Kroger has sold a former grocery store in Cary that had been under consideration for a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office near residential neighborhoods.

Cincinnati-based Kroger Co. sold the vacant store for $4.1 million to The Crown Cos., a real estate firm in Dobson. The sale was recorded on Dec. 20 by the Wake County Register of Deeds.

The feds gave up on their plans to relocate their office to the Cary grocery store this summer after a public outcry against the move. The immigration facility, a part of the Department of Homeland Security, would have been an office and not a detention facility but residents and town officials were alarmed nonetheless, prompting a resolution opposing the site from the Cary Town Council.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has leased an office in Cary off Evans Road for more than a decade, but the agency is looking for another location. The feds say the facility would have no beds, showers or food service, and would not be equipped for overnight detentions.

The federal General Services Administration is continuing its search for an alternate site. Communities under consideration include Cary, Raleigh, Garner, Apex, Morrisville, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina and unincorporated portions of Wake County.

Murawski: 919-829-8932