Interval Coffee Will Open In Bay View

Interval plans to open a new cafe in Bay View at 2266 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.

It will be the third cafe for the fast-growing coffee roaster and purveyor. Led by Ryan Hoban, the first cafe opened at 1600 N. Jackson St. in 2018. A second cafe, run in partnership with Milwaukee Artist Resource Network, opened in the Historic Third Ward last year.

The new cafe will fill the space recently vacated by Stone Creek Coffee. The larger chain closed its cafe in December after failing to reach a resolution on who should repair a leaning wall involving the cafe, building owner and city.

But the wall is now being replaced and a new agreement with the city has been struck allowing long-term use of the plaza to the south.

Property owner SG Property Management said in a statement it was proud to announce Interval as the new tenant.

“Interval and owner Ryan Hoban have established themselves on the East Side, and recently the Third Ward, as an upscale neighborhood cafe,” said SG. The firm is led by Scott Genke and has a number of holdings in the Bay View area.

When the council debated a new lease agreement for the plaza and a repair plan for the wall earlier this month, Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic said she was excited about the then-undisclosed tenant.

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

But the Interval Instragram account teased a Bay View cafe on Dec. 31. “Stay tuned for some more exciting things to come in 2022, a new space in Bay View to roast our coffee from and serve you all at, more people being added to our team, more focus, more creativity, more opportunities for us to share more of our lives together,” said the post.

Interval offers its own roasted coffee and a “hyper-seasonal menu of Scandinavian-inspired small plates and homemade pastries.”

The Instagram page now says the new location will open in summer 2022. Work is already underway to repair the two-story building.

“We’ve recently removed a free-standing brick wall on the City’s property that has remained since 1968 when the neighboring building was razed,” said SG. “We are now in the process of rebuilding our southern façade to benefit our building for decades to come.”

Interval has a history of taking over former cafes. Its Lower East Side cafe is in the former Pleasant Kafe, and its Third Ward cafe replaced the short-lived FOMA Coffee & Wine Bar.

The news of the new cafe comes the same week that Milwaukee was named the best coffee city in the country by Clever Real Estate. “Milwaukee is the best at balancing affordable brews with a growing coffee scene,” says the report. “The area’s affordable cost of living provides Milwaukee cafe owners the flexibility they need to create a unique experience for cafe-goers.”

Bay View Building History

The new Bay View cafe will be located in a building with an unusual history. It was built in 1920 between two existing buildings and with no space to create its own exterior walls, it long-relied on those of the adjoining buildings. The building to the south was demolished 50 years later, but its north wall was left behind by necessity.

That “party wall” stood out from the remaining building to which it was attached (it is colored tan, versus the brown brick of the former Stone Creek cafe). When Stone Creek opened in 2003, it leased the vacant lot and made it into a plaza. A steel awning was added to the wall. In 2011 a nearby business owner noticed that the wall had moved, but city records indicate no substantial action was taken. In 2021, Stone Creek owner Eric Resch noticed a portion of the wall had further separated from the cafe building.

The City Attorney previously issued a written opinion that because the wall was left for the sole benefit of the still-standing building, the city does not need to bear the cost of repairing it. The council removed any lingering uncertainty by approving a deal to sell two linear feet of its property to Genke for $1.

Genke’s firm is also now directly leasing the plaza, instead of the cafe tenant. Public access must be allowed, and the developer must maintain the improvements and landscaping. The plaza currently contains a handful of trees, a fountain and a series of benches.

Geoff’s Construction, which recently completed work on SG’s BV+ development, is building the new wall. The permit request lists an estimated cost of $90,000. An affiliate of SG paid $400,000 for the 2,838-square-foot building, which also includes an apartment on the second floor.

Genke has executed a number of other projects in the neighborhood in recent years. In 2016, SG redeveloped the King Building into the King Lofts, 2534 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. SmallPie, in 2018, opened in a SG property at 2504 E. Oklahoma Ave. In 2019, the firm purchased and renovated 2870 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., ultimately landing Ormson Supply Co. as a tenant. In 2021, his firm completed the development of the 18-unit BV+ building and renovated the adjacent Bay View Building, 2569-2573 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. Honeypie and Nonfiction Natural Wines are anchor commercial tenants. SG is now pursuing the development of an apartment building at 2860 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., the former American Legion site.

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