ROCK ISLAND, Illinois - Good news for the city of Rock Island as the former Kmart is sold.
Pizza and Subs has been in business for 30 years, located on the bust street of Blackhawk Road in Rock Island.
"It`s a good location," said owner, Joaquin Espejo.
Over the years he's seen business open and close, but the last neighbor to leave was a sad one to see go.
"There was a lot movement, a lot of people, but not enough people that`s why they left," said Espejo.
This building now sits vacant, once serving as a Kmart closed its doors July 2016.
"It`s an empty building you know, let`s put it to some use," said Espejo.
Now it could have some use to it. Augustana College owned the land and leased it out to Kmart, putting it up for sale after the store closed.
The good news is a private corporation called Rock Island KM LLC has bought it.
"We`re excited about something new coming in," said interim city manager, Randy Tweet.
There's no word what will become of the site, but the city has a wish list.
"We`ve made our intentions known that we would like to see a retail company come back into the area. It`s a prime location for that," said Tweet.
Whatever it becomes the city says it's good news. It will bring in property taxes and hopefully sales tax, something the city was hoping to get from a Wal-Mart that never came to Rock Island.
"Obviously this is encouraging time of a vacant retail property has been sold, so we`re very optimistic about the future," said Tweet.