Pine City in early stages of exploring moving municipal liquor store operations

Pine City is in the preliminary stages of exploring moving municipal liquor store operations to a multi-use development proposed by a developer.

In an interview on Friday, mayor Kent Bombard explained that the city is still early in the timeline, invoking the metaphor of “looking at the car and kicking the tires at this point of time.”

“At this point, we’ve signed a letter of engagement with a developer to look into expanding our liquor store to a new location,” Bombard said. “At that new location, we would be looking at a 30-year lease.”

Bombard explained that when that lease expires, the city would then take ownership of the space.

The letter of engagement — signed with Big Fork Valley Log Cabins, LLC — allows for “preliminary design services for building layout and exterior design,” according to the resolution passed at a special meeting on Jan. 29.

“Tax dollars will not be paying for this,” Bombard explained. “This will all be paid for by the operations of the liquor store itself, so your taxes aren’t going to go up because we’re building a new liquor store.”

According to the resolution, the new municipal liquor store facility would be part of a multi-use “larger private development project.”

Bombard anticipated the city council reviewing plans and drawings for the development within the next couple of months.

In evaluating the need for a new store, Bombard said Pine City ranks within the top 5 percent statewide for liquor store sales per square foot.

“We can definitely see that offering a larger variety and having a larger store is going to benefit our community, and potentially raise the amount that the liquor store can donate back to the city and help keep our taxes low,” Bombard said. 

Bombard said the city would still only have one liquor store, moving operations from the Voyageur Bottle Shop on Main Street to the new location, “a little closer to the freeway.”

“We’re not planning on operating two liquor stores,” Bombard said.

The new location would still be walkable from Pine City’s downtown area, while being “highly visible” for travelers on the freeway.

The Voyageur Bottle Shop building will remain Pine City property — Bombard said “there are preliminary plans with the other space, but nothing has been set in stone yet.”

Pine City has considered options to relocate the liquor store for several years in an attempt to increase its retail space and better meet customer demand.

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

Liquor operations manager Lara Smetana explained that the additional space would allow the store to offer more, grow sales, and contribute more back to the tax base.

“Over the last year and a half, Lara has done a lot of work to bring our prices down and bring our prices in line,” Bombard said. “Sure, they’re not going to be exactly what they are at a big box store somewhere, but for a small town liquor store, we’ve brought prices in line to pretty much as low as they can be.”

Smetana said the increased space would also help with current stocking challenges, keeping prices competitive with the capability to order in larger quantities.

“Space is a huge thing,” Smetana said. “The bigger that you can buy, the lower your prices can be.”

Bombard explained that running a municipal liquor store benefits Pine City by putting money back into the city.

“Over the past 20 years, we’ve given over $2.5 million back to the community, and that directly impacts people’s taxes,” Bombard said. “That’s money we didn’t have to tax folks because of the operations of our liquor store.”

In 2025, Pine City’s liquor store gave back $150,000 to the city.