Loans also OK’d for fitness club, Brady Street restaurant
The owners of a growing south side Milwaukee supermarket will use an economic development loan to help finance their purchase of the building in which they operate.
The Milwaukee Economic Development Corp. (MEDC) has approved a $240,000 loan for Villa Monte, LLC, which does business as Mi Super Mercado at 2200 S. 13th St. The Lincoln Neighborhood Redevelopment Corp. will also help finance the $605,000 project.
Villa Monte, owned by Roberto Montemayor and Humberto Villarreal, currently leases its 9,000-square-foot facility.
Since Monte and Villarreal have taken over the business, which specializes in Hispanic foods, they have put in new meat and produce departments, installed new coolers and a freezer, and have expanded the grocery department, with an additional 5,000 square feet of space. They have also added a check-cashing area. The business also handles money transfers and international telephone cards.
The store currently employs 13 people full-time and two part-time. Two full-time positions and one part-time position will be added.
In other action, the MEDC approved a $300,000 loan to Piazza di Mimma, LLC, for a new restaurant and bar at 1323 E. Brady St. on Milwaukee’s east side. The business will be a joint venture of Joe and Girolama "Mimma" Megna and Joanne and Nicholas Anton, two established Milwaukee restaurant families. The Megnas own the Brady Street property, which is just east of their Mimma’s CafŽ. The Antons own LaPerla restaurant on National Avenue.
Plans call for a new building that would give patrons the feeling of being outdoors. Construction has begun on the restaurant, which will seat about 150 people. The restaurant will offer appetizers, wood-oven-baked pizzas, sandwiches, gelato, pastries, coffee,
and bar beverages.
Piazza di Mimma would have eight full-time and nine part-time employees.
M&I Bank is also participating in the project with $700,000 in financing.
The MEDC also approved a $66,000 loan to a northwest Milwaukee fitness center called Spiritually Beautiful Dissed-Stressed Club. The owners recently purchased a vacant fitness center building at 8940 N. 85th St. and are in the process of renovating it for an expanded fitness club.
The business, owned by Joyce Davis, Barbara Carter O’Neal and Elnora Wilson, has been operating since 1997, combining spiritual and holistic approaches with physical fitness. At the new site, the business would increase staffing from three full-time to four full-time and eight part-time.
Legacy Bank is participating in financing of the project, with a $99,000 loan.
MEDC delayed for further consideration a loan request from Tristar Development for a project on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Milwaukee. Tristar is seeking $200,000 in MEDC loans for a $1,378,590 project in which Legacy Bank would partner.
Tristar Development is a venture of Rilla and Noel Williams, and
Betty Nevels.
Noel Williams is a self-employed CPA, operating his business from the second floor of a building he owns at 1842 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. The Williamses would like to purchase the city-owned lot immediately to the north of the CPA office building and construct a two-story, 11,700-square-foot building on the site.
Rilla Williams would operate Pristine Child Care Center on the first level of the new building. The second floor would be used for additional CPA office space. A two-story garage would be built and connected to the rear of the existing CPA office building and would be used to house daycare vans.
Dec. 6, 2002 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
