Dollar Store targets Empire

By Jacob Wheeler

Sun editor

Photo: Midwest V, LLC, which works with Dollar General, seeks to acquire this lot on M-22 in Empire.

Update, July 18: The Village Council decided at its special meeting last night to institute a 6-month moratorium on zoning requests, site plans or applications along the M-22 corridor. Next, the Planning Commission will review the village’s zoning ordinance to see if updates need to be made to address the increased traffic and development that has occurred in the past 5 years.

The Empire Village Council will hold a special meeting on Wednesday, July 17, at 7 pm at the Empire Township Hall to consider a moratorium on processing any zoning permit, rezoning request, site plan review, or any other application made under the Village of Empire Zoning Ordinance of 2006 in the Commercial Residential district.

The reason is that Midwest V, LLC, a developer based in Spring Lake, Mich., approached a landowner on July 10 and made a purchase offer to acquire six acres in a mixed use, commercial-residential district of Empire, one block southeast of the M-22/M-72 intersection. The property in question sits across M-22 from the strip mall that houses C21 Sleeping Bear Realty, JoLynn’s Hair Affair, JoJo and Becky, and Rich’s Barber Shop.

The agent representing Midwest V, LLC is Peter Oleszczuk, who has family roots in Empire. Midwest V frequently leases its buildings to Dollar General, the small-box retailer which is spreading like wildfire throughout rural Michigan and nationwide. Dollar stores are often associated with low wages, cheap products, processed and prepackaged foods that undercut locally owned stores, and profits that leave the community.

Empire has been without a full-scale grocery store since Deering’s Market closed its doors in the spring of 2018. The boutique Blue Heron Mercantile, which opened this spring, and the E-Z Mart gas station, have filled some of the void. But Empire residents worry that a Dollar General in the village would undercut the ability to re-open a local grocery store in the future.

“If Dollar General came in, it would be the death knell for the possibility of a full-service grocery store in Empire, at least for the foreseeable future,” said Paul Skinner, owner of the Miser’s Hoard and president of the Empire Chamber of Commerce. “It would definitely impact the potential sale of the current grocery store building (Deering’s Market). A Dollar General is not the type of business we want to see here. We want a full-service grocery store. It would turn Empire into a fresh food desert.”

Typically, 9,100 square feet in size, dollar stores are now more numerous nationwide than McDonald’s fast-food restaurants. Dollar stores, which include Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and Family Dollar, often work with developers and realtors who are not permitted to disclose the parent company’s identity when courting land owners.

Waves of community opposition have also surfaced as dollar stores have expanded nationwide. As of July 2018, Dollar General operated 15,000 locations across the 48 contiguous United States.

Midwest V withdrew a purchase offer in Maple City on May 10 after Kasson Township zoning laws prevented the developer from merging three lots in a mixed-use commercial district to accommodate its store, parking spaces, wastewater, and easement. Citizen opposition in Maple City was nearly unanimous.

“I see Dollar General’s business as moving into places where there are a couple local grocery stores and they put them out of business,” said Scott Mills, who rallied citizens to oppose the development. Mills lives next to the land courted by Midwest V. “Dollar General doesn’t sell fresh foods. This would threaten our local stores and pose an existential threat to Gabe’s (the local market). Local businesses add value by keeping dollars in our community.”

This spring, a dollar store suitor also tried to acquire land to open a location in nearby Lake Ann.

That prompted Almira Township to institute a 60-day moratorium in mid-April on any commercial development to give the Planning Commission the opportunity to review its zoning ordinance and potentially limit the size of commercial development in the municipality, which includes Lake Ann. (The moratorium ended in mid-June.)

“We don’t want to discourage growth in the township, but we want it to be growth the township wants, as represented by our constituents,” said board member Matt Therrien, who also owns Lake Ann Brewing Company. Therrien emphasized that local zoning is what decides what development is and is not allowed, not community activism.

Therrien was contacted earlier in the spring by a downstate realtor with a Lansing-area phone number who has a PO Box in Frankfort and is a member of the Benzie County Chamber of Commerce. She inquired about a commercially-zoned piece of land he owns about half a mile from downtown. Therrien received a high purchase offer for the land but was wary of selling to an anonymous corporation that refused to disclose its identity.

“Without knowing who I’m selling to, I’d have to deem it a good fit for my town before I’d get on board,” Therrien told the Glen ArborSun. “It would otherwise reflect poorly on me, and my beer might not taste as good as before, if you know what I’m saying.”

A 2015 bid to acquire land and open a dollar store in a residentially-zoned district on M-22 north of Empire failed when residents revolted, 70 residents signed a petition in opposition, and the village council voted unanimously against changing zoning laws that would have allowed the development.

“My fear about such an enterprise in this village is that they are not flexible with their 9,100-square-foot store (size),” resident Mary Sharry told the Leelanau Enterprise at the time. “Another concern is that if such a business comes into an area and doesn’t succeed, they have no compunction about closing up their medium-size box store. They simply pull out of town and leave a structure there, which could become a derelict building over time. Empire sure doesn’t need more of that.”