STAHL, WALTER TAKING INSURANCE SERVICES TO MAIN

Relocation from Sixth Street scheduled to be completed Dec. 9

A Freeman business that has been around since Jan. 1, 1980 is moving.

And Main Street is getting a new tenant.

Amy Stahl and Seth Walter have announced plans to move their business, Insurance Services, from its offices on Sixth Street into a downtown building many still think of as “the old Kairos.”

Stahl and Walter have purchased the property at 239 S. Main St. from Adam and Meranda Van Ningen, who operated The Kairos from January 2012 until April 2016.

Stahl told The Courier early this week that Insurance Services started making plans to find new office space after learning that East River Furniture would be closing by the end of the year.

Insurance Services, which has been renting office space in the east portion of that building, is aiming to open in its new quarters Monday, Dec. 9 following a significant renovation to convert the large open area into office spaces.

“It’s going to look completely different,” said Stahl, who started working for Insurance Service in March of 2000 when it was owned and operated by business founder Todd Graber. Walter came on board as an agent in 2019, and Stahl and Walter purchased Insurance Services in May of 2021.

Their purchase of the Main Street property finally gives some stability to a space that has gone through multiple iterations over the years and decades

In addition to operating as The Kairos for 25 years, Julie Huber and her husband, Orville, converted an old storage room in the back of the building into an old-fashioned soda fountain that featured daily lunches beginning in 2006.

That continued following the Van Ningen’s purchase of the business in 2012 and continued until the operation ended regular business hours in the spring of 2016.

More than two years after that, in August of 2018, the space opened as Delicious Flavor Bakery operated by Harley Blue, and in September of 2020, Josue “Sway” Torres opened Doc’s Mess Hall in that space as an extension of Doc’s Bar located one building to the north, which had been Bake’s bar and a restaurant under multiple owners many years prior to that.

By January of 2021, however, Doc’s Mess Hall was closed, giving way to the opening of Mimi’s Diner by Amy Beck, who operated her restaurant until its closure just six months later.

The last tenant who announced plans to use the space was Lawrence West, who in the fall of 2021 opened a short-lived business venture called The Whiskey House in the former Doc’s Bar, with plans to use the former Kairos building, as well.

But all that changed when West abruptly discontinued his plans in mid-November of 2021 and left Freeman, but not before threatening to sue the city of Freeman over its refusal to issue him a liquor license, because all four available were in use.

A lawsuit was never filed.

Both buildings have been vacant ever since, with Insurance Services’ plans to open in the former Kairos/Delicious Flavor Bakery/Doc’s Mess Hall/Mimi’s Diner filling at least one of those spaces.

The old Doc’s Bar property remains under the ownership of Torres.