Marathon negotiates for a retail center

Kurtz predicts 400 Block stores will open in October

Village of Marathon City administrator Andy Kurtz on Monday said village officials are within 60 days of completing negotiations with a private developer to build and operate a 24,500 square foot retail building on the 400 Block of Main Street.

The developer would operate three shops in the building-- a grocery store, a hardware store and a pharmacy-receiving merchandise from national warehouse companies. If negotiations are successful, Kurtz said he expects construction on the retail space to start in the spring with a store grand-opening slated for late September or October.

The Record-Review has learned the name of the developer through a Wisconsin Open Records Law request but is refraining from publishing his name at the request of the village and the developer.

Kurtz said negotiations over the next two months will focus on a low-interest loan provided to the developer financed as a Tax Incremental District No. 2 expense. The loan is especially needed, said Kurtz, to help finance expensive refrigeration equipment in the grocery store.

Kurtz said the developer has retail experience but has never personally attempted a project like the one proposed in Marathon City.

He said, however, that there was nothing unusual about the planned project. “This sort of thing is done all of the time,” he said.

Kurtz said he is “very comfortable” that the developer will be able to accomplish the retail project.

In the project, the brick-faced building will be located on the east side of the 400 Block and fronted with a parking lot accessible from Main Street (STH 107). Loading docks will be located in back of the three stores. The grocery store will offer “a wide variety of products,” including produce, meat, dairy, frozen foods and deli.

Kurtz said it has taken the village “a long time to get to this point” as it tries to replace George’s Marathon Foods on Main Street. An initial deal with Gordy’s Market “imploded,” said Kurtz, and the village has spent three and a half years talking with local grocers and grocery store warehouses to find a partner to build and operate a grocery store in Marathon City.

Kurtz said development of the retail center is an important piece of Marathon’s overall growth strategy. He said having a pharmacy in the retail center would help the village’s aging population. The village lost its drug store, Stieber Drugs, decades ago.

The administrator said the retail project represented “a very good opportunity” for the village.

“The residents will be very happy,” he predicted.