Chasing Our Tails founder entertains ideas for former Super Valu building
There is significant movement concerning the building at 236 3rd St. that was once home to a grocery store and was earlier this summer deemed a hazard.
Chasing Our Tails founder Steve Trachtenberg, who is operating for this purpose under 236 3rd St. LLC, expressed to the EDA board last week his interest in purchasing the old Super Valu.
Trachtenberg said last week his initial goal in taking over the building would be to help the city save it and put it back on the tax rolls. He said razing the structure isn’t practical because it shares a common wall on the south end.
“It’s enough square footage that it has some practical value,” he said. “But the big thing was to be a good community member — step in and help where we can — and try to incubate some business downtown.”
Trachtenberg doesn’t have any concrete plans for the building as of now, but he does have a number of ideas, which include using the building as a complement to his Chasing Our Tails production facility a block to the west on 4th St.
“We’re going to create jobs in some manner,” he said. “And save the building.”
EDA Director Jeff Carpenter on Monday informed the city council that is would cost about $72,000 to clean out the building and put a new roof on it — that’s on top of other interior work and additional roof work that would need to be done to get the building ready to use.
The EDA on Wednesday unanimously approved a motion that would loan Trachtenberg $50,000 — half of which would be a balloon payment that would be forgiven after the initial $25,000 is paid and the necessary fixes to the building are done; Trachtenberg would put $22,000 of his own money into the building.
See this week’s Headlight Herald for more on this article.