Tommy Washbush
Pick 'N Save on Park Street, with Park Cedar Apartments in the background.
The Pick 'n Save on Park Street was expected to close in 2022, but extended its lease. Maurer's Urban Market is slated to open in the Park Cedar Apartments, in the background.
It has been widely expected that once a grocery store opens in Madison's new Truman Olson development on Park Street, the Pick ‘n Save store on the next block would close. But it might not close. And that could jeopardize the anticipated opening of Maurer’s Urban Market.
“I will never close Pick ‘n Save myself,” says Kurt Welton of Welton Enterprises, who owns the property at 1312 S. Park St., where the Pick ‘n Save is located.
“I bought the site to build apartments, but the neighborhood needs a grocery store. So until there’s a grocery store, I’m not going to close it. And I’m not going to force them to close when the new grocery store opens. I’m going to let Kroger decide when they want to close.” Kroger is the parent company of Roundy’s, which operates Pick ‘n Save stores.
Maurer’s Urban Market was expected to open in city-owned space on the ground floor of the Park Cedar Apartments in 2023, but design challenges, according to owner Kristie Maurer, have delayed the project, as Isthmus recently reported.
Maurer tells Isthmus she had a verbal understanding with Jim Highland, Roundy’s former vice president of communications, who retired last August, that she would give notice when her store was ready to open so that Pick ‘n Save could plan its closing.
“I have every intention of honoring that commitment,” she says. But, she adds, “If Pick ‘n Save is going to stay, then there is no need to do what we’re doing.”
Isthmus asked Roundy’s corporate affairs manager Emilie Williamson if it was her understanding that there was an agreement that Pick ‘n Save would close when Maurer’s Urban Market opens.
“While I’m not aware of any prior conversations or commitments, we are continuing to keep our focus on the present — providing fresh food access and employment opportunities in this community,” Williamson told Isthmus in an email.
“We have no intentions of leaving this Madison community without a grocery store and look to continue to provide access to fresh foods at affordable prices,” she wrote. “As you note, we are leasing the retail space. We have a good working relationship with the property owner and look forward to continuing the conversation about our tenancy.”
City officials insist that Maurer’s market is proceeding. Ald. Tag Evers contends that “there is a verbal understanding between the city and Pick ‘n Save that upon notification of an opening of a new store that they would wind down operations.”
Dan Rolfs, city real estate development specialist, declined to comment on any potential impacts on the city or Maurer's should Pick 'n Save decide to stay open. “The city is continuing to work to ensure the partnership between Maurer’s market, Rule Enterprises and Movin’ Out to bring a grocery store to south Madison will be successful,” he says.
Rule and Movin’ Out bought and developed the property and sold space for a grocery store in the building to the city for $4.7 million in 2021. According to a lease agreement approved by the city council on March 21, 2023, Maurer’s will pay the city approximately $235,000 in annual rent for the space once the market opens.
The South Madison Pick ‘n Save has been expected to close for years. In January 2018, the city of Madison issued a request for proposals for a property nearby requiring applicants to “ensure that a grocery store remains in the area” as part of their plans. The Pick ‘n Save is widely seen as an aging building and wasn’t a robust money-maker for the company: SSM Health planned to buy the land and redevelop it into a clinic in 2019. But those plans were scrapped later that year.
Welton says he had many conversations with the city about his plans for development in the area over the years, including for the site now housing the city-owned grocery store space and for the Pick ‘n Save site, but got little traction. Ultimately, the city chose another developer to build the new apartment building and grocery store near Pick ‘n Save.
But Pick ‘n Save has remained open since then, extending its lease in 2022.
“Their lease was supposed to end a long time ago,” says Welton. “Kroger, by extending their lease, has said ‘let’s see what happens next door.’”
Pick ‘n Save’s fortunes have been improving in recent years, according to Welton. Once the store reaches a certain threshold of revenue it starts paying more in rent, an arrangement common in commercial real estate known as “percentage rent.”
“I never saw any percentage rent for decades, and now all of a sudden, they’re paying percentage rent,” says Welton. “So they must be making money.
“When you have a tenant that pays rent on or before the first without a problem and never calls you with a headache, takes care of the building — that’s a good tenant,” he says. “They’re one of the best tenants I’ve got; I’m not going to kick them out.”
