PICKLER RELISHES CHANCE TO RESTORE BUILDING
Dave’s Famous Pickles, Peppers and Jams moves out of rental kitchen, into bigger home after saving structure from city’s raze order
WEST ALLIS - In one way, it was a bargain: pay $1 and get a building big enough to accommodate a growing business.
But that doesn’t take into account the $100,000 — and immeasurable loads of work — Dave Shanklin spent converting a rundown, empty structure into the new home for his business that makes pickles and other foods.
“It took a year and a half to complete,” Shanklin said, while showing off the renovated building. “Everything is brand new.”
Such as?
“Everything,” said Shanklin, who owns Dave’s Famous Pickles, Peppers and Jams LLC.
He’s only exaggerating a little.
The 800-square-foot building, at 7133 W. Becher St., was in such rough shape that Shanklin gutted the entire interior.
“Everything had to be taken out,” he said, “all the way down to the floor.”
Shanklin also installed a new roof, new siding and a new I-beam and support columns in the basement. The walls were about the only parts that stayed put.
Naturally, all the furnishings and fixtures are new. That includes plumbing, electrical and heating/ventilation/ air conditioning systems.
The commercial kitchen equipment is newly installed, but is largely used equipment that Shanklin bought at a discount. The ventilation hood had to be custom-crafted to fit the building, he said.
Shanklin even managed to get some furnishings for free: a series of small columns he found to help support counter space for 15 seats. He plans to open the sit-down dining area this winter.
Shanklin, 55, started pickling as a hobby in 2011, giving jars to his friends.
“They liked the stuff,” said Shanklin, whose most popular items are pickled green beans, which he calls dilly beans. His other homemade items include sweet pickles, sweet jalapeno peppers, blueberry jam and strawberry jam.
Shanklin turned his hobby
into a business after going through a divorce and getting laid off from a teaching job in the Brown Deer School District. His education included taking a canning course through the University of Wisconsin Extension and small business management courses at Waukesha County Technical College.
At first, Shanklin did his pickling at home. He took advantage of the “pickle bill,” legislation approved in 2010 that allows sales of homecanned pickles, salsas and jams at farmers markets without licensing or inspection.
Shanklin’s sales grew, mainly through farmers markets in Kenosha, West Allis, Greenfield and South Milwaukee.
So, in 2012, he began leasing space at a licensed commercial kitchen in Watertown before shifting the following year to Daniels Catering in West Allis.
Wanting his own space, Shanklin in 2014 asked for city approval to redevelop the Becher St. building, which is near his West Allis home.
The building, constructed in 1908, was for many years used as a neighborhood shoe store, with an apartment for the owners.
It was vacant and owned by Milwaukee County through property tax foreclosure when Shanklin first approached West Allis officials about his idea. The building was in such poor shape that it was facing a city raze order.
Ald. Cathleen Probst remembers sitting in a meeting with a city building inspector and Shanklin.
Probst and the building inspector tried to persuade Shanklin it might not be in his financial interests to spend a lot of money on a condemned property.
‘He could have opened at a different location for less money,” said Probst, whose district includes the Becher St. building.
Nevertheless, he persisted.
“I just liked the building,” Shanklin said, noting both its energy-efficient size and its good location on a visible street with other nearby businesses.
“And, I wanted to prove them wrong,” he said.
Shanklin bought the building in March 2015. It took six months for him to obtain city construction permits before he could start working on renovations.
The work lasted throughout 2016 and the first half of 2017. The project ended up costing way more than his initial $60,000 estimate.
Shanklin, helped by friends and family members, worked around his job of making and selling pickled items and homemade jams. His crew even poured new concrete to create a small ramp at the building’s entrance along S. 72nd St., as well as some new landscaping.
The project’s financing included a $70,000 loan from Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corp., a nonprofit small business lender, and $30,000 in equity cash. Shanklin raised some of that by selling a Florida vacation home.
The work was well worth it, he said.
“Now, I can make my products here instead of renting a kitchen,” said Shanklin, who is joined by his girlfriend, Mary Aprahamian, in the canning process.
In addition, the new building creates the potential for his business to earn new revenue.
Shanklin will lease kitchen space to other small food producers, including a Franklin woman who operates a taco truck.
Also, once the seasonal farmers market business slows down, Shanklin plans to create a retail storefront for carryout sales that will include a small space for sit-down dining.
He figures adding items such as hot dogs — to go along with his homemade relish — makes sense. The menu will likely include soup and sandwiches.
Probst praised Shanklin’s project.
“Anytime you can take an abandoned property and turn it around and make it into something, that’s great,” she said.
Meanwhile, the building is already proving its value as an investment. Shanklin said his insurer has it appraised at around $180,000. All that for a $1 purchase.
“It was cheap,” he said.