FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ON FEBRUARY 2, 2004
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Wrecking ball to clear way for Granville Station

Demolition begins at former Northridge Mall

Ground will be broken Tuesday, February 3rd at Noon, to mark the start of the development of a new retail center to replace Milwaukee’s former Northridge Mall. The new development will be known as Granville Station. Two large tenants are already committed for the $27 million first phase. They are a Pick ‘n Save grocery store and Menards, a home improvement store. The groundbreaking will take place at the southeast corner of the former Sears parcel.

Tucker Development Corporation, a Highland Park, Illinois company, is the developer on the Granville Station project. Company President Richard Tucker, who has more than 20 years of retail real estate experience, founded the firm in 1996. Since that time, TDC has successfully completed seven shopping centers in the Chicago area.

“Today is an exciting opportunity for Tucker Development and the entire Historic Granville area. Granville Station will fuel the continued growth of retail with our anchors, Roundy’s Pick ‘n Save and Menards,” Richard Tucker said. “Through the cooperation and leadership of the City of Milwaukee officials, this is a classic example of a private/public partnership.”

Tucker and other investors purchased the mall for $3.5 million in 2001, though separate acquisitions of land under the former stores caused delay. The Pick ‘n Save and the Menards will be located where a Sears store once operated. Phase I work is to be completed in 2005.

Northridge Mall, covering 104 acres at the intersection of W. Brown Deer Road and N. 76th Streets, opened in 1972. It featured more than 130 stores and had been a key shopping outlet for Milwaukee’s northwest side and nearby communities, until the mid 1990’s.

The City of Milwaukee Redevelopment Authority has approved a $4.4 million grant for the Granville Station project. That money will be used to fund a portion of Phase I site work, which includes the demolition of the former Sears store buildings, associated environmental remediation, clearing, re-grading and compacting of approximately 28 acres of the site.

The development of Granville Station continues a trend of new investment in the Historic Granville area. Already across Brown Deer Road from the former Northridge there are Walmart and Target stores. In addition, housing options are growing in the area, including expansion by Alexian Village, and the newly approved Crystal Village development, designated for land east of Granville Station, off Brown Deer Road.

The Granville Station project is also the second recent revitalization by private developers of a once grand but faltering Milwaukee shopping center. Capital Court was leveled and then redeveloped and reopened by Boulder Venture as Midtown Center.