Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties

Hurley council seeks grant to re-open grocery store

By RALPH ANSAMI

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Hurley — The Hurley City Council agreed Tuesday to seek a grant that would assist in re-opening the former Super One grocery store off Tenth Avenue.

Kendall Building, of Menominee, the developer of the project, would lease the building to Silver Lining, of Houghton.

The project developers plan on investing about $2.5 million in the store project, with a June 1 completion date specified in the development agreement.

The city of Hurley will apply for a $250,000 Community Development Investment Grant through the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.

Mayor Joe Pinardi told the city council Tuesday that Kelly Klein, of the Iron County Development Zone, and Will Andresen, of the University of Wisconsin-Extension office, would prepare the grant application for the city.

Pinardi noted a different vendor showed previous interest in seeking to open the store.

The agreement says the Upper Peninsula developer has invested $325,000 to purchase the real estate and will invest another $520,224 in construction renovations.

In other business Tuesday, the city council agreed the proposed purchaser of the former Wishbones parcel on Silver Street should buy it from the county, with no city involvement.

The Wishbones restaurant burned and William Murray, of Chicago, plans on purchasing the parcel and locating a restaurant there.

In a letter to the mayor, Murray said he would remove the debris and fire-damaged parts of the building from the site.

The building burned on Dec. 12, 2013.

This summer, Iron County received clear title to the parcel. The county board considered turning over the parcel, formerly owned by Charles Moncher, to the city.

City council member Rob Lanctoe said he didn’t want the building to come back to the city should the plans be scrapped, however. Lanctoe suggested the county sell the parcel to Murray, who would likely buy it at a county auction sale.