Two and a half years after Mineral Point residents formed a task force to help locals and out-of-towners open businesses in their historic downtown, the group says its efforts are paying off.
At least four new businesses have opened, and another five are in the works, said Ald. Keith Burrows, who serves as a liaison between the business-promoting group and city government. That includes Mineral Point’s only bookstore, a cooking school and a locally-owned grocery store set to open next year — three years after the only grocery store in town closed.
It’s tricky to say exactly what brings about a new business, but the owners of several new businesses said Mineral Point’s task force helped answer their most pressing questions as they were getting started.
Mineral Point is the third oldest city in Wisconsin. Founded in 1827, it became a destination for immigrant miners from Cornwall, England, when lead and zinc deposits were discovered shortly thereafter.
Today, it’s got around 2,600 residents and a main street peppered with art galleries that draw a steady stream of tourists.
But in 2022, the city had lost its only grocery store and hardware store after longtime owners retired. That’s when residents started the New Business Task Force.
Though they initially focused on recruiting someone to open a new grocery store, they invited anyone interested in starting a business to meet on the first Friday of each month at Café 43 Coffee House for advice and encouragement.
“We don’t care if it’s an existing business or a new business, someone fresh out of college, a new retiree or somebody who has a home business,” said task force founder Lisa Hay, a former Chicago lawyer who moved to Mineral Point two decades ago and now runs the local Chamber of Commerce. She opened High Street Sweets candy shop on the town’s main commercial corridor in 2013.
“The idea was, rather than just wait for business to open downtown, that we seek the businesses that we need,” Hay said.
Lisa Hay, president of the Mineral Point Chamber of Commerce and owner of High Street Sweets, decorates for the holidays at her shop in Mineral Point. Hay co-founded the city’s New Business Task Force, which helps locals and out-of-towners start new businesses in town.
RUTHIE HAUGE
Shopping for a grocery store
The closing of Point Foods grocery store created an “urgent need,” Hay said, explaining that Kwik Trip has since torn down the building and put a gas station and convenience store in its place.
Some residents started shopping there, Hay said, “but as much as we love Kwik Trip, it’s not the same as having a grocery store.” For a bigger selection, locals would often drive to neighboring Dodgeville or Platteville for groceries.
When Mineral Point native Brian Blanchette and his wife, Kassi, were looking to move back to town earlier this year, they saw that the former Mineral Point Medical Center at 110 High St. was for sale. They asked city administrator Matthew Honer what kind of business the town needed most. He told them about the missing grocery store.
Though the pair had spent their careers doing information technology work, they both had experience in the food industry and wanted to start a food business of their own.
Kassi and Brian Blanchette in Mineral Point return to work renovating the historic White House building in downtown Mineral Point, which they are converting into a grocery store.
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The Blanchettes bought the 3,600-square-foot building in April and began renovating it, tearing out the 14 doctor’s offices and exam rooms so they could add a commercial kitchen, grocery shelves and check-out counters.
They plan to focus on offering local and sustainable products, while also stocking a variety of everyday essentials. In the kitchen, they’ll prepare grab-and-go foods for lunch and dinner, which customers can take away or eat at a small dining area in the store.
“We’re not going to be Walmart. We’re not going to have every single thing … but we’re going to do the best to have what folks need and want in the space that we have,” Kassi Blanchette said. “We want to … provide what the community needs, and we are open to adjustments along the project to make sure that everything’s a good fit.”
Kassi and Brian Blanchette stand in front of the historic White House building, a former clinic in downtown Mineral Point, which they are converting into a grocery store.
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The city is awaiting approval from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation for a grant to reimburse up to $250,000 of expenses for the project.
Revitalizing Wisconsin’s historic downtowns has been a priority of state economic development efforts in recent years. Wisconsin awarded millions in grants to makeover or otherwise support small businesses throughout the state since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and legislators have proposed making the pandemic Main Street Bounceback grant program permanent.
By the time the Blanchettes came to the task force, they had already bought the property, but Hay is celebrating the project as a win for the town.
“I don’t think the task force deserves credit for that, as much as we were looking and hoping for a grocery store,” Hay said. “I think we just got lucky.”
