Dollar Tree store planned for Charles City by next fall

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com 

A discount retailer is looking at opening a new store in Charles City by next fall.

The Charles City Board of Adjustment approved a variance Friday morning that helps clear the way for a Dollar Tree store to be built on the site of the former 3C Bistro restaurant at 510 Hildreth St., which closed last year.

Although the name of the new store was not revealed at the city meeting, the representative of the developer and the retailer left enough clues to determine the retailer’s identity, including a photo of another store in the same chain while it was being built in Independence, and the fact that the company has existing stores in Waverly, Waterloo, Cedar Falls and Mason City in this area.

The representative, Dustin Whitehead, director of sales and leasing for Lockard, of Cedar Falls, confirmed after the meeting that the retailer is Dollar Tree.

The Board of Adjustment approved a variance allowing the developer to build an 8,800-square-foot building to replace the existing 5,000-square-foot restaurant building, and to place a sign on the building.

The board had previously approved a variance for setback requirements on the property.

The application for the variance states the property should have an assessed taxable value of $900,000 to $1 million when the store is completed.

Whitehead said there are still some details to be worked out on the title before closing can take place on the sale of the property, which he hopes can happen by the middle of October. The title is currently held by First Security Bank.

Whitehead said demolition of the existing building will begin shortly after the sale closes. There is some asbestos that needs to be removed and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources will need to sign off on the demolition, he said.

“We want to start the demo before the snow flies,” he said.

Whitehead said completion of the new building is planned for July 2018, with the new store opening 45 to 60 days later.

Dollar Tree stores are owned by Dollar Tree Inc., with headquarters in Chesapeake, Virginia. The Fortune 500 corporation operates almost 14,000 stores in every state except Alaska and Hawaii, and in Canada, according to the company website, www.dollartree.com.

Whitehead said the store will be managed locally, but he did not know how many jobs the store would create.

“Once the lease gets executed the process of working on management and all of that will begin,” he said.