ALPINE — Day's Alpine Market, a now-shuttered store on Alpine's Main Street, is coming back to life — but not as a grocery store.
The days of Day's on Main have ended, say the owners, who closed the shop about five years ago.
"When we closed the store . . . it was because it was not economically sound to continue," said Steven Day.
At one time, the store owners wanted to operate in the Kountry Corners complex at the Highland-Alpine Highway Junction, where Kohler's grocery greets customers.
"But we were building a store in Heber City at the same time, and we couldn't do both," Day said.
The small grocery store was Alpine's only grocery store, and when it closed, the nearest food market became Kohler's.
Day, who also operates a Day's Market in the Provo's Edgemont neighborhood, said the smaller grocers have a particularly difficult time right now because large chains and discount houses can price them out of business.
"Look at what we've lost here in Provo in the last two years," he said. "Storehouse Market, Food-4-Less and Ream's have all gone out. It's a challenging business, and one thing you don't want to do is get spread too thin."
Day said its limited size kept anyone from buying the store. "There's plenty of traffic here on Main Street, but the store was just the wrong size," he said.
So Gearld Day, Steven Day's father, said he plans to completely remodel the existing building and bring in professional offices or a retail store.
"I know it's not going to stay dark," Gearld Day said. "It will have a new faade. We won't tear the building down. The structure is just solid and it's historic."
Gearld Day said the 4,200 square feet of space may be divided into two pieces, depending on who shows interest in buying or leasing the property.
"I suspect by the time we get through, we'll see a lot of activity," Gearld Day said. "We've had a lot of interest in it over the years. The only reason it stayed empty was that we sold it to some people who lost it, and it took us two years to untangle the legalities."
City planners have approved the preliminary plans for the building renovations.
E-mail: haddoc@desnews.com