Family Dollar store construction begins in Guernsey

Mark DeLap
Posted 6/9/20

A new Family Dollar store is under construction

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Family Dollar store construction begins in Guernsey

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GUERNSEY – A new Family Dollar store is under construction on the corner of West Whalen Street and North Dakota Avenue. According to preferred developer Dave Murdock from Salt Lake City, the project should be completed by Nov. 1.

Murdock – who builds Family Dollar stores all over Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and in Idaho – is with a group of investors who buy the land, build the shell of a building and then leases those buildings to the Family Dollar Corporation. The lease is generally 10 to 15 years.

“I am supposed to have it done by the first of November,” Murdock said, “but I should be done with it long before then. I am hoping September.”

When asked how the potential pull-out of BNSF would impact the project, Murdock said Family Dollar would create 10 to 12 more jobs for the community. He also said Family Dollar makes the decisions at a corporate level whether to stay focused on an area and to keep the plans as they are. Murdock said that, as long as they sign the lease, that’s all he is concerned with.

“I don’t know if that will help,” Murdock said. “but maybe it will keep somebody here.”

As for the choice of the Guernsey site, Murdock said that it was also a Family Dollar initiative.

“Their system of locating sites is pretty sophisticated,” Murdock said. “They for some reason locked on to Guernsey and liked what they saw in the numbers and decided they wanted to be here.”

The building itself will be 9,180 square feet. The shell itself will cost approximately $500,000 to build, Murdock said. 

“Then they come in and do a lot of improvements,” Murdock said. “And of course, all of their equipment and the land costs.”

Building inspector Matt Allred estimated, by the time the store is ready to open, costs could approach $1 million. Murdock said, by the time all the costs were added up, that estimate may be right on point.