Would you like a kitchen with that bookstore?
Burrows joined the task force in 2022 to serve as its representative to city government. That same year, after living in town for about 16 years, he decided to become a business owner, too.
At the time, he worked as a scientist at Spring Green glass manufacturer Cardinal Glass Industries, spending much of the work day sending emails. He envied his partner, a music teacher, who spent her day with people. And he’d always been a big reader.
“Mineral Point didn’t have a bookstore, and I felt like that was something I could do to improve the town. Then the building across the street from my house came up on the market, and I did it,” Burrows said.
Burrows and his partner, Leslie Damaso, bought the 1874 brick and stone building at 151 High St. and opened Republic of Letters bookstore last year. The store stocks all types of books, but it puts a special emphasis on cookbooks and Asian American literature.
The store is also home to a second business, a cooking school called The Book Kitchen, where pastry chef Nicole Bujewski hosts cooking demonstrations, classes and clubs.
Nicole Bujewski, owner of The Book Kitchen, prepares for a baking class at her cooking school in Mineral Point.
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Bujewski started her career as an elementary school teacher before going to pastry school and opening a Chicago bakery called LeFlour for five years. When she moved to Mineral Point from the Chicago area in 2019, she was working remotely for the Chicago-based French Pastry School. In her off hours, she baked cakes and cookies to sell at the Mineral Point farmers’ market.
That market is where she met Burrows and Hay, who told her about the task force.
“I was invited to one of the meetings, because somewhere along the line, someone took a survey of what the population was looking to have, and the No. 1 thing was a bakery,” Bujewski said.
Bujewski wanted to bring her love of pastry to the community, but she didn’t want to go back to the long hours and unpredictability of owning a bakery. Then Burrows bought a building with extra room. The two agreed there was enough space to add a kitchen where Bujewski could teach and cook.
“My two favorite things are food and books, in that order,” Bujewski said. “I was just marrying basically my two professions.”
As the two new businesses got started, the task force offered help with things like finding contractors and understanding building codes.
“The task force seemed like the best way to get the most accurate information without having to do a whole lot of research,” Bujewski said. “It’s just a group of people that, if they don’t know the answer, they’re going to find it for you.”
That’s especially helpful since so many downtown buildings are designated as historic and thus are subject to preservation rules, Burrows said.
“The good thing about Mineral Point is we have enough old buildings that we also have an ecosystem of craftspeople, stone masons and carpenters and other people that are used to working on the old buildings, that understand how they were built and how they need to be repaired, but it’s certainly a little bit different than owning modern building,” Burrows said.
Foodie destination in the making?
One reason to consider Mineral Point, Hay said, is that real estate is cheaper than in some of the state’s most popular retail zones.
“We’ve had many people come who just don’t want to pay the high rent of State Street in Madison, or wherever it is they have their business or their restaurant,” Hay said. “It could be a long commute, but if you don’t have to commute, why wouldn’t you want to live in this wonderful place?”
Keith Burrows, co-owner of Republic of Letters bookstore and member of the Mineral Point City Council, stands in front of the former city garage, to which the city is trying to attract a new business.
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In September, the city put out a call for proposals to redevelop the former city garage at 114 Fountain St., a single-story concrete building constructed in the 1940s.
No proposals have yet been received but a few are in process, Burrows said. The City Council recently extended the deadline from Dec. 2 to Jan. 15.
“We think it would be the perfect location for a brewery, distillery, wholesale bakery or other artisan food production facility, but we are really looking for someone with their own vision for the space,” Burrows said.
The city of Mineral Point is trying to attract a new business to a spacious, vacant garage near the downtown business district.
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“It’s definitely a fixer-upper,” Hay said. “There’s not an asking price. I think you could probably get it for $1. It’s a building that needs a lot of work, but it has huge potential.”
The garage isn’t the only option, though.
“There are turnkey buildings that are old and beautiful,” Hay said.
Hay and the rest of the members of the task force plan to keep trying to fill them.
“We all just love Mineral Point, and we want it to stay a vibrant place,” Hay said. “I would encourage anybody that’s even thinking of it to come and visit. … It’s a beautiful, historic town.”
Dining and Cooking