PIERRE — A deal for a food bank to go into the former Pepsi building looks to be as good as done.

Thursday morning, representatives of WP Beverages of Windsor, Wis., and Community Food Banks of South Dakota finalized a verbal purchase agreement for the Airport Road building.

In a press release, Mayor Laurie Gill said she expects the purchase to be inked later this month.

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“Task force members worked tirelessly to establish a facility that will ultimately improve the lives of many residents throughout central South Dakota,” Gill said.

“This was not an easy task. They did not rush through this process and they avoided rash decisions. I commend each and every one of them for stepping up to the plate and making a positive impact upon our community.”

Larry Weiss, co-chairman of the food bank task force, said the deal will be a lease to purchase agreement and the facility will cost close to its $500,000 appraised value.

To date, there is about $4,700 in the task force’s bank account for purchase of the building, and Weiss said the local Rotary Club has pledged $50,000.

He said the owners of the Pepsi Building at this point are willing work around a complete down payment.

“Our lease agreement gives us flexibility in that area,” Weiss said. “We are in a fundraising mode. That is not a deal breaker at the present time.”

Matt Gassen, executive director of Community Food Banks of South Dakota, which will manage the building, said he’s thrilled a deal is nearly complete but realizes what work is ahead.

“I know what’s coming,” he said. “It’s a lot of work. But I’m pretty pumped about it.”

The food bank will distribute thousands of pounds of food a week in the central part of the state.

Gassen said he hopes to have operations running in three to four weeks. In the meantime, at least one person needs to be hired to manage the facility and equipment must be purchased.

“There could be questions depending on timing of equipment arrival and sets-ups whether we’ll be ready to handle perishables and frozen foods,” Gassen said. “For certain, we’ll be handling dry product.”

Gassen said the task force deserves credit for the work that began this summer after the Wal-Mart manager came forward with a request to donate 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of food a week that otherwise is thrown away because of inadequate storage capabilities in the community.

“This has been a long haul since August” Gassen said. “It’s been an amazing ride. I give all the credit to the task force in identifying this facility, which really they identified right out the shoot. It was a process of elimination of other options to end up where we are.”

Gassen said he’s comfortable with the level of financial commitments that have been made for the building deal.

“There’s nothing in writing,” he said.

“There’s nothing that’s been handed to us per say. We have some service groups that committed to some funding to help with some of the equipment. That is pretty amazing. In addition, we have a level of commitment for some significant donations.”

Gassen also thanked the Pierre community.

“Hats off to the people of Pierre for accepting this project and for their foresight and understanding of the value it will bring to central South Dakota,” Gassen said.