COOK— A vacant plot of land formerly home to the Ashawa Inn on Hwy. 53 is being eyed for a possible Dollar General store. Cook Area Health Services currently owns the land, but has reportedly indicated a willingness to sell.

At last week’s Cook City Council meeting, City Administrator Theresa Martinson said a developer affiliated with the massive small-box retailer had applied for a land use permit for the site.

Angela Petkovic, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee-based chain, confirmed that the company was in a “due diligence” phase of development in Cook but had not yet greenlit the project.

“We are reviewing the opportunity to add a new store in the area, but we have not committed to doing so just yet,” she said. “Based on our current timeline, we anticipate to have a final decision on this by spring 2019.”

Petkovic said when it comes to where their stores go, there are many factors that go into a project. “Meeting customers’ needs is Dollar General’s top priority,” she said. “The company looks for places where we can offer customers an easy and convenient shopping choice.  We know convenience is a major factor in our customers’ shopping decisions as we generally serve customers within a three to five-mile radius, or 10-minute drive.  We also take demographic trends, competitive factors, traffic patterns and community concerns into consideration.”

Petkovic added that if the project did move ahead, the chain would add between six and 10 local employees to the area. Dollar General currently does about $22 billion in sales across 14,000 stores in the United States each year.

The retailer maintains existing stores locally in Ely, Virginia, and Aurora.