penetration testing, red teaming and incident response. 

“I got into some hacking in college,” Strand said. 

The tech world was still in its infancy during their college years. Therefore, this was new territory. After the formation of BHIS, the company found it difficult to gather its team together for conferences. As the business continued to grow, they needed a solution to bring everyone together. 

“We wanted to get our whole team together, but we couldn’t get tickets anymore,” Spurrier said.

Instead of giving up on the idea, they were inspired to create their own conference. BHIS found a perfect opportunity to unite its team while also bringing people from the community together to develop connections.

 “I didn’t believe anyone would come to South Dakota, but Erica was sure,” Strand said. “She was right.”

Their last conference saw over 800 people flying into South Dakota to attend. As well as a change in venues to accommodate the influx of people. The conference now takes place at the Deadwood Mountain Grand in Deadwood, South Dakota.

 “We had people hitchhiking to the venue because all rental cars were completely sold out,” Spurrier said.

The conference is called Wild West Hacking Fest, providing an event to bring together their team and educate others within the same field. While manning the conference, they would hand out t-shirts and merchandise.

“We were doing t-shirts, why not start a clothing company,” Strand said.

This led them to create ‘Spearphish General Store’ which offers t-shirts, comic books, pencils, stickers and even their own card game. Backdoors and Breaches was designed to teach players about hacking and defense, and was ranked #1 on Amazon’s educational games list two weeks after its release. 

“We have around 170,000 of those games circulating around– it’s got these attack cards that guide you through a cyberattack and defense cards that show how to counter it,” Strand said.

They give the game out to universities to educate students about hacking and defense.  Distributing to students gives them learning tools and new knowledge of the unknowns within cybersecurity. Aiming their product at young students is a sound way to introduce them early on.

Spearphish General Store is now operating out of the Massa Berry Building. Prior to this move and renovation, they had an office in both Spearfish and Rapid City, South Dakota. During their time in Rapid City, they were in the Incubation Center, which provides office space and support for STEM startups. 

“We got cheap rent and the opportunity to grow. The state of South Dakota covered our power bill, which was a huge help,” Strand said.

As space was getting filled, they needed more room to run their business. Sturgis was the perfect in-between. Strand and Spurrier were looking for the perfect building and when they found the Massa Berry Building, they were drawn its potential. 

“We didn’t need the whole space,” Strand said.

They had the opportunity to create something unique and set themselves apart from any other place. The Massa Berry Building contains unique and versatile inclusions. From a coffee shop to a climbing wall, the possibilities are endless. 

“The coffee shop was the plan from the beginning,” Spurrier said.

Located at the entrance of the building is Brew Berry Bistro. This spot offers more than just a regular coffee shop. Their versatile menu ranges from buttery pasties to fresh acaí bowls, serving meals for any time of the day. A tall fireplace stands in the middle, creating a warm and cozy atmosphere. They work with local farms and bakeries in the area to supply fresh and flavorful cuisine. 

“It’s harder in the winter, but most of our chicken is local, beef as well—our lettuce is all local,” Strand said. 

When surveying the space, they saw a room with 20-foot ceilings. A friend of theirs walked in and felt as if it was the perfect spot for a climbing wall addition. It was settled that this idea would overtake this room. A Kilter board is now installed in the room, which offers endless routes and challenges. It is open to the public for free on Friday nights. While planning for the rest of the space, the original concept was to convert it into a co-working space. 

“We looked at coworking ideas, but it just didn’t seem like it was something the community needed just yet. People were calling, but they were mostly looking for individual office spaces,” Spurrier said.

After listening to the needs of the community, they created several traditional office spaces while keeping some for co-working as well as adding a conference room. The building now offer small offices to rent for an affordable price, providing a working space for the people who need it. As the community became more aware of the space, they started receiving requests to host fitness classes. 

“Instantly, we had three people contacting us, wanting a space to run a class,” Spurrier said.

This space is free for instructors who want to run classes. This emphasizes the need for a space where people can go to do what they love. Yoga, Zumba and line dancing are only a few of the classes offered, with more to come in the future.

“The building kind of dictated what we put in here,” Spurrier said. “We weren’t going to use all the space, so we had to figure out what would work.”

Their vision reached beyond just creating all the different facilities. It was built on the fact that it was about creating a space for others to feel inspired in. 

“We wanted a place where we’d be excited to come to work—you hear about companies like Google and their cool facilities. We wanted that feeling too,” Strand said.

As a perk for the employees, they added free food and coffee. This created an incentive to go to work, but also be comfortable in the space they were working in.

“We want our employees to be happy to come to work, so we offer them food and coffee. It’s a place people want to be,” Strand said. 

 Their goal of serving the community fostered the idea of a drop-in daycare. 

“We’re working on it, and we’re hoping to make it part-time and drop-in,” Spurrier said. 

The daycare provides parents with a safe place for their children if errands need to be run, or if they want to get some work done in the coffee shop or take a fitness class on-site. The drop-in service can be used from neighboring towns as well, such as Deadwood, Spearfish and even Rapid City.

“We want it to be a relief for parents who need that flexibility,” Spurrier said. “In a place like this, it’s not about committing to five days a week; it’s about giving people options for when they need them, ” Spurrier said.

Spurrier’s focus on this is rooted in her own life as a parent. 

“When we had little kids, we would’ve loved to have had a place to drop them off for an hour while we went on a mountain bike ride or just got some time for ourselves,” Spurrier said.

The Massa Berry Building is fostering a space where everyone’s needs can be met, and everyone can benefit from the different amenities. It aims to be the perfect blend of community and convenience. 

“The daycare is meant to tie it all together,” Strand said.

What began as a plan to turn a building into a space for their company has blossomed into a growing community hub. As the Massa Berry Building evolves with time, their love for the area stays the same, and they plan to stay for the foreseeable future. 

“We usually don’t start things from the perspective of trying to sell it to make money. We do things because it’s doing cool stuff with cool people.” Strand said.

The approach of listening to what the people want and not what they thought was best has been a game-changer within their space. As well as showing that they were truly selfless in that journey.

“I just love it here, the people are great,” Strand said.

Strand and Spurrier plan to host events throughout the year that range from speed dating to Dungeons & Dragons sessions. Their focus is to bring people together and not just create a successful business, but also bring an energy that emphasizes connection and creativity. 

“You talk to a lot of people who are at our stage of life—where they’re winding down and starting to slow down,” Strand said. “We don’t have that luxury. We’re constantly thinking about the next thing.”

Strand and Spurrier are eager for the future – by transforming a hospital into an innovative community hub, a new purpose has been infused in the space, and it won’t stop anytime soon.

“I was born here, and God willing, I’ll die here,” Strand said.