Kroger invests $2M in Midtown store

Remodeled Pick ’n Save opens to big crowd

The Roundy’s division of Kroger Co. on Wednesday unveiled a newly remodeled Pick ’n Save store at a shopping center in Milwaukee’s central city, an area that other large retailers have abandoned.

The company has invested $2 million in the store at 5700 W. Capitol Drive in a shopping development known as the Midtown Center.

The shopping center covers 44 acres bordered mainly by West Capitol Drive, West Fond du Lac Avenue and North 60th Street.

“We have made an investment in Milwaukee’s central city community,”

Henry Davis of Milwaukee selects sweet potatoes at the Pick ’n Save Midtown Center. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held to celebrate the store’s $2 million remodeling by Roundy’s.

said Michael Marx, the executive who leads Kroger’s Milwaukee-based Roundy’s subsidiary. “Where others have withdrawn, we’ve doubled down. Where others see doubt, we see an opportunity.”

Roundy’s operates the Pick ’n Save, Metro Market and Copps stores in Wisconsin and Mariano’s stores in northern Illinois.

The company has invested at least $250 million in the Badger State since purchasing Roundy’s in 2015.

On Wednesday, the Midtown store was hopping, with everyone from mothers with children and retirees to construction workers shopping at the store.

Firefighters from Milwaukee Fire Department Engine 24 and Rescue 2 are regular shoppers at the store. So are Milwaukee Police officers from District 7.

Second District Ald. Cavalier Johnson also is one of the store’s regular customers.

“There are so many neighborhoods and so many communities in our city that are classified as food deserts,” Johnson said. “It’s very important to make sure places like this are open and accessible to people who need them. “It’s incredibly important.” There are 83,542 households within a 3-mile radius of the shopping center, according to data from the shopping center’s owner, Tarrytown, N.Y.-based DLC Management Corp. Of those, 32,367, or nearly 40 percent, are households with children.

The estimated median household income for 2018 within that 3-mile radius is $45,000.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett also is a regular customer of the store, he said.

Being mayor of the the nation’s 31stlargest city doesn’t get him out of grocery shopping duties, he said. His wife sees to that.

“She hands me the list and says, ‘I don’t care what your job is, you’re going grocery shopping.’ ”

Of the Midtown Center Pick 'n Save, Barrett said, “It’s a really nice store. It’s something the residents deserve. It becomes almost like a community. It draws people.”

“It is awesome to have a store of this caliber in our neighborhood. It’s walking distance. This really is very, very impressive.”

Martha Austin, neighborhood resident

Midtown and the Pick ’n Save store opened in 2002, replacing the former Capitol Court mall.

A Walmart discount store and a Lowe’s home improvement store also opened at the site. Lowe’s left in 2009, and Walmart closed its store in 2016. Their buildings remain empty, as efforts to redevelop them continue.

The investment by Pick ’n Save goes beyond dollars and cents, Johnson said.

“People in this community want to have access to the the same sort of amenities available in other communities surrounding Milwaukee,” he said. “It’s a just a matter of having them here and building them here and supporting them here.”

The presence of the store also plays into the emerging field of study about the role trauma plays in the unraveling of neighborhoods and communities.

“As a kid who grew up in neighborhoods like 53206 and living here all my life, when young people walk down North Avenue, as I did when I was a kid, and they see all these businesses that are no longer operating — the windows are busted out, they’re boarded up — that begins to mess with the psyche of kids and they think that that’s normal. And it isn’t,” Johnson said.

Neighborhood resident Martha Austin said she’s just happy to have a nice grocery store nearby.

“It is awesome to have a store of this caliber in our neighborhood,” Austin said as she shopped at the Midtown Pick ’n Save on Wednesday. “It’s walking distance. This really is very, very impressive.”

Likewise, neighborhood resident Cissy Glazer said she was excited about the store remodel.

“Mister, I’ve been in this neighborhood 52 years. I think it’s wonderful they did this,” Glazer said. “There’s nowhere else to shop around here. There’s no other big store.

“I know the manager here. I know who he is. I talk to him every week,” she added.