HILLSBORO, N.D.-The Country Hearth Restaurant, which has been closed since a September fire, is for sale.
The restaurant is listed for $175,000 on the Traill County Economic Development Commission website.
The Country Hearth was the only full-service restaurant in this Traill County city of 1,600, located along Interstate 29, halfway between Grand Forks and Fargo.
Owner Rick Arechigo, Fargo, said a few people have expressed interest in the property, including two who are looking to reopen the restaurant, and others interested in tearing it down for other potential uses.
It also is being considered as a potential site of a new hotel. Representatives of AmericInn hotels and Cobblestone Hotels have been talking with Hillsboro officials in recent weeks about building in the city.
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Arechigo, who has owned the restaurant since 1983, no longer wants to be in the business. He moved from Hillsboro to Fargo about 10 years ago and stopped managing it about five years ago. He began leasing the business to another operator last summer.
"The restaurant business is just not for me anymore," he said.
Hillsboro has other restaurants, including Our Town Bakery, which is open Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The community also has a Subway and a Burger King.
But the Country Hearth, which was open seven days a week, had been a regular meeting place for local residents and groups, as well as travelers.
The fire, which resulted in about $500,000 in damage, was determined to be accidental, according to a report from a state fire marshal's office.
It started in a faulty water heater, Arechigo said.
"The fire was intense by the water heater," he said. "It got so hot back there that it melted the water pipes and they burst and put out the fire. But there was a lot of smoke damage."
Little work has been done on the building since the fire.
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Archigo said more than $100,000 in insurance money could be available to a new owner, but only if it continues to be a restaurant.
For more information, see "featured commercial listings," at the Traill County Economic Development Commission website: www.traillcountyedc.com .
