The Dublin General Store officially changed hands Monday, with a local investor group and a Nelson couple purchasing the property.
Blue Finch Investors is partnering with Tyler and Jenna Rich, who will also take over as the new managers of the general store.
Blue Finch is an investment group, including Ed and Ann Kania of Peterborough and Todd and Kerri Enright of Dublin. The group has previously purchased several buildings in downtown Peterborough, including the Bar Harbor Bank building at 2 Main St.; the former site of diVINE on Main and Twist Italian Ice and Soft Serve at 28-32 Main St.; the old Fernald, Taft, Falby and Little law practice building at 14 Grove St.; and the former Nonie’s Restaurant & Bakery at 28 Grove St.
Ed Kania said that originally, the group was focused on Peterborough, but the Enrights were approached by Michelle and Andy Freeman, owners of the Dublin General Store, about the possibility of purchasing the store. The Kanias, Enrights, as well as some other local families, decided to go ahead with the purchase.
“We recognized that this was an exciting, but also interesting, challenge,” Kania said. “As we think about these local New England markets, they’re more than a center of commerce; they’re a center of community. They’re tough businesses, but nonetheless incredibly valuable to the community.”
Kania said that while the investors hold ownership of the store, they will be mostly “backseat players,” and the ones who will be bringing forth their vision for what it will be are Tyler and Jenna Rich.
“We want to enable them to be the proprietors,” said Kania. “We look at them as the entrepreneurs.”
The Riches have been operating a farm on Tyler Rich’s parents’ land in Nelson, called Partners’ Garden, and have regularly sold their produce at the Peterborough Farmers’ Market.
Tyler Rich said the couple met in Chicago, when they were living very different lives — Tyler Rich working as a theater actor, and Jenna Rich in the nonprofit sector. At the age of 30, they decided to do something completely different and apply for a farm internship in North Carolina. Only a few months into the eight-month internship, Tyler Rich said they had fallen in love with farming. When the internship was over, the two didn’t return to Chicago, as had been the original plan, but moved to Tyler Rich’s hometown of Nelson to start a farm of their own in 2017.
Now, the couple said they are ready for a new venture with the Dublin General Store.
“I love food. It’s my favorite thing, and I think local food, eating with people and community is kind of how we’ve based our life and our business, and things that we love. This does all of that,” said Tyler Rich.
The Riches said they want to keep many of the things that make the store a special place to be: the deli, and in particular, the cookies (a matter of great concern with the customers they’ve spoken to) aren’t going anywhere, said the Riches.
“We want to build on what Michelle and Andy did, with our own spin. They have a super-successful business, and people love it. We want to keep the cookies,” Tyler Rich said.
They do want to bring their own flavor to the store, including their farming. Jenna Rich said they will be making use of fields on the property to expand their produce growing, and both sell some of their produce and cut flowers, as well as use some of their own produce in the food-to-go options.
They would also like to use their farming to give back to the community, by donating a portion of the sales of their own-grown produce to local organizations that deal with food insecurity, said Tyler Rich.
The Partners’ Garden currently does not grow year-round, but the couple does plan to have local fresh produce even during the winter months, including that produced by other local farmers.
The interior of the store is currently closed while it is undergoing renovations. While it is closed, there are food trucks available in the parking lot to continue to serve breakfast and lunch sandwiches and coffee.
Kania said most of the updates to the store will be cosmetic or functional, including updating lights and refrigeration, with Tyler Rich adding that the plans also call for opening up the space to include more indoor seating.
“It will look different absolutely, we want it to look like ours, and that the store is starting a new chapter,” said Jenna Rich.
“But we also aren’t getting rid of the deli. We aren’t getting rid of the sandwiches. We want to keep all of the things that people love. This place is such a staple, and there are things that are truly loved, and we want to honor those things as best we can, and then bring our own flair to it. That’s our goal,” added Tyler Rich.
The couple hopes to be able to reopen the store fully within a few weeks.