Tommy Washbush
Park Cedar Apartments on South Park Street.
Maurer’s Urban Market will operate out of the ground floor of the Park Cedar Apartments on South Park Street.
After years of planning, controversy and setbacks, a lease for Maurer’s Urban Market on Park Street has finally been signed. The grocery store is expected to open in mid-2025, according to owner Kristie Maurer.
“I am excited to move forward with this great project. I look forward to being a part of the South Madison community for many years to come,” Maurer said in a Monday afternoon statement. Maurer and Dan Rolfs, city real estate management developer, said in mid-August that they expected a lease to be signed within a week.
Jaymes Langrehr, public information officer for the city planning department, said in an email to media that the city kept its "promise" to deliver a full-service grocery store to the people of South Madison: "This has been a priority for the city for years now, and while it's been a long road to get to this day, city staff never stopped working for the people of South Madison to make sure they still had access to a full grocery store that was easy to get to."
The lease agreement with the city runs for 15 years, with three five-year lease extension options. Rolfs says the delay ultimately came down to “working everything through the process” and making sure all aspects of the project were squared away.
The planning process for a new Park Street grocery store began eight years ago when it was anticipated that Pick ‘n Save, at 1312 Park St., would be closing. City officials worried the area would become a food desert. A spokesperson for Pick ‘n Save was not immediately available to answer a question related to the grocery store’s future plans. The owner of the property where the Pick ‘n Save is located said in February he would let Kroger, the parent company of Pick ‘n Save, “decide when they want to close.”
Rolfs says he has not heard from Kroger about whether the company will close the store.
In August, Maurer was unsure if Pick ‘n Save would close. “I've run several scenarios to determine, you know, how things will go if they choose to stay open, or if they close, and no one besides Pick ‘n Save knows,” she said. “Unfortunately, they're not being very transparent, so we’re not sure what that looks like.”
Maurer, who owns another Maurer’s Market in Wisconsin Dells, signed on to operate the Park Street grocery in 2022 after a different grocer — Luna’s Groceries — pulled out of the project. Located on the first floor of Park Cedar Apartments, Maurer’s Urban Market was expected to open by the end of 2023.
The city has authorized $9.1 million for the grocery store project over the last four years, including $1 million for additional tenant improvements in May 2024, with the hope of recovering as much of those tenant improvement funds as possible from developers Rule Enterprises and Movin’ Out. Rolfs says that a final number was not agreed upon through this lease and that “we are working that out now.”
“Whatever agreement that we come to will have to be approved by the council,” Rolfs adds.
