(UPDATED) Local Business Owners Buy Jack Yee Property

(UPDATED: 2:49 p.m. May 4) Samuel Stiele and Ed Stiele, owner of Hopkins Auto Body, bought the Jack Yee property at last month’s tax forfeiture auction, Hennepin County staff told Patch Thursday.

The men purchased the 1016 Mainstreet property for $95,000 over the counter, the minimum bid the county set for the site prior to the April 27 auction.

Samuel Stiele said he and his father are looking at a couple of different options for the property, one of which is the possibility of turning it into a restaurant. The goal is to lease it out to a business that wants to come in.

“Certainly, nothing is set yet,” he said.

They’d looked at the building for about three years before buying the property. Next week, people should be inside cleaning it up.

“It’s an ugly, ugly little building,” he said, adding that they plan to keep the sign as a souvenir.

Hopkins ordered Jack Yee to close in August 2009 because of health and sanitation violations. The city revoked the restaurant’s license in November 2009 when the restaurant continued to do business anyway. A month later, following a district court injunction, the city changed the locks and forced the owner to remove perishables—closing the business for good.

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