MOORHEAD - The former Perkins Restaurant & Bakery on Highway 10 in Moorhead is being transformed into a Mexican restaurant.

Jose Aguirre, an Ohio restaurateur, plans to open El Torero Mexican Restaurant once he finishes getting the building refurbished.

Aguirre said Monday, Oct. 28, that he hopes rehabbing the building, including creating a full-service bar, will be completed sometime in the next month.

“It all depends on the permits” getting approved, Aguirre said.

Aguirre said he has opened several restaurants in Ohio over the years.

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The corporate-owned Perkins at 3005 U.S. Highway 10 East has been closed since Jan. 25. The restaurant had a water main break that flooded it, the Moorhead Fire Department and a plumbing repair business confirmed at the time.

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“Unfortunately, the restaurant did sustain extensive flooding damage,” Vivian Brooks, a spokeswoman for Perkins, said in mid-March.

The 4,769-square-foot building, built in 1993, and 1.27-acres of land, was listed for sale with a local commercial real estate firm for $1,075,000.

Memphis, Tenn.-based Perkins Restaurant & Bakery filed for bankruptcy this past summer.

In September, Atlanta-based Huddle House Inc. announced it would buy the Perkins restaurant chain. Perkins had 342 outlets in the U.S. and Canada when the deal was announced.

On Oct. 20, 11 Perkins restaurants in six states were closed, including the outlets in Jamestown, N.D, and Detroit Lakes, Minn.

The Huddle House website lists 340 of its branded restaurants, most of them in the South and Midwest.