Thrift store to occupy former Kohl's grocery in Waukesha

Dec. 16, 2010

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By Laurel Walker of the Journal Sentinel

Dec. 16, 2010 0

Waukesha - A former Kohl's grocery store on Sunset Drive that has been closed for seven years will reopen as a thrift store next spring after the St. Vincent de Paul Society in Waukesha County closes on the deal in the next couple of weeks.

The Waukesha Town Board gave final approval to the operation last week, and a tentative sale date has been set for Dec. 28.

The property is owned by General Capital Group of Milwaukee, which has a 20-year lease with The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. Inc.

That firm, A&P, owned Kohl's - as well as other food store chains - before closing the Kohl's stores in late 2003. A&P has just filed for bankruptcy.

General Capital Group intends to keep a one-acre lot at Sunset and Prairie avenues. The remainder of the site includes 5.7 acres and a 47,000-square-foot building.

An April opening for the thrift store is anticipated.

Steve Cigich, president of the Waukesha County Council of St. Vincent, said the new store will allow St. Vincent to increase its revenue from thrift store sales and, as a result, increase its ministry services.

St. Vincent provides home visits to the needy, meal programs, food pantry support, school supplies and summer lunch programs, jail ministry and other services.

In the last fiscal year that ended Sept. 31, St. Vincent volunteers made more than 3,300 home visits, helping more than 10,000 people with services valued over $1.5 million, according to Bob Buerger, the organization's volunteer director of community outreach in Waukesha County.

St. Vincent currently has two thrift stores in Waukesha County - one a former Piggly Wiggly store on Brown St. in the Town of Oconomowoc acquired in May 2006, and the other a small store on Main St. in Waukesha.

Cigich said the thrift stores bring in about $1 million a year, but almost all of it comes from the Oconomowoc area store.

No decision has been made on what to do with the small Waukesha store once the new one is opened, Cigich said. The expected revenue increase from the larger Sunset Drive store will likely be used to expand services in the downtown area, he said.

Calling Sunset Drive "the Blue Mound Road of Waukesha" because of recent retail development, Cigich said the thrift store location is expected to bring in high traffic and has ample parking, unlike the downtown store.

About Laurel Walker

Laurel Walker covered local, school and county government for 20 years -- the last half of that at the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- before she was named Waukesha County columnist in 1997. Today she writes about the people, places and events around metropolitan Milwaukee with a broad suburban focus. She was the youngest of nine children raised on a central Wisconsin farm before leaving the nest for journalism studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a masters degree at the University of Oregon. She has spent the last half of her life in Waukesha County, where she and her husband raised two sons. Though she has a fondness for life in Waukesha, she eagerly partakes in the culture of the big city to the east and the recreation of the forests to the west. With sons in the arts, she has a special fondness for symphonic music concerts and art museums. She finds peace in a good book at a Northwoods getaway weekend, adventure in family visits to the east and west coasts, and satisfaction in a column well-written that reaches readers.