Wellness complex well underway in Marathon City

Matthew Day

Staff

September 14, 2026

MARATHON CITY – A long-empty lot in downtown Marathon City will soon be the home of a multifaceted health venture. 

Construction for the new building – which will feature a health clinic, farm-to-table grocery store and an event/learning space – began with a June 19 groundbreaking ceremony, per the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC). 

Located on the 400 block of Main Street, the project is being led by Dr. Taryn Stittleburg, owner and functional medicine practitioner of Stittleburg Restorative Health Care. 

Stittleburg said the wellness-centered complex will feature Integrate Functional Health – which expands on her current practice – while also addressing the area’s relative lack of grocery and food options with the all-new store, Whole Roots & Co. 

The site, she said, has sat empty as “a gravel lot for, I think, over 10 years, right in the middle of Marathon City.” 

“It was supposed to be a grocery store, maybe seven years ago,” she said, yet the project was never seen through. 

With the complex slated to be fully functional in February 2027, Stittleburg said residents will finally have access to groceries – as well as “a physical integrative clinic” – in downtown Marathon City. 

Funding for the private, $3 million venture, she said, was also aided by a $250,000 Community Development Investment grant from WEDC. 

Beyond the goods and services offered, Stittleburg said she’s excited to address the dearth of development downtown, as the complex represents Marathon City’s first large-scale, new investment in decades. 

While admitting to a sense of pressure to get this right, she said the venture stands to meet an array of community needs and bolster the village itself.  

“The opportunity to develop an entire street block in the heart of this part of downtown – I don’t know how anybody could say ‘no’ to that,” she said. “And it’s needed.” 

Integrate Functional Health 

Most of the forthcoming facility’s nearly 9,000 square feet, Stittleburg said, will be dedicated to Integrate Functional Health.  

She said the clinic will carry forth the foundational mission of Stittleburg Restorative Health Care. 

This mission, per stittleburgrhc.com, is “to use personalized functional medicine, focusing on the root cause of disease, instead of treating the symptoms,” while helping patients to “find the cause of your illness and the biochemical and nutritional imbalances that may be making you feel ill.” 

Although it will build on her established practice, Stittleburg said Integrate “is going to be its own business.” 

“We’re bringing new stuff into it, like direct primary care subscription, IV therapy, chiropractic, esthetics, neuromotor functional neurology [and] we’ll have mental health therapy,” she said. 

Stittleburg – who is a doctor of chiropractic and is double board-certified in clinical nutrition – said she has run her restorative healthcare clinic for eight years. 

The current clinic, she said, operates virtually, with patients in more than half of U.S. states. 

Running a physical clinic like Integrate, Stittleburg said, “has been my dream since I was in high school.” 

“Almost 20 years ago, I was in a car accident that completely changed the trajectory of my life…,” she said. “Thank goodness, I’m here, and I’m alive – which I should not have been.” 

Following the accident, Stittleburg said she was afflicted by chronic pain and migraines. 

Faced with seemingly never-ending ailments, she said “there just really wasn’t a solution through traditional medicine.”  

“I really wanted to get to know how to heal me, as opposed to [simply temporarily treating my symptoms],” she said.  

It would only be through alternative medicine, Stittleburg said, that she was able to heal. 

Since then, she said her interest in alternative medicine only continued to grow, inspiring her to become the practitioner she is today. 

“There’s a time and place for traditional medicine, like acute situations – that’s where that belongs,” she said. “But when you get into chronic healthcare concerns, that’s where alternative medicine comes into play, so that’s why we’re trying to do an integrative model.” 

Stittleburg said Integrate will provide the region a unique style of health care – “I don’t know that there’s a single clinic like this in Wisconsin.”  

“This is kind of a one-stop shop for our current patients’ needs, but also what children’s health needs more of, you could say, and health in general,” she said. 

Stittleburg said her personal fulfillment will be a bonus of the clinic, while also coming to fruition around the time she’d hoped it would. 

“My goal was always to have a physical integrative clinic by the time my youngest was in school,” she said, “and she starts kindergarten this fall.” 

Whole Roots & Co. 

Stittleburg – whose husband is a third-generation organic dairy farmer – said the complex’s farm-to-table grocery store, Whole Roots & Co., accounts for the rest of the space. 

“It’s almost set up like a deli,” she said, “and then, right next to it, through the same doors, there’s an event space with a huge garage door to go to the outside patio.” 

Whole Roots, she said, is “all about local farms [and] quality produce,” and is set to source from about 25 different local farms. 

Stittleburg said the store will be managed by her “right-hand lady,” Pam Kangas. 

Kangas also works at Stittleburg Restorative Health Care, where she said she is a “Christian health practitioner specializing in nutrition and mineral balancing,” as well as hair, tissue and mineral analysis at the clinic. 

Owning an organic farm with her husband, Kangas said, has led to her involvement with area farmers’ markets, where she’s developed many of the standards and practices she’ll employ on a larger scale at Whole Roots. 

“Our mission is basically to be able to provide high-quality, meeting or exceeding organic standards of fresh produce, fresh-milled breads, other baked goods, grass-fed/grass-finished meats, God-made fruits, vegetables, honey, herbs – all of the good, healing foods to our local community,” she said. 

Food is “the starting point” for Whole Roots, Kangas said, but the plan for the store is to also carry household goods produced with similar standards: “no seed oils, no dyes, no bioengineered food ingredients, none of the unnecessary junk.” 

She said the store will prepare grab-and-go options for breakfast and lunch, as well as food to be ordered ahead, in its commercial-grade kitchen. 

“[My husband and I] try and cook from home as much as possible – we know how much healthier that is – but when you get stuck with running kids to sports and all the things, those later nights, you need to stop somewhere [to pick up a meal],” she said. “It’s a struggle to find a place where you’re not going to have seed oils, [for example].” 

Whole Roots’ event space, Stittleburg and Kangas said, will host classes to teach learners of all ages about food, where it comes from and what to look for on ingredient labels, as well as production, preparation and preservation techniques. 

“I’m very hopeful the event space is going to help us teach and give some of those tools back to a world that just lives in their phones,” Stittleburg said. 

Stittleburg said the store is also a vehicle for her nonprofit organization. 

“That is going to be functioning out of [Whole Roots], where we give free, organically raised veggies to families in need,” she said. 

New complex, simple pleasures 

Amid all the project’s detailed, often complicated planning, Kangas and Stittleburg said they’ve remained centered due to the support of the Village of Marathon City and the enthusiasm of area residents. 

“There are a lot of people who follow our farm, who follow Taryn’s functional clinic, who all are in agreement with [these values],” Kangas said. “I would say we have a lot of interest from people, so I think it’s going to be a blessing to the community.” 

Stittleburg – who continues to balance her familial and clinical responsibilities – said being the driving force behind the new project “has been a huge undertaking.” 

She said she credits her peers and collaborators for her perseverance and positive spirit. 

“My team’s amazing, and our building is beautiful,” she said. “And, I think… when your heart is in the right place, and you’re here to do good, things fall [into place] and come to fruition easier.” 

Kangas said she’s eager for the complex to strengthen people, inside and out. 

“We love making people feel good, whether it’s helping them nourish their bodies or learn how to take care of and listen to their bodies,” she said. 

Between Integrate Functional Health and Whole Roots & Co., Stittleburg said she’s looking forward to her new in-person practice and the chance to more widely promote nutrition – all while building up Marathon City itself. 

“We just want to keep changing people’s lives,” she said. 

Follow Whole Roots & Co. and Stittleburg Restorative Health Care on social media for updates.