Sook Nam hadn’t set out to be a small business owner.
“I wasn’t looking to open a grocery store, but I was tired of driving to the Cities to get my groceries. So here I am,” she said of her newly opened Seoul Foods at 410 Belgrade Avenue in North Mankato, next to Hunan Garden.
She and her husband Yella Hensley, who is a commercial painter, renovated the space and lined up suppliers for a variety of fresh, frozen and canned/bottled items.
“I like to say it’s Korean (fare) but it’s a bigger variety than that. We have a large population of Vietnamese and others, so I want to cater to them too,” Nam said.
Indeed, as she sought suggestions on social media for what to stock, plenty of people had ideas and showed they’d welcome an Asian grocery.
Calls came in for Japanese, Filipino, Vietnamese and Thai foods, as well as suggestions for specific things people wanted to see stocked in the store.
“The suggestions are definitely coming in. We’re reaching out to suppliers to see what we can get. Just because I like Korean food doesn’t mean everyone does,” Nam said.
She said it is difficult finding suppliers to deliver products. “In the Cities there are more Asian stores and restaurants they can deliver to. My shop is just out of the way.”
Jocelyn Hartman is a fan of the store.
“I feel like Mankato needed some other options like this. I’m a vegetarian so it is another option for me.
“They have frozen dumplings and things like that I like.”
Hartman said she used to go to some of the Asian markets in the Twin Cities to find more variety for her vegetarian diet. “Mankato is getting a few more options in the grocery stores now.”
She also likes that Seoul Foods is a locally owned store.
“It’s nice to support the small businesses.”
Nam, who works for Blue Earth County as an eligibility specialist, grew up here while her husband was from Spokane, Washington.
Seoul Foods is closed on Tuesdays, open 10 a.m.-7 p.m. other weekdays and Saturdays and noon-7 p.m. Sundays.
Jr’s Academy
Julie Oachs, owner of Jrs. Academy, was able to start using a new addition to the early learning center this past week.
The academy, at 120 Birkdale Dr., next to Sherwin Williams, added 6,500 square feet to its existing 11,500 square foot building.
The expansion added six new preschool rooms and two more toddler rooms.
“Demand is strong. We’re busy,” Oachs said.
The academy now has a capacity for 36 infants, 92 toddlers, 30 school-aged kids and 120 preschoolers.
New office building
Habib Sadaka, who has long done residential mortgage lending, is making his first foray into commercial development, along with some partners.
“The commercial space around town seems to be doing well,” he said.
The property is at the corner of Madison Avenue and North Broad Street, a couple of blocks off of Riverfront Drive.
Sadaka originally proposed a building that would have commercial space on the ground level and residential on upper floors.
But he brought back new plans for city approval recently that had no apartments.
“We redid the plans a little to make it work financially. It’ll be a two story commercial building with office space on both floors.” The building will be about 10,000 square feet.
He said that the original plan of building just eight apartments, rather than a major apartment complex, doesn’t make financial sense right now.
“Prices for things are so high now post-COVID and the interest rates are still staying higher than you’d hope for. And it doesn’t look like we’re going to get the rate cuts we’d hoped for anytime soon,” Sadaka said.
The group is combining three lots, two of them vacant land, for the project.
He hopes APX Construction will begin work on the building in April or May and have it done by the end of the year.
“It will be a nice addition to that neighborhood. It’s not the nicest looking building there now.”