Photo by Deb Gau The team at Kal’s Motor Group Marshall, including Josh Cole and Izach Harris, said they’re seeing a growing number of people coming to check out the business at the Market Street Mall. Kal’s Motor Group has been up and running for a couple of weeks. Kal’s owner Dan Kallevig bought the mall property last summer, with plans to expand his pre-owned vehicle and powersports businesses.

MARSHALL — This spring, there’s been some activity at the Market Street Mall as a new business moves in. People are definitely taking notice, staff at Kal’s Motor Group Marshall said.

“The big thing we’ve been hearing is, ‘We’re glad someone is doing something with the mall,'” said Izach Harris, sales manager at Kal’s Motor Group Marshall. The number of customers coming in has been picking up as well, staff said.

“We really have been up and running for the last couple of weeks,” said Randy Mumm, general manager of Kal’s Motor Group. It was exciting for the business, which is based in Wadena, to expand into Marshall, he said.

“We think it’s a great community,” Mumm said.

Kal’s Motor Group has been a family-owned business since 1975. Owner Dan Kallevig bought the Market Street Mall property last summer with plans to expand. In December, Kallevig told the Independent he planned to utilize the mall building, but current mall tenants would be staying on. He also hoped to add more tenants in the future.

Kal’s Motor Group sells quality pre-owned vehicles, as well as a full line of pre-owned powersports, including brands like Polaris, Yamaha, Arctic Cat and Honda, Mumm said. Kal’s is also a Glacier ice fishing house dealer, he said.

“We wanted to bring that down to Marshall at a little smaller scale,” Mumm said. That meant not only bringing in inventory, but doing some renovations on the mall. There were going to be some challenges moving into a 1970s-era building, he said. “We’re slowly getting the place cleaned up inside.”

“One challenge was picking a spot to work out of,” Mumm said. Kal’s Motor Group has turned the former Hallmark store on the east end of the mall building into a showroom. He said they’re also working on converting the former Sears Hometown Store space in the mall into an auto shop for the used vehicle portion of the business.

This spring, Kal’s Motor Group has been working to renovate space in the mall, and bring in inventory.

“We’re still in the process of getting a full inventory in here,” Harris said. However, there were already about 40 used vehicles available on the lot, Mumm said. The Kal’s Motor Group showroom and display areas around the mall feature golf carts, ATVs, snowblowers, lawn mowers and more. Kal’s Motor Group is a certified Cub Cadet dealer, Harris said.

Harris and location manager Josh Cole said they’ve seen the number of people coming to check out Kal’s Motor Group Marshall grow. A lot of the interest seems to be building through word-of-mouth, they said.

“We’re excited to be open,” Mumm said. Marshall was a good fit for Kal’s, and it has also been easy to find good people to join their team, he said. “Marshall seems to be a great, hard working agricultural community. This location has so much potential for growth in the near future. We cannot wait to see what is in store for that location.”