Maureen Wallenfang
Appleton Post-Crescent
Published 3:56 PM EST Jan 16, 2020
Stein’s Garden & Home wants to buy Liberty Hall in Kimberly.
If the sale goes through in the next 30 to 60 days, the banquet hall and conference center will be converted into a Stein’s store, its second in the Fox Cities and 17th in the state.
Liberty Hall, meanwhile, would relocate and continue in business. Its owner plans to accommodate the future receptions and banquets he has on the books.
Kimberly’s village board approved Stein’s retail conversion site plan Jan. 6 for the banquet hall property at 800 Eisenhower Drive. A stormwater management plan still has to be approved.
With the last approval, and when other sale contingencies are met, Stein can move forward with its purchase and conversion.
“If everything fell into place, we’d target early summer to be open. That’s our goal,” said Bob Young, Stein’s CEO.
Liberty Hall owner Mike Van Asten cautioned that the sale was not yet inked.
“It’s far from a done deal. We’re not confident of this happening. It’s so premature,” Van Asten said on Wednesday.
“We are still in the feasibility period,” said Stein’s Young. “There are a couple of hurdles for us to go through. Both parties are trying to get this done.”
Stein’s is owned by the second and third generations of the Stein family. As a privately owned business, it does not release financial information or reveal the cost of the new store.
The 4.37-acre Liberty Hall property has an estimated fair market value of $2,674,900, according to Outagamie County records.
Appleton’s desirable east side has been on Stein’s wish list for years, Young said.
“The family is very excited to enter this market. It’s a high-density, single-family home location,” he said. “For years, we’ve heard that people want something like this on the east side.”
Van Asten said Liberty Hall has bookings stretching through this year and beyond, and if the purchase goes through, he’ll re-accommodate those receptions and meetings.
He’s looking at new sites where he can relocate his banquet business and upgrade amenities, like a modernized kitchen. Van Asten started his banquet business in 1987. He built this current facility in 1994.
Stein’s Garden & Home currently has a west-side store and nursery at 4860 W. Wisconsin Ave. in Grand Chute.
The Wisconsin-based Stein’s started in 1946 in Shorewood.
Contact reporter Maureen Wallenfang at 920-993-7116 or mwallenfang@postcrescent.com. Follow her on Twitter at @wallenfang.
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