The city of Luverne will buy the Rock Motor Sports property, and Rock Motor Sports will buy the former Farm Store property in a series of land purchases along Highway 75.
In a closed session at their Tuesday, March 22, meeting, City Council members agreed to pay Bill Aanenson $200,000 for the property.
It's a 34,000-square-foot lot (about one quarter of an acre) that had been appraised at $118,000.
Aanenson had approached the city about selling his property in order to facilitate purchasing the new space for his business.
“As a business we have outgrown our available space, and I was considering options to enlarge my current location and space,” he said.
“I had considered two options by either adding on to the existing shop or build a separate building to accommodate future growth. When the Farm Store announced that it was closing its operation, it presented an opportunity to expand the business to the former Farm Store location.”
The council agreed to buy the Aanenson lot if the city could buy Gary Golla’s property behind Rock Motor Sports. This would square off city-owned property (former Sharkee’s lot) all the way to Hatting Street.
“It was like a three-legged stool,” said Mayor Pat Baustian. “We would buy property from Billy and Billy would buy the Farm Store property.”
Golla was a willing seller to both the Aanensons and to the city, which is paying $60,000 for the one-acre lot to the east.
“The council saw this as a positive development for Highway 75. We all knew that Billy Aanenson and Rock Motor Sports were pinched for space and he was looking to grow,” Baustian said.
“I guess that’s where our whole partnership with him came into play. His property that we acquired paired up well with our other Highway 75 property that we’ll have highway 75 frontage for.”
Rock Motor Sports will enlarge its retail display area featuring the Exmark, Ariens, Honda and Echo lines of equipment, and use more inside storage for new equipment and customer machines.
The business has one full-time employee but may hire another as it grows into the new space.
Meanwhile, Real Estate Retrievers will move into the former True Value building next to the Farm Store frontage property.
“They have also outgrown their current locations with the addition of several new agents,” Aanenson said.
“We both look forward to the opportunities that this move will make and appreciate the support the community has given us in the past.”
The city will close on the Aanenson property May 18. It will be cleaned up over the summer and held for future development.