Dollar General coming to former Economart space

By Rich Glennie
Correspondent
After years of being a bare lot in downtown Glencoe, the former Mark’s Economart site at 11th Street and Greeley Avenue is looking at a new lease on life.
At Monday’s Glencoe City Council meeting, unanimous approval was given to a purchase agreement with Ratcliff Development, LLC, of Louisiana for $59,502.50, or $1.25 per square foot, for the 1.3-acre site. The site will be the future home of Dollar General, a national retail store.
The Economic Development Commission (EDC) of the Glencoe Area Chamber of Commerce reviewed the proposal and recommended the Council proceed with the purchase agreement.
“The overall feedback from the (EDC) committee was that this would be a good use of the property as well as an opportunity to bring additional retail shoppers to the downtown commercial corridor, which would be a benefit to other businesses,” wrote Assistant City Administrator Dan Ehrke in a memo to the City Council.
At the Council meeting, Ehrke said Silver Lake has a similar Dollar General store. He said the Ratcliff Development idea was presented to the city administration several weeks ago. A representative of the company was in the area looking for a site, Ehrke said, and spotted the city’s sign at the site indicating the property was ready for development.
Ehrke said the proposed Dollar General building will be 9,100 square feet in size, and the company is considering construction yet this year.
The city purchased the property years ago and borrowed about $90,000 from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). The funds were to demolish the badly deteriorating building and clear the property “to make it shovel ready,” Ehrke said. The total project demolition and cleanup cost was about $125,000.
For more about the new store, see the Feb. 7 print edition of The Chronicle.