Shops of Grand Avenue

Last updated
Shops of Grand Avenue
Shops of Grand Avenue.jpg
Inside the Shops of Grand Avenue
Location Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
Opening date 1982
Management Mid-America Real Estate Group
No. of stores and services 80+
No. of anchor tenants 2
Total retail floor area 367,968 square feet (34,185.3 m2) [1]
No. of floors 3
Website http://www.grandavenueshops.com/

The Shops of Grand Avenue (colloquially referred to as "Grand Avenue") is an urban shopping plaza that spans three city blocks in the downtown neighborhood of Westown in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Milwaukee Largest city in Wisconsin

Milwaukee is the largest city in the state of Wisconsin and the fifth-largest city in the Midwestern United States. The seat of the eponymous county, it is on Lake Michigan's western shore. Ranked by its estimated 2014 population, Milwaukee was the 31st largest city in the United States. The city's estimated population in 2017 was 595,351. Milwaukee is the main cultural and economic center of the Milwaukee metropolitan area which had a population of 2,043,904 in the 2014 census estimate. It is the second-most densely populated metropolitan area in the Midwest, surpassed only by Chicago. Milwaukee is considered a Gamma global city as categorized by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network with a regional GDP of over $105 billion.

Wisconsin A north-central state of the United States of America

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States, in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin is the 23rd largest state by total area and the 20th most populous. The state capital is Madison, and its largest city is Milwaukee, which is located on the western shore of Lake Michigan. The state is divided into 72 counties.

Contents

The Shops of Grand Avenue is the only major indoor shopping facility in the city of Milwaukee proper with the closing of Capitol Court and the Northridge Mall in recent years due to competition from newly renovated malls in nearby suburbs.

Northridge Mall was a shopping mall located in the northern part of Milwaukee, Wisconsin that first opened in August 1972.

History

It opened in 1982 and hosted over 80 specialty stores, along with what was at one time the largest food court in Wisconsin. [2]

The shopping center was named after a bustling merchant street during the 19th century, Grand Avenue (present day Wisconsin Avenue). A main portion of The Shops of Grand Avenue encompasses the former Plankinton Arcade with many of its original features still intact including the statue of John Plankinton in the center of the circular atrium. The Arcade replaced the Plankinton House Hotel on the same site.

John Plankinton statue

The John Plankinton statue is a six-foot lifelike representation of the businessman and industrialist. It took the sculptor six months to make and was initially placed in the Plankinton House Hotel in downtown Milwaukee in 1892. It is presently located in the Grand's Plankinton Arcade shopping plaza, a redevelopment project at the same location where the hotel once stood. It was completely restored in 2012.

Grand Avenue was opened during a time when many downtown retail centers in major cities were shutting down. It has avoided these problems by relying on locally owned shops that cater to the "urban" tastes of the nearby populace, in addition to the national chain-stores it houses such as T.J. Maxx and its anchor Boston Store. Because of limited street/surface parking, an adjacent south ramp provides hourly fee parking, costs heavily offset by mall purchase validation.

The Boston Store Inc. was an online retailer and former department store chain owned by The Bon-Ton stores. It was founded in 1897 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

At one time, the mall also featured Marshall Field's (Gimbels until 1986) on the east edge of the mall, but the location closed in 1997. The building that housed it, now ASQ Center, is still connected to Grand Avenue by a skywalk and features a Residence Inn, although it is not technically part of The Shops of Grand Avenue. With the east addition of the downtown YMCA, their circling walking track has views down to Grand Plankinton Concourse thru skylights.

Marshall Field's was a department store in Chicago, Illinois, that grew to become a chain before being acquired by Federated Department Stores in 2005.

Gimbel Brothers (Gimbels) was an American department store corporation that operated for a century, from 1887 until 1987. Adam Gimbel opened his first store in Vincennes, Indiana, in 1842. In 1887, the company moved its operations to the Gimbel Brothers Department Store in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, then became a chain when it opened a second, larger store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1894, moving its headquarters there. At the urging of future company president Bernard Gimbel, grandson of the founder, the company expanded to New York City in 1910.

American Society for Quality knowledge-based global community of quality professionals

The American Society for Quality (ASQ), formerly the American Society for Quality Control (ASQC), is a knowledge-based global community of quality professionals, with nearly 80,000 members dedicated to promoting and advancing quality tools, principles, and practices in their workplaces and communities.

TJ Maxx and Linens 'n Things were added in 2002. [3]

Due to the economic downfall and its impact on the Milwaukee metropolitan area, the mall has lost many tenants. This has led to local speculation regarding the mall's demise or potential renovation should the mall eventually find interested investors. [4] In May 2014 it was announced that the property would be put up for auction with a starting bid price of $4.75 million. [5]

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Elizabeth Plankinton

Elizabeth Ann or AnnePlankinton was an American philanthropist in the early 20th century, the daughter of Milwaukee businessman John Plankinton. She supported local artists and artisans. One of her notable gifts was the 1885 statue of George Washington that was ultimately placed in Milwaukee's Monument Square. The people of Milwaukee called Plankinton the "municipal patroness" because of her generosity and she was also known as "Miss Lizzie".

Elizabeth Plankinton House

The Elizabeth Plankinton House was a stone structure in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, intended to be the residence for Elizabeth Plankinton. Built between 1886 and 1888 by John Plankinton for his daughter as a wedding gift, it cost at least $100,000. Architect Edward Townsend Mix designed the house in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. It was located opposite John Plankinton's own house on Grand Avenue in an upscale residential area of the western part of the city, near other mansions. Mrs. Margaret Johnston was the only person to have a permanent residence in the house (1896–1904). The Knights of Columbus used the property between 1910 and 1978. Despite being listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, the house was demolished on October 11, 1980, to make way for student facilities for Marquette University.

William Plankinton Mansion

The William Plankinton Mansion was built in 1876 by the millionaire meatpacking entrepeneur John Plankinton and presented as a wedding gift when his son William Plankinton married Mary Ella Woods. Located at 1529 W. Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Victorian style residence was designed by E. Townsend Mix, the most prominent Milwaukee architect of that era. One of its notable ornaments was a lion's head on its external marble-faced construction. The interior featured ornate woodwork, and the stairwell was illuminated by a stained glass window. The building was sold in 1918 to Marquette University and for decades served as a hospital annex. In 1969 it was demolished to make way for new university structures.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.mallsandoutlets.com/malls/the-shops-of-grand-avenue-milwaukee-wi-mall/
  2. ↑ The Shops of Grand Avenue, Greater Milwaukee Convention & Visitors Bureau, Retrieved May 27, 2008.
  3. ↑ http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=MWSB&p_theme=mwsb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0F7453D3CC7D2BE4&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM
  4. ↑ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Grand Avenue needs a makeover, Retrieved August 26, 2010.
  5. ↑ WUWM, Want to Buy Grand Avenue Mall? Auction Bids Start at $4.75 Million, Retrieved May 15, 2014.

Coordinates: 43°02′20″N87°54′51″W / 43.038764°N 87.914168°W / 43.038764; -87.914168

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