The Discount Tire store on Michigan Avenue in West Dearborn (shown here) has been razed and will be replaced with a new Kroger gas station.

While it is always good to see vacant eyesores along Michigan Avenue in Dearborn come down, it can be kind of a letdown when you eventually discover the new business that could be moving in.

That’s the case with the demolition of the long-vacant Discount Tire store on Michigan, between Outer Drive and Nowlin streets.

City officials tell Deepsaidwhat.com that Kroger is working with Dearborn to obtain permission to construct a Kroger gas station at that location. Kroger already operates a gas station on Ford Road in Dearborn Heights and this would be its second in the immediate area.

Now, we will be the first to admit that a new building – even if a gas station – is better than the vacant eyesore that the Discount Tire structure had become over the years.

It’s just that with so little new retail in downtown west Dearborn any time you see new construction, there is always the hope it will be something that becomes a destination. A gas station simply doesn’t live up to that dream . . .