Renovation begins on former pharmacy building

Hartley's downtown landscape underwent changes again last week, but it wasn't at the hands of a wrecking ball.

A crew from EZ Acquisitions, LLC removed the metal from the front exterior of the old pharmacy building on Friday. Owner Elijah Zevenbergen, of Allendorf, purchased the property from Mari and Rusty Howard this fall, and he plans to renovate the ground level commercial space and create apartments upstairs.

"The apartments will have a high-end downtown feel," he said. "It should look pretty cool when we're all done with it."

The building previously housed Hartley's pharmacy until its closure in 2013. A medical equipment business remained open there until 2016, and Hartley Community Outreach was also in operation in the building for a short time during the pandemic.

Zevenbergen was enthusiastic about the building's potential.

"We haven't really been into the commercial side of things before, but I've always wanted to renovate something like this into a modern, downtown building," he said. "This was a great opportunity to do that."

Phase 1 of the project will focus on updating the ground level commercial space and exterior. New windows will be installed upstairs where the metal once hung, and Zevenbergen also plans to paint the building and add new exterior lighting.

He hopes to have 1-2 apartments ready for lease within a year.

"The upstairs is a bit of an open canvas," he said. "With all that space, it made the property pretty intriguing."

Phase 2 will focus on finishing the remaining apartments.

"The farther back to the west we go, the longer time it will take," Zevenbergen said.

The developer was eager to get going on the project and looked forward to showcasing the final product to the community.

"The storefront will be beautiful when it's done and I think people will be impressed," he said.