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A pair of new projects — one in Austin and another in Hayfield — has its owners hoping that they can provide another convenience for the people of the two communities.

A new liquor store, attached to the Clark One Stop Liquor and Tobacco, located at 902 12th St SW in Austin, celebrated its grand opening on Wednesday. Meanwhile, in Hayfield, the owners have purchased and reopened the grocery store in the community with a goal to  add a liquor store.

Owner Victor Patel said that after purchasing the One Stop two years ago, a need was recognized for a liquor store in that part of town. The decision to add on to the existing building, which used to be Ankeny’s No. 4, was made in August of last year.

“We saw around here, in the whole neighborhood, there was no south side liquor store,” said Patel, who is joined by Vinod Patel, Vijay Patel and Ragu Prajapati and who also owns the Clark By The Way at 1205 Oakland Place SE. “We thought it maybe wasn’t convenient for people who had to drive (to other liquor stores).”

While work is done inside and hosts a wide product on the shelves, some work continues on the outside of the building, though Patel expects that work to be wrapped up by late June or in the first week of July.

That same drive to add convenience was a factor in building a liquor store onto the existing grocery store in Hayfield, located on Main Street. Already determined to keep the store open so the community has a place to go for groceries rather than drive elsewhere, Patel said liquor store addition was a good fit.

“There’s no liquor store in town and a lot of people want it,” Patel said. “We’re remodeling, fixing everything and we’re going to open the liquor store so people don’t have to drive all the way to Austin or Dodge Center.”

Their new liquor store in Austin is  open 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.