Moorhead's D-S Beverages celebrates major building expansion

MOORHEAD - It looks like the holidays will be happy at D-S Beverages.

A 20,000-square-foot addition is nearly wrapped up at 201 17th St. N., and a deal to add another distribution territory is expected to close soon.

Is it any wonder that owner and President Doug Restemayer was feeling jovial at the ribbon cutting Friday, Nov. 19?

“I really want to have a party,” Restemayer told the 70-plus people at the Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors event. “Business has been good and we’re happy to be in Moorhead. The City of Moorhead has really backed us.”

Forum Communications Co.

The expansion, which cost more than $3 million, brings the company’s footprint on the site to about 125,000 square feet, Restemayer said.

It’s all needed.

RELATED:

• 84 Italian Steakhouse opens in downtown Fargo's Radisson Blu

• Second Plaza Azteca being built in south Fargo; Mas Tequila nears completion in West Fargo

• Fargo's Main Liquors being sold, moving next to Simonson Station Store

• BLVD Pub, Ice Point in West Fargo reopening as new restaurant concepts

• D-S Beverages expansion to get underway in September with demolition of Moorhead's All Star Bowl, The Northsider

The company was started by Restemayer’s father-in-law, Don Setter, Sr., in 1968. At first, it carried seven items. Now the company distributes 1,200 different products — beer, wine, spirits and non-alcoholic beverages — to about 1,200 locations in a roughly 100-mile radius of Fargo-Moorhead, Restemayer said.
“The proliferation of products that we carry requires a lot more space,” Restemayer said.

The company doubled its loading docks from four to eight, and added more parking, so the area will be safer, too, as trucks ready to load or unload won’t have to cue up on nearby streets.

City Manager Dan Mahli was happy to see the expansion nearing completion.

“It’s fantastic. It’s great. It’s good for Moorhead,” Mahli said at the Chamber event.

Forum Communications Co.

D-S Beverages has expanded several times since the building was purchased in 1980. The first expansion was in 1994, with others following in 2010, 2013 and 2017, Restemayer said..

Making the latest expansion possible, however, meant removing a couple of neighborhood icons - All Star Bowl and The Northsider Bar.

“That was tough to take,” Restemayer said.

Since Restemayer joined the company as president in 2000, D-S Beverages has more than tripled its sales, a company history says. The firm acquired the Crookston-are market in 2013 and the Bemidji and Park Rapids market in 2014.

A deal to gain a territory extending from Fergus Falls, Minn., to the Wahpeton and Oakes, N.D., areas, is expected to be wrapped up soon, Restemayer said.

D-S Beverages has about 90 employees.

Forum Communications Co.

“D-S Beverages is one of our flagship businesses in Moorhead,” Mayor Shelly Carlson said.

She praised Restemayer for creating a work culture that encouraged employees to stay.

“This is the type of business and people we want in Moorhead,” Carlson said.

1/2: The inside of the D-S Beverages warehouse at 201 17th St. N., Moorhead, is seen nearing the end of construction on Friday, Nov. 19, 2021. Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum

2/2: A portion of D-S Beverages warehouse in Moorhead is seen during the ribbon-cutting event for the company's recent 20,000-square-foot addition on Friday, Nov. 19, 2021. Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum