Wednesday's ground-breaking ceremony for a large complex on North Hill that includes a fifth MarketPlace Foods store is yet another step in the city's ongoing flood recovery process.
When the Souris River essentially split Minot into two halves last summer, residents of North Hill were for a time left without easy access to a major grocery store, other than a temporary location set up by MarketPlace. The only other major grocery store in north Minot was the Arrowhead MarketPlace store, which was flooded.
For northwest Minot residents, the situation was simply unacceptable. For MarketPlace officials, it was time to seriously consider building a new store on North Hill.
The new store and accompanying complex will be located at the corner of 16th Street and 21st Avenue Northwest just east of ING, and will include a combination of retail space and housing units.
We fully realize that the new grocery store is but one small part of the city's post-flood expansion, but it will play an important role nonetheless. Housing developments are springing up on seemingly every available lot in northwest Minot, bringing a boom in population. Having adequate retail stores of all sorts, including a full-sized and full-service grocery store, available on the hill is an important part of the expansion. The new MarketPlace store and accompanying businesses will serve as an anchor for North Hill residents for generations to come.