City to sell Weisser land to expand

The city council agreed Monday night to move forward with transferring 23 feet of land to Weisser Distributing for the business to expand.

Vice president Eric Weisser presented a site plan for two phases of expansion to the council July 18. The city council tabled the proposal to look at property lines but approved Weisser’s proposal Aug. 1.

“We are busting at the seams. We need space, and we need it quickly. We know we need to move the water line and purchase the land; that’s really our commitment to Tea. We’d like to stay here,” Weisser said.

Mayor John Lawler expressed concern that the addition would be too close to bike path and athletic complex. The 12,000 sq. ft. addition would be 20 feet from the bike path.

“We’ve put a lot of time and energy and planning our recreational side,” Lawler said.

Adjacent to Schoenhard’s Custom Cabinetry, the First Street business is growing at a rate of 43 percent a year and is the fastest-growing company in South Dakota, Weisser said. He projects that in 8 years Weisser Distributing will have 180 on-site employees.

“The good news is five years ago we were in the Industrial Park with five employees. Today we have 80 employees. We never thought we’d be in front of city council asking for more space,” he said.

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