Staff writer
As a proposal for a Family Dollar store in Marion languishes at the national chain’s corporate office, a second corporation has made initial inquiries into opening a replacement for Duckwall.
“We have a corporation looking out at the industrial park that is looking to open up a retail facility that would be a suitable replacement for the Duckwall store,” Marion City Administrator Doug Kjellin said Monday.
Kjellin said he did not know what corporation it is, as standard practice for developers is to wait until a finalized agreement before revealing their client. The situation with Family Dollar was an exception.
“This developer is doing it right,” Kjellin said.
“They’re not nearly as far along as the Family Dollar store, but we’ve had a contact,” Marion Economic Development, Inc. President and City Council Member Todd Heitschmidt said. “We’re open to anybody who wants to put a store in.”
A Family Dollar outlet has been in the works since April, announced at a Marion Chamber of Commerce meeting. The Marion store, along with proposed outlets for five other Kansas locations, is awaiting action by the corporation’s real estate committee, Kjellin said.
“The developer is sitting there like we are — he put a package before them and they said not now,” Kjellin said.
“I know they had started in some smaller communities, and they wanted to see how those stores performed to see if they want to get into any more markets similar to ours,” Heitschmidt said.
Family Dollar opened a store in Greensburg in January. That store was developed by Landmark Commercial Real Estate of Wichita, the same company that put together the Marion proposal.
“We’re not going to put all our eggs in one basket,” Kjellin said. “We’re still out there digging and scratching. We know it’s vital to the community.”