New restaurant hub planned
Granville Connection to be near Northridge Mall
A planned hub of restaurants and other small businesses near Milwaukee’s former Northridge Mall is seeking a $250,000 state grant and expects to open this fall.
Known as The Granville Connection, the development is planned for a former Joann Fabrics store at 8633 W. Brown Deer Road.
The $500,000 project is to convert the space into a community hub featuring seven food vendors, including a coffee shop, as well as a stage for weekend music performances, said Mary Hoehne, executive director of the Granville Business Improvement District.
The district is leading the project. That organization is financed by assessments on commercial properties within the area along West Brown Deer Road between North 66th and North 95th streets and North 76th Street between West County Line and West Good Hope roads.
The grant, from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., would help finance Granville Connection’s commercial kitchen. It is expected to arrive by April 15, Hoehne said Tuesday.
Major renovations will then start, with the hub to open by late September or early October, she said.
The names of the food vendors and other business operators will be announced later, Hoehne said.
The 22,000-square-foot Granville Connection will have common seating for up to 200 people, she said, with weekend music performances planned.
Other planned businesses include a fitness studio, as well as space for entrepreneurs selling custom-designed clothing, jewelry and other items, Hoehne said. Those vendors will include Black entrepreneurs, she said.
The business improvement district, which was founded in 2013, is financing the development largely through its cash reserves, Hoehne said.
Granville Connection is designed to create more activity on the Brown Deer
Road commercial strip, she said.
That area has seen numerous store and restaurant closings following the 2003 shuttering of Northridge Mall.
A demolition order is pending on Northridge, which city officials say poses safety and environmental hazards because of its dilapidated condition.
A judge’s May ruling upholding that 2019 raze order has been appealed to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals by mall owner U.S. Black Spruce Enterprise Group Inc.
Granville Connection is modeled on the 26,000-square-foot Grow DeSoto Market Place, a redeveloped former Ace Hardware store in DeSoto, Texas.
It would be similar to Sherman Phoenix, a restaurant and small business hub that opened in 2018 at 3536 W. Fond du Lac Ave.
Granville Connection is planned for a more suburban, auto-oriented location compared to the Sherman Park neighborhood which hosts Sherman Phoenix.
“The people who live on the far northwest side are used to getting in their car and driving somewhere,” Hoehne said. “That is their lifestyle.”
Granville Connection has the advantage of ample parking, as well as preferable lease terms with Jay Walia, whose investment group Slinger Cheese LLC owns the strip retail center that includes the former Joann Fabrics, Hoehne said.
The restaurants’ prospective customers include employees of district businesses during the lunch hour. Those include companies, such as ETE Reman Inc., that redeveloped former stores.
“I’ve got 39,000 people who are coming to Granville every day who are hungry,” Hoehne said.
The grant application was approved on a 15-0 vote Tuesday by the Common Council.
“I’m really excited about this project,” said Ald. Chantia Lewis, whose district includes the site.