Matt Johnson, left and Heather Allen, of Albert Lea, are shown standing in front of the Kiester Liquor Store. They recently purchased the business from the City of Kiester, which had been operating it as a city-owned municipal liquor store.

Matt Johnson and his fiance Heather Allen own and operate a real estate business, Leland Realty, in both Albert Lea and Kiester. So when the city of Kiester made the decision to close their municipal liquor store and sell the building and its contents, they contacted Leland Realty about brokering the deal.

“Matt had been talking to Kiester Economic Development Authority (EDA) member Al Bowman about being the brokers for the sale,” Heather says. “But then we decided we were interested in the property ourselves so we had to put a stop to the plan to act as the brokers.”

Heather reveals there was actually a good deal of interest from people who wanted to purchase the property.

“I think there ended up being a total of five bidders,” she states. “We had the high bid and then just had to iron out some of the details but we became the owners of Kiester Liquor.”

Matt and Heather found out the acquisition process can take longer when you are making the purchase from a government entity.

“There are more hoops to jump through when you purchase a property from a government compared to buying a property from a private seller,” Heather comments. “And the council would have to schedule meetings to approve various items and keep the process moving forward.”

She was quick to point out how cooperative the Kiester City Council was before, during and after the sale.

“City clerk Doris Troll and mayor Hope Bauman were wonderful to work with,” Heather says. “Again, we are just so appreciative of the efforts of the council to get things done.”

“The city of Kiester went through the process as they should and did their due diligence,” Matt adds. “They were great to work with.”

But, before Mike and Heather even made the final decision to bid on the property, they first had to get an important piece of the puzzle in place.”

“We had to talk our son, Chastin, into managing it,” Heather shares. “If we wouldn’t have been able to get him to be the manager of the liquor store we would not have even bid on it.”

Heather reveals they wanted Chastin to run the store because he has a lot of retail management experience.

“We actually poached him from his other job and brought him here,” she remarks.

It also helped that Chastin already was a resident of Kiester.

“I moved here six years ago and lived with a buddy for a couple of months,” Chastin says. “Then I bought my own house in town.”

Matt notes that they really want to operate the store as a family business.

“We have a blended family and we consider all of the kids as our family. Our daughter, Maggie, graduated from Albert Lea High School this year,” Matt shares. “She is helping at the store until she leaves for college at the University of Minnesota later this summer.”

Another daughter, Maddie, just turned 21 and is currently attending the University of Minnesota. She will graduate in December.

“Our daughter Haley graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia and still resides in Savannah,” Heather shares. “She designed the donkey mascot we are going to use with the business. We also have a son, Fred, who is 36 years old and lives in Albert Lea with his wife Kristen and their two sons.”

There have been some minor changes to the store with some new paint, some changes in product placements and the offering of some new products.

“Actually, one of the biggest changes we have made is in the hours the store is open,” Matt comments. “For instance, we can be open July 4. When it was owned by the city, they couldn’t do that.”

They are open Monday through Thursday from 2-8 p.m., Friday from 12-10 p.m. Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m.

“We had a soft opening on May 22 – we called it our Friends and Family opening,” Heather says. “The people of Kiester really came out and they were very appreciative. We were also very busy during the Kiester Days celebration. Word is getting out that we are open for business.”

Although they may do some more light remodeling, there are not any major changes in the works at this time.

“I think we may offer some more product tasting events,” Heather shares. “We did that during Kiester Days and it went over very well.”

For now, they are just settling into the routine of operating their store.

“The store was closed for 45 days,” Heather points out. “I really believe people were just happy to see it come back.”