FLINT, MI - Flint's historic Hamady Bros. grocery store plans to open its doors on the city's north side within the next six weeks, bringing with it at least 80 jobs for area residents, the store's owner says.

Appearing before Flint City Council on Monday, Sept. 25, Hamady Bros. owner Jim McColgan said the grocery store is in its final stages of opening in the former Kroger location at Pierson Road, just west of Clio Road on Flint's north side.

After Kroger left the site in 2014, the area was designated as a food desert, lacking nearby healthy options - particularly for low-income people.

But McColgan says he looks to change the north side's nutrition landscape, introducing a grocery store that also serves as a "community center," offering a soul food restaurant, cooking and nutrition courses, and a 2,500 square-foot meeting space for church groups and others.

"This is going to be - for lack of a better term - wow," McColgan said, addressing the council. "This is what Hamady used to be, from 1911, and this is what Hamady is today in 2017. We are going to take care of the people and be involved with the people of the north end of Flint."

The Flint native says he aims to keep hiring local, and is looking to hire "80-plus" residents to work at the store.

He said he plans to host a job fair in the coming weeks leading up to the store's opening.

"There's nothing in Genesee County that's going to touch this vision," said Second Ward Councilwoman Jackie Poplar, thanking McColgan. "This is not only for the Second Ward, but for the entire city of Flint."

A longtime Flint staple, the Hamady Bros. supermarket chain started in 1911 with a small store on East Dayton Street and Industrial Avenue in Flint.

Michael Hamady and his cousin Kamol Hamady co-founded the chain, which swelled to 37 stores in the Flint area and employed about 1,300 people.

The company thrived because Hamady Bros. had larger supermarkets with big parking lots for automobile shoppers, according to The Flint Journal archives.

Alex Dandy took over the business in 1974, and in 1987, workers took part in a seven-week strike. Dandy served time in prison for tax evasion and fraud when he took millions from Hamady and another supermarket company, according to archives.

Hamady's filed for bankruptcy in 1987 and the last store closed in 1991.

Now, McColgan says it's time to bring that "hometown grocery store" back to the Flint area.

"When you walk into that store, you're going to say, 'The old Flint Hamady is back,'" McColgan said.

Hamady is not the only grocer announcing plans to settle on Flint's north side.

With funding from the Genesee County Land Bank, Rev. Reginald Flynn has begun demolition at the old Ross Plaza site in Flint in hopes of bringing a co-op grocery store.