Couture to bring grocer to Milwaukee lakefront

Milwaukee Alderman Helps Police Chase Bank Robbery Suspects

250 Plaza office in downtown Milwaukee sold for $7.5M

Change in chefs at centro cafe

Although she’s still in the kitchen at the Riverwest Italian restaurant, A.J. Dixon has stepped down from her position as head chef at centro cafe, 808 E. Center St. Josh Unser has taken her place in leading the kitchen. Dixon said she needed more time to develop her own restaurant, the Lazy Susan, which she hopes to open by December. The location hasn’t yet been finalized, she said.

Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra considers move to Couture

Mandel Group proposing supermarket for North End’s third phase

Mandel Group Inc. is seeking tax credits for a 53,000-square-foot, Milwaukee-based grocery store to be included in the third phase of its North End project in the Park East corridor in downtown Milwaukee. The project’s up to $60 million third phase is anticipated to have 180 apartments plus the grocery store, according to report from West Allis’ First-Ring Industrial Redevelopment Enterprise Inc., or FIRE. The project would be in the North End site at the northwest corner of East Pleasant and North Water streets. The store would create the equivalent of 84 full-time jobs. The report does not name the store, but said it would have a Milwaukee-based operator providing a full-service store with “fresh, healthy food options.” The grocery store would cost $14 million to build, but Mandel can raise only $10.5 million in bank financing, according to the report. It is requesting almost $2.8 million in new markets tax credits from FIRE. The credits also would provide an incentive to the grocer to commit to the project. Richard Lincoln, senior vice president of Milwaukee-based Mandel Group, declined to comment. The FIRE organization’s board discussed the request for credits on Wednesday and recommended it be given further consideration, said Patrick Schloss, West Allis community development manager. “It’s like going to a bank and submitting an application for a loan,” he said

Former Kohl’s store to be converted to Asian market

A former Kohl’s department and food store on Milwaukee’s northwest side has been empty for about 10 years, but it is to reopen as a Pacific Produce Asian market after selling for $1.5 million. The 62,000-square-foot building, 8340 W. Appleton Ave., will come back to life as a grocery store this spring, said Peter Glaser, first vice president at CBRE Group Inc., Milwaukee, who brokered the land sale this month. An affiliate of Nationwide Mutual Insurance, Columbus, Ohio, sold the property on a deal that closed March 7. The owners of Pacific Produce bought the building and are renovating it. They run a similar store at the corner of South 27th Street and West Grange Avenue in Greenfield. The grocery proposal received an “overwhelmingly positive” response during a neighborhood meeting about the store conversion, said Milwaukee Ald. James Bohl, whose district includes the property. “He talked about coming in and wanting to have one of the biggest produce sections in the state of Wisconsin in there and focusing on fresh fish too,” Bohl said of the new owner. “It’ll bring new offerings to the area with different staples.” Kohl’s originally developed the building as a department and food store and renovated it around 1999 into just a grocery location, Glaser said. It closed after Kohl’s Food Stores in 2003 announced plans to shutter and sell 23 Milwaukee-area locations. As a Kohl’s, the property was a busy hub in the neighborhood, but it has been a empty building for almost a decade at the busy intersection of three major streets, Bohl said. Save for a less than six-month revival as a low-cost grocery store, the building has been empty for about 10 years, he said. “It’s been a big white elephant sitting there for a long time,” Bohl said.

Stunned by bribe allegation, Milwaukee panel rejects liquor license

Jim Witkowiak – the former Milwaukee alderman who runs a large local funeral home – is used to burying bodies. On Tuesday, he dug up some old skeletons. In stunning testimony before a Common Council committee, Witkowiak said a local businessman offered him a $2,500 bribe in early 2011 to help clear the way for a liquor store near Witkowiak’s district on the city’s south side. “Wow,” said Ald. Tony Zielinski, chairman of the city Licenses Committee. “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.” Witkowiak, who lost his seat last year, told the City Hall audience that he immediately alerted the FBI after receiving the large envelope with 25 $100 bills. Three agents then recorded a conversation between the alderman and the businessman, Inderjeet Dhillon. “The FBI agents instructed me to ask Mr. Dhillon what the $2,500 was for,” said Witkowiak, who spent 16 years on the Common Council. “I asked Mr. Dhillon that question, and he replied that it was for me. “I replied, ‘Fine, I understand that, but what is the purpose of this money?’ Mr. Dhillon replied, ‘So you can help me get my liquor license at my store on 6th St. and Becher.’ ” Officials with the Milwaukee office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation did not return calls on Tuesday afternoon. Sources suggested that the probe is ongoing. Dhillon said in an interview that his actions were being misconstrued. He said he intended the cash as a campaign donation, noting he has given to Witkowiak in the past. “Why did he lose election if he’s a good alderman?” Dhillon snapped. Witkowiak made his remarks at a hearing in which the city Licenses Committee was considering a new liquor license application from Dhillon, who wants to open an Indian restaurant that would also sell packaged liquor on the south side. The testimony had immediate repercussions. Dhillon’s lawyer, David Carr, and two advisers – former acting Mayor Marvin Pratt and Hispanic operative Juan Carlos Ruiz – abandoned the businessman even while the license application was being discussed. “First, the applicant comes to the (witness) table with Juan Carlos (Ruiz), Marvin Pratt and his attorney,” Zielinski said, setting the scene. “They take a break. Juan Carlos doesn’t return. The attorney announces he’s recusing; he leaves. Marvin Pratt, sometime thereafter, announces he’s withdrawing. You just have the applicant sitting by himself at the table there.” Apparently, these experienced political hands were taken aback by the allegations. “We didn’t know anything about this,” Ruiz said later. Pratt was even more pointed: “It was weird and unprecedented.” The committee voted 4-0 against granting Dhillon a liquor license. In his remarks, Witkowiak painted the scene as something bordering on slapstick. He said Dhillon invited him to lunch at the Royal India Restaurant at 3400 S. 27th St. on Jan. 27, 2011. The two chatted about their families and the weather, with Dhillon explaining that he wanted the two to become friends. But when Witkowiak got up to go, Dhillon offered him a […]

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Kelly Grebe