Pine City Council votes to move forward with next phase for proposed liquor store designs

At Wednesday's meeting, the Pine City Council unanimously voted to move forward with the second phase of an engagement agreement with Bigfork Valley Log Cabins, LLC, about potentially moving municipal liquor store operations to a proposed multi-use development.

According to the agreement, the second phase includes the "preparation of detailed architectural drawings for the proposed liquor store."

The agreement also states that Phase 2 "constitutes the final stage of the design and drawing phase" before full "architectural and structural engineering plans" begin.

In an interview with WCMP, Pine City mayor Kent Bombard explained that the municipal liquor store would be part of a multi-use facility that would also bring housing to the city.

"It's part of a multi-use facility, with the new liquor store on the bottom floor, with space for another future tenant or tenants," Bombard said. "And then adding 52 units of apartments above that, with indoor parking and enclosed parking, which is something that we don't have in a rental property in Pine City right now, so that's incredibly beneficial."

Bombard said the additional housing would address a "dire need" for Pine City.

Just over 2.5 acres of property adjacent to Hillside Avenue Southwest and 11th Street Southwest have been identified as the proposed site for the development.

Maps from Beacon.

"If you know where the current city hall building is on Hillside Avenue, and Northwoods Bank, it's directly across the parking lot, behind the dental office that's there," Bombard said. "There's a nice parcel of land right along Hillside that this would fit on."

The proposed space would nearly double the liquor store’s current footprint, from about 5,000 square feet to 9,200 square feet.

"The goal of the liquor store is to give money back to the general fund," Bombard said, "So the more money that we can make at this liquor store location means the less that we have to increase taxes to do projects throughout the city."

At the new location, Pine City would be looking at a 30-year lease for the municipal liquor store space, which the city would take ownership of when the lease expired.

The funding for the new liquor store location — not the rest of the complex — would come from municipal liquor store operations. Bombard clarified that the project wouldn’t be funded by taxpayer dollars.

"It's its own separate business entity from the general fund, from the tax revenue, from that sort of thing. It's basically a business that's owned by the city," he explained. "So those dollars would be what's going to be used to pay for the construction and operations of this new facility."

Bombard added that the developer has already received interest in the additional retail space included in the proposed development.

“The other half of the building is going to bring more business into our community, which is just going to help grow our community and build a stronger community,” he said.

Bombard said Pine City will only operate one municipal liquor store location.

Conversations have occurred about the Main Street facility if and when operations cease, but Bombard said nothing is set in stone at this point in time.

“We don’t foresee leaving the building vacant for a long period of time,” he said. “The goal is to have folks back in there, have some sort of operations in there as soon as possible.”

Bombard said conversations with the developer have been productive since signing a letter of engagement in January.

"They've been going really well so far," Bombard said. "Everybody's very receptive to everybody else's opinions, and from my 10,000-foot elevation, it seems to have been a very smooth process so far."

Pine City’s municipal liquor store has given over $2.5 million back to the community over the past 20 years, including $150,000 in 2025.

“Any money that’s spent at the Voyageur Bottle Shop, that money stays in our community,” Bombard said.

Rendering provided by the city.