After more than 130 years in business,
A. Werner Silversmiths will close and is listing for sale its downtown Milwaukee building in the Water Street bar district.
A. Werner has long been located at 1241 N. Water St. The business is a throwback to a different era in the city's history, when Water Street was lined with industry instead of bars and restaurants.
Its owners, Mike and Dennis Wied, are listing the building for sale through Milwaukee-based The Barry Co. The asking price is $990,000.
The 126-year-old building has 3,520 square feet of retail space and a parking lot with four spaces, according to The Barry Co. It was constructed in 1895 and sits on a 2,410-square-foot lot, according to city records. The property has an assessed value of $172,300.
"Location is everything with this listing," said Nick Zurich of The Barry Co. "It's right in the middle of the entertainment district and a block away from Fiserv Forum. Businesses on this block see a lot of activity."
To the building's south is a surface parking lot. That 9,642-square-foot lot is owned by an investors group led by
Buck Bradley's owner Walter Paget.
Adolf Werner, an immigrant from Austria, started A. Warner in 1888. His son, Leo, ran the business from 1940 until his death in 1954. Douglas Wied, Leo Werner's apprentice, took over after his death. He later passed the business onto his sons.
A. Werner once worked with jewelers and department stores in the downtown area.
"Milwaukee has changed a lot," Mike Wied said in a statement. "This area used to be nothing but highway overpass (the Park East freeway). We just stayed here and watched Water Street grow around us."
Mike Wied said business has steadily slowed at A. Werner. It takes a long time to train someone to take over the practice, "so we decided it was time to sell."
