Never-ending negotiations continue in Weyauwega
By James Card
In September 2018, KD’s IGA – the city’s only grocery store – was to be sold to new owners and reopened a month later.
It has been vacant ever since as the purchase of the store was bogged down in negotiations.
In 2019, an agreement was close to being struck and even the power and water were turned back on.
But that deal fell through.
“We’re still working on it. In fact I had a call with our representatives at our attorney’s office last week Wednesday [Feb. 9] and he said he was going to submit another request for whatever they wanted – some kind of verbiage in the offer that they wanted changed and according to him – and we’ve heard this a 100 times before –that should be it,” said Lance Bauer.
The Bauer family owns a Supervalu grocery store in the small town of Edgar in Marathon County.
The Bauers want a community grocery store and the plan is for Lance Bauer to manage the Weyauwega store and his father would own the building in a family partnership.
Their intention was to put a new face on the building, do some remodeling, expand the entryway and widen the aisles.
However, Bauer points out that as the building has been sitting vacant for so long without heat and power, the reopening will take much longer.
He estimates at least a year of work from the time they finally close to the time it could be reopened.
The building is 10,400 square feet and was built in the 1970s.
In 2018, Weyauwega Common Council voted unanimously to provide $40,000 in renovation costs and to make improvements to the parking lot and the loading dock.
Bauer said the city of Weyauwega has been a solid partner in this drawn-out ordeal.
“The city has been nothing but great to us. They have been in our corner from day one,” said Bauer.
“We’re still in the midst of waiting to hear back from BMO Harris Bank who is the rightful owner of the building. It’s been going on six years now trying to purchase it from them. They haven’t foreclosed on it,” said Bauer.
The grocery store was previously operated by Kenny Dearth, who ran it for 13 years as KD’s IGA. His parents ran the store before he purchased it from them.
“We have a lot of money and time and manpower invested in this thing and we remain hopeful we can eventually get it open. We’re not giving up,” said Bauer.