John and Anne Nehring, the owners of Nehring’s Sendik’s in Shorewood, G. Groppi Food Market in Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood, Nehring’s Family Market at the Milwaukee Public Market and V. Richard’s in Brookfield, have taken over the Sendik’s grocery store at 2643 N. Downer Ave. on Milwaukee’s East Side.
The 104-year-old, 22,476-square-foot building that the Downer Avenue store occupies was purchased this week by Milwaukee-based DeMichele Company, which bought the building for $1.525 million from Salvatore Sendik, according to state records.
The Nehrings are leasing the building from DeMichele, Anne Nehring said. The store will now be known as Nehring’s Sendik’s on Downer, she said.
The Nehrings bought the store because it fits in with their niche of smaller, traditional neighborhood grocery stores and because they wanted to preserve the store’s presence in Milwaukee, Anne Nehring said.
“This is a huge tradition in Milwaukee,” she said. “This store has been part of Milwaukee history for many years. It’s really a huge part of this neighborhood. The East Side and UWM neighborhood has been shopping at this store forever. It’s just part of the fabric of Milwaukee that we felt was really important to maintain. We are not about big stores. This is the type of store that we love.”
Earlier in his career John Nehring worked at the store for several years.
The Nehrings plan to do some remodeling to the store, Anne Nehring said.
“It needs some tender loving care. It needs some updating,” she said.
Improvements will include the addition of a service cheese department, addition of a sit down tasting area in the alcoholic beverage department, an expansion of the bakery, a refurbishing of the produce department and a remodeling of the deli.
