New Tenant For Shuttered Riverwest Dollar General
Grocery store and restaurant proposed for boarded-up building.
Dollar General, 1300 E. Locust St. Photo by Sophie Bolich.
A shuttered Dollar General location could soon reopen as a grocery store and restaurant, expanding Riverwest‘s limited access to fresh food.
Abdel Naser Al Saher plans to redevelop the boarded-up building at 1300 E. Locust St. into a home for Metro Pantry and Food. Pending city approval, the new business is set to open in November.
The proposal comes as neighborhood grocery options dwindle, following Dollar General’s late-2024 closure and Riverwest Co-op & Cafe’s recent announcement that it plans to declare bankruptcy and shut down after years of financial struggle.
Under Al Saher, the western half of the 8,729-square-foot building would focus on retail, with shelves for non-perishable items and a wall of refrigerators and freezers for products like cheese, eggs and ice cream. The license application did not state whether the store’s inventory would include fresh fruits, vegetables or meat.
Metro Food and Pantry also plans to sell cigarettes, tobacco and vape products, which would be stored behind the counter.
A quick-service restaurant would occupy the remaining space, with floor plans showing a coffee counter and dine-in area. A menu for the proposed eatery was not included in the license application, though sign permits indicate it will offer pizza and fried chicken.
Al Saher, an Ohio resident, cites previous experience as a retail owner. He’s working with Oak Creek-based ETn Engineering for interior construction, including a kitchen build-out. The project is estimated at $120,000.
The Riverwest property, located between two large residential buildings and across from Gordon Park, is currently owned by DG6 Milwaukee 4 Guys, LLC, according to city assessment records.
Dollar General’s decade-long tenure was punctuated by frequent neighborhood complaints, often raised during the business’s annual license renewal hearings.
In 2023, the Milwaukee Common Council suspended the store’s license for nearly three weeks due to concerns about excessive littering, ongoing complaints from neighbors, and failure to comply with the plan of operation. In 2015, the store was the site of an armed robbery that led to a police officer-involved shooting.
Dollar General shuttered a second Milwaukee store last spring, but still maintains four locations across the city.
Al Saher did not respond to multiple requests for comment by the time of publication.
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