After about six months of construction, a brand-new two-story Sendik's Food Market is set to open its doors at 7 a.m. next Wednesday, September 23, on the same Whitefish Bay lot where a smaller, older store once stood. The rebuilt grocery store replaces that previous location at 500 E. Silver Spring Drive, giving shoppers a bigger, airier space with a coffee bar, gift shop and market hall stocked with sushi, a burrito bar and sandwiches.
Construction began in March, according to TMJ4 News, and outside work is expected to be mostly finished by the time doors open Wednesday morning. The new building's first floor covers 36,000 square feet and houses the main grocery-shopping area, the produce section, the coffee bar and the gift shop, with a double mezzanine rising above the produce department. Shoppers eating in the restaurant area can grab a seat to eat or sip coffee, while the market hall's sushi, burrito bar and sandwich offerings give the ground floor a food-hall feel that the old store never had.
What's Upstairs at the New Store
The second floor will feature a boutique and a restaurant, rounding out a building that also got an updated exterior and a redesigned parking lot, per the same TMJ4 account. The Milwaukee Business Journal separately reported that the new store features a cafe and a full bar, adding another gathering option beyond the grocery aisles below. Earlier planning documents described multipurpose upper-level areas where customers could grab grab-and-go items, sit at a bar and use private gathering spaces, according to the Daily Reporter.
Ted Balistreri, a third-generation family owner of Sendik's Food Markets, told TMJ4 that the goal was to create something new for the community and that the rebuilt store will provide a superior shopping experience. He said the store would create an experience unlike anything else, while also acknowledging that some neighbors may feel nostalgic for the old store. Balistreri added that the new building preserves some neighborhood character even as it modernizes the shopping experience.
Why the Old Store Had to Go
The push for a bigger footprint wasn't just about aesthetics. The previous location really wasn't intended to do the amount of business it was doing, according to the Milwaukee Business Journal. Whitefish Bay resident Mary Ulander told TMJ4 the old Sendik's was very busy at certain times, with shopping carts that customers would run into during rush periods, and she said she welcomed construction of a larger, roomier store.
The Whitefish Bay location has deep roots, having been built in 1949 as one of the grocer's first locations and expanded and renovated multiple times since, according to BizTimes. Sendik's currently operates 18 locations across southeastern Wisconsin and employs about 2,000 people, including 160 at the Whitefish Bay store, per that same outlet's reporting. Company officials said internal discussions about redeveloping the site had continued for five years before formal talks with the village began.
Costs, Timelines and a Few Unanswered Questions
BizTimes reported the project carried an estimated cost of between $8 million and $10 million, and that Sendik's anticipated the redevelopment would drive a 20% increase in business at the Whitefish Bay store. The company said the rebuilt market would resemble its other full-line stores in Brookfield, Oconomowoc, Waukesha and Mequon.
Timelines for the project have shifted along the way. BizTimes reported in 2025 that the redevelopment was expected to be complete by June 20, 2026, and the Daily Reporter likewise reported that construction was expected to begin in January 2026 and wrap up that June, subject to village approvals. Construction ultimately began in March and the store is now set to open in September, though the available reporting does not explain what caused the shift between those earlier targets and the eventual schedule.
Village records add another layer to the timeline: the Village of Whitefish Bay's project-update page states that the Village Board approved a Development Agreement with Sendik's Food Market on October 6, 2025. Early plans also called for realigning North Consaul Place and East Beaumont Avenue to accommodate traffic flow, parking, cyclists and pedestrians safely, according to the Daily Reporter's coverage of the project.
