Eveleth's New City Administrator Eyes Economic Growth, Grocery Store Return

Pat Oman took the helm at Eveleth City Hall in April with a clear immediate test: shepherd a five-year-old vacancy on Fayal Road into a functioning grocery store and, in doing so, prove that a new administration can convert funded redevelopment proposals into daily staples on a shelf.

The former Eveleth IGA at 602 Fayal Road has sat empty since June 2021, when longtime owner Al Zupancich died and no replacement operator stepped in. In the years since, the U.S. Department of Agriculture formally classified Eveleth as a low-income, low-access food tract, a designation applied when at least 500 people, or 33 percent of a community's population, live more than 10 miles from the nearest supermarket. For Eveleth residents making that drive multiple times a week, it is less a federal statistic than a recurring weekly cost in time and fuel.

A financing framework has already taken shape. The Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Advisory Board supported a $3.6 million loan to the Eveleth Economic Development Authority at zero percent interest over 20 years, structured so the city owns the renovated building and leases it to an outside grocery operator. The funds would cover the building's roof, plumbing, electrical service, and other deferred physical improvements. The loan is smaller than the $5.5 million the city originally sought, and the remaining gap represents Oman's first concrete funding challenge: identify what covers the difference before the project stalls again.

Oman comes to the role with nearly three decades of municipal and county government experience, including work at the county level tapping federal and state zero-interest deferred loan programs to improve housing stock and business infrastructure. That track record maps directly onto the structure already assembled for the IGA site. He described his priorities in straightforward terms, saying he intends to be "ambitious on economic development, creating wealth and creating new opportunities," and framed that ambition as aligned with what city leaders hired him to do: "For me, that is what the city is interested in."

A reopened store would produce measurable changes beyond the end of a long drive. Projections tied to the IRRR proposal estimated the renovated site would generate approximately 15 jobs in its first year, including cashiers, shelf-stock employees, and a butcher. For a city of Eveleth's size, that is a non-trivial addition to the local employment base, and for the Iron Range more broadly, it represents the kind of commercial anchor that stabilizes surrounding retail.

The grocery store is not Oman's only priority. He has indicated plans for broader business recruitment, downtown retention, and positioning Eveleth to access state and regional grant programs across multiple fronts. But the IGA site carries five years of community expectation behind it, a USDA designation that puts federal assistance within reach, and a loan already approved by IRRR. What it still needs is an administrator who can close the funding gap, lock in an operator, and get a renovation across the finish line.

That is now Oman's job.