The empty grocery store in Kimberly could be up and running again as early as this fall.

Mayor Bob Ellerbrock and Councilman Brian Pharris have talked with someone who has a strong interest in buying the building.

Ellerbrock said the potential new owner would lease out the store for someone else to operate. The city is not yet disclosing who the potential buyer is.

The individual is discussing tax incentives with city officials. Ellerbrock said he is asking for a 100-percent tax rebate the first year, and a 50-percent tax rebate for the next five years.

After six years, the city would be receiving full sales tax revenue from the store.

Ellerbrock said the potential buyer has talked with the People’s Bank of Alabama, which owns the building, and that the individual is “very serious.” He said the store could possibly be open by the end of September.

“It won’t be an amateur operation,” Ellerbrock said, adding that the individual owns several other grocery stores in the Birmingham area.

The store, formerly an IGA MarketPlace, opened in October 2008 under owners Daniel Stone and Tracy Crane. The 35,000-square-foot grocery store has sat empty since it closed in June 2010.

Stone and Crane’s original plan was to also open adjoining retail stores, which would occupy an additional 16,000 square feet. According to a North Jefferson News article from October 2008, Crane and Stone stated that five businesses had committed to opening at the site when the IGA MarketPlace shopping complex expanded.

Ellerbrock said he did not know if the potential new owner would attempt to expand the grocery store into a larger shopping complex.