The Ritz Camera Center, 275 W. Wisconsin Ave., inside the Shops of Grand Avenue is closing. A sure sign of the decline in demand of photo processing and even more so of the nearly constant turning of the retail tables at the Downtown Milwaukee mall.
In regards to the constant turn at the Shops of Grand Avenue one new store, Scented Garden, opened in late May. It's a bath and body shop that offers lotions, bath beads, and customizable products. Scented Garden is located on the second level in the New Arcade.
In the food court, Tossed will open July 1 on the west side. Tossed will provide create-your-own salads, a soup of the day and a variety of other luncheon options.
"In the coming months, shoppers will see many other specialty shops, possibly to include a women's and men's boutique, a lingerie store, service related concepts such as a hair salon and an optical store, among others. National retail is also a factor that shoppers can get excited about as we have our national leasing team working carefully with exceptional retailers," said Erica E. Anderson, Director of Marketing and Specialty Leasing.
Hopefully, the Ritz space that's just adjacent to Linens "n Things will be gobbled up soon and reopened. Linens 'N Things also is closing at the end of summer (it's closing several stores due to bankruptcy), according to an employee there and recent reports from the company. Grand Avenue officials say that neither store has provided an official last day of business.
"The Shops of Grand Avenue is looking to create a tenant mix attractive to Downtown employees, residents and the metro Milwaukee area. And although Ritz Camera and Linens ‘N Things are, and have been, valued tenants, we need to look to the future and to retailers that will positively impact this great Downtown shopping center and make it the center that its shoppers, owners, management, and city want it to be," added Anderson.
A life-long and passionate community leader and Milwaukeean, Jeff Sherman is a co-founder of OnMilwaukee.
He grew up in Wauwatosa and graduated from Marquette University, as a Warrior. He holds an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, and is the founding president of Young Professionals of Milwaukee (YPM)/Fuel Milwaukee.
Early in his career, Sherman was one of youngest members of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and currently is involved in numerous civic and community groups - including board positions at The Wisconsin Center District, Wisconsin Club and Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. He's honored to have been named to The Business Journal's "30 under 30" and Milwaukee Magazine's "35 under 35" lists.
He owns a condo in Downtown and lives in greater Milwaukee with his wife Stephanie, his son, Jake, and daughter Pierce. He's a political, music, sports and news junkie and thinks, for what it's worth, that all new movies should be released in theaters, on demand, online and on DVD simultaneously.
He also thinks you should read OnMilwaukee each and every day.
