Sterling store will be rebuilt from ground up

STERLING—The convenience store at the north end of Main Street in Sterling that has operated since 1989 is gone.

Everything except the big Sinclair sign at the corner of the property and the roof that once protected the gasoline tanks was demolished and hauled away just over a week ago.

The good news is that the property owners, an immigrant family from India, plan to rebuild it.

Amol Verdi, the primary owner and manager, said Tuesday he will put in a 2,600- square-foot building with a small restaurant and beer cave inside. The post office, which has been operating temporarily in a small building behind the store, will move back inside the store.

Verdi, who is in business with his father, Krishan Lai, and his brothers Mohit and Paul, said the family’s original plan was to remodel the store. Then they found the structure dated back to a house built in 1920 that had been expanded and remodeled.

“It was going to take time and money to bring it up to date,” he says. “I didn’t make sense. It was just better to make a new building.”

The founders of the store were Terry Lee and Yvonne Larsen, who still live in Sterling. They bought the 1920 house, remodeled it, added on to it, and opened in 1989 as Palisade Super Service.

In 1993, they expanded the building again to add a deli featuring “Terry Burgers,” a video section, fishing and hunting supplies, and diesel and farm fuel. In 1995, they expanded their deli and added a post office to the building.

In 2007, the Larsens sold the store to Tim and Diane Denton, who also still live in Sterling. They changed the name of the business to Denton Oil.

In 2014, John Palmer, who had moved to Manti with his family, bought the store. Two years later, the business was purchased by Steve and Melissa Lund of Manti.

“It’s more like a dairy cow than a cash cow,” Lund once quipped. “You have to tend it every day.”

The Verdi family, who also own the Moroni Mart at the north end of Moroni, plan to have the new Sterling store open by the 24th of July, 2026.