NILES, Ohio - The former Niles Sparkle building will soon be occupied by a dollar store.

Niles Councilman at Large Jimmy Julian tells 21 News Dollar Tree will soon be occupying the building that once housed Sparkle Market. Julian did not have a time frame for when the store will open.

While the city does have a moratorium limiting the amount of dollar stores that can open in city limits, Council voted 6-1 in favor of making an exception for Dollar Tree in this case.

Julian told 21 News the moratorium originally went into effect when Sparkle was still open and Council did not anticipate a closure. Ever since the closure, very few tenants showed interest in the building.

Aside from Dollar Tree, Julian says a Platz Realty representative told Council the only other two tenants that showed interest would have opened a crematorium or a used motorcycle repair shop.

Of those three options, Julian says Dollar Tree would have generated the most tax revenue, the most local interest and the biggest customer base of them all.

"It's not the ideal situation, but with all the factors in play, I felt that this was the best move to help the downtown area," Julian said.

Julian says the only dissenting vote was from Second Ward Councilman Aaron Johnstone. Johnstone tells 21 News his concern is not necessarily with what's filling the Sparkle location, but for the amount of dollar stores in the city.

While the moratorium is still in effect, Johnstone says those are not forever and the city should be focused on changing its zoning laws to permanently limit the amount of dollar stores allowed to open in the city.

Additionally, Johnstone says he would like for a limit on how close dollar stores can be to one another in the city and a requirement for fresh food space to give residents access to nutritious food options.

In addition to Sparkle, Julian says another recently-closed business in the area has a new tenant and is expected to open its doors very soon. The Stoneyard Grill and Tavern on Main Street recently closed. Julian says it will be replaced by a Mexican restaurant called Tlaquepaque Tequila. 

There is no official opening date set for Tlaquepaque yet, but Julian says the restaurant aims to be open by July 4.