The little Benton Harbor diner with the iconic soaring “Food” sign appears to be on the road to resurrection once again. Realtor Judy Bibbings who had listed the Main Street diner on the open market shortly before Thanksgiving confirmed this week that the building has been sold.
When the oversized “For Sale” sign disappeared this week, I reached out to Bibbings who is with the Bibbings Property Group at Keller-Williams Realty of Southwest Michigan, and she confirmed that the property at 325 W. Main Street has been sold. The selling price on the MLS system site is listed as $268,000.
What’s next for the 2,200 square foot diner has not been revealed, however sources indicate that it will be “another casual restaurant,” much the same as it has been off and on over the eight decades or so that it has been in existence.
The most recent tenant, Flagship True North Fish Market, closed up shop in early November of last year, just six months after dropping anchor at that location as a satellite to their original location in Harbor Country, Flagship Specialty Foods & Fish Market in Lakeside, which continues to operate from that site on Red Arrow Highway.
A number of food service entities have held court at the high visibility location over the years including the Mosaic on Main diner which operated there for one year, the former King Kong Xpress, the popular Harbor Dogs & Sliders, the short-lived run of Rio’s Mexican, the All American Diner, Bonnie’s Breakfast Nook, and Bob’s Snappy Service.
In recent years, the building has undergone substantial updates and upgrades with quality kitchen gear, building renovations, fresh paint jobs, and lots of care poured into the property.
The building was pitched as a veritable turnkey operation for the right buyer, and indications are that the next operator hopes to be in business there by early to mid-Spring.
The building was built in 1940 on a plot of just over a third of an acre along Main Street with 125 of frontage on what is also Business Loop 94, just blocks away from Whirlpool’s Riverview Campus. It features parking for some 17 vehicles on site.
The file photo of 325 W. Main accompanying this story on Moody on the Market was taken in 2016 when Rio’s Mexican had taken up a lease agreement there.
As for exactly what’s on the menu next…stay tuned.
