Hayat Pharmacy Will Open on Brady Street

The site of a former Starbucks cafe is slated to become the latest location for Milwaukee-based Hayat Pharmacy. The independent pharmacy chain will open a location at the corner of E. Brady St. and N. Farwell Ave.

Brady Street Business Improvement District executive director Rachel Taylor said Friday that she expects construction to begin this summer with a possible opening later this year.

Starbucks vacated the first-floor space in October 2018, with an affiliate of Hayat acquiring the property, at 1673-1677 N. Farwell Ave., for $825,000 in November 2019. When Starbucks was still a tenant, it was listed for sale for $1.2 million.

The three-story building includes 8,347 square feet of leasable space. The upper floors include office space. A one-story addition, 1433 E. Brady St., is occupied by The Dogg Haus. According to the city land management system, no building permits have been filed for a new pharmacy.

Before the company opens a new pharmacy, it’s already providing health services in the neighborhood. In partnership with the Nomad World Pub, the pharmacy will lead a free COVID-19 vaccine clinic at the bar on April 29th from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Get a shot, take a shot.

Pharmacist Hashim Zaibak opened the first Hayat Pharmacy in 2011. Since then the company has added 17 locations, either stand-alone stores or embedded in larger facilities. Eleven of the locations are in the city of Milwaukee.

The Brady/Farwell location will have plenty of competition. Immediately north of the building is a Walgreens convenience store with a pharmacy (1400 E. Brady St.). To the east is a CVS convenience store with a pharmacy (1650 N. Farwell Ave.). The independent Brady Street Pharmacy, 1696 N. Astor St., closed in 2008, with the building redeveloped as a new home for Glorioso’s Italian Market.

Hayat, particularly at its southside location at 807 W. Layton Ave., has been one of the region’s leading providers of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The building Hayat will occupy on Brady is part of the John Kunitzky Block, constructed in 1880 in the Italianate style with a design by future City Hall architect Henry C. Koch. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is locally protected by the Historic Preservation Commission. The latter requires all exterior alterations to be reviewed by the commission. The designation report for the former notes that Kunitzky operated a saloon on the first floor and lived on the second. A hall was available for rent on the third floor.

The first floor has spent much of the past year boarded up with the plywood boards becoming a canvas for street artists, resulting in a number of complaints submitted to the Department of Neighborhood Services.

Zaibak did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.