Jose and Antonio Sanchez, owners of El Rey Market, the popular downtown Perry carnicería and general store, are working toward for a Feb. 1 opening in their new and larger location at 210 Willis Ave.
They bought the 14,000-square-foot, 60-year-old building early in December and have been cleaning and remodeling the interior, including removing walls and hauling away some two tons of files left behind by the building’s former occupants, Abilities Unlimited.
Abilities Unlimited, a provider of services to adults with mental and emotional disabilities, operated out of the building from 1996 until August 2016, when the building was bought by the Raccoon Valley Bank in a sheriff’s sale for about $40,000 in back taxes.
Among El Rey’s new installations are a 12-foot by 24-foot walk-in cooler, two walk-in freezers and 24 feet of meat cases, with much greater floor space to fill with goods.
“We’ll have our rotisserie over here,” Jose Sanchez said Saturday, pointing to the large and newly framed kitchen area on the north side of the building, “and we’re planning restaurant seating over here on the west side.”
He said they are also “thinking about doing a bakery,” with their Des Moines baker renting, stocking and operating the space.
Sanchez said the new spot should be ideal for El Rey.
“This location puts us closer to Tyson,” he said, “and that’s a big convenience for a lot of our customers. We get a lot of business at the end of the shift at Tyson, so now people will be able to come right in.”
A grand opening celebration will be held in due course, Sanchez said, with a ribbon cutting hosted by the Perry Chamber of Commerce.
“We’ll be doing something as we get closer to opening,” he said. He said the new store will keep its old hours of 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
