WILLMAR—Construction has begun on Willmar’s third Kwik Trip store, this one located in downtown.

The building permit with the city of Willmar says the project is worth $2 million.

Aaron Backman, executive director of the Kandiyohi County and City of Willmar Economic Development Commissioner, said in an email to the West Central Tribune that construction is estimated to be completed by September.

Kwik Trip had always planned on building three stores in Willmar, but delayed building the downtown store on Litchfield Avenue Southwest for nearly two years.

The store will be located on the lot of the old Mills Auto dealership, which was demolished in June 2018. The other two stores are located on First Street South, across the street from Cub Foods, and on U.S. Highway 12, near the state Highway 23 overpass.

When Kwik Trip presented its plans to the Willmar Planning Commission in August 2017, its representative Dean George said the downtown store would be a food hot spot for downtown with a 7,200-square-foot convenience store, no car wash and fewer gas pumps than the average Kwik Trip.

Kwik Trip, based in La Crosse, Wisconsin, opened its first convenience store in 1965 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The company added fuel sales in 1970 and from there began expanding. Today the company has more than 500 stores in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. Kwik Trip operates its own dairy, bakery and commissary, which supplies fresh food to the stores daily.

West Central Tribune by Shelby Lindrud