The Sherman Phoenix held a public grand opening event Friday evening for a packed house of supporters.
The entrepreneurial hub in Milwaukee’s Sherman Park neighborhood features storefronts for 29 black-owned businesses focused on everything from spring rolls to yoga classes.
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- Funky Fresh Spring Rolls serves several kinds of rolls.
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- Buffalo Boss serves chicken wings.
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- Purple Door Ice Cream has a location in the Sherman Phoenix.
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- Sauce & Spice serves pizza.
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- HoneyBee Sage Wellness & Apothecary focuses on holistic wellness.
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- Lakeia Jones of Amri Counseling gets a high five as she descends the stairs.
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- Sherman Phoenix 2018 grand opening event was standing room only.
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- A large crowd gathered for the grand opening.
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- Offices overlook the first floor food hall.
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- Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said, “This is our Milwaukee.”
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- Manaan Sabir hyped up the crowd before his wife, JoAnne Johnson-Sabir, took the stage.
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- JoAnne Johnson-Sabir and Juli Kaufmann thank their supporters at the Sherman Phoenix grand opening in 2018.
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- Entrepreneurs lined up on a balcony overlooking the crowd.
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- The entrepreneurs processed down the stairs as they were introduced.
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- Dion Racks of Maximizing Potential Inc. is among the entrepreneurs opening businesses at the Sherman Phoenix.
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- Taj Pearsall of Buffalo Boss is congratulated on his success.
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- Clarindria Addison of Hands at Home LLC.
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- Monica Oliver of Sauce and Spice.
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- The Sherman Phoenix project has been in the works for more than a year.
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- There are 29 mainly black-owned businesses in the entrepreneurial hub.
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- Trueman McGee of Funky Fresh Spring Rolls danced down the stairs.
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- Frederick Coleman of Studio 1969.
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- The gener8tor Fellowship.art team.
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- Joanna Brooks of Embody Yoga is also the entrepreneur program manager.
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- Crishella Roche of Vibez Creative Arts Space.
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- Ty Dowl of 9th Cloud Therapy.
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- Chandra Cooper of Queen’s Closet.
Spearheaded by The Juice Kitchen co-owner JoAnne Johnson-Sabir and commercial real estate developer Juli Kaufmann, the $3.5 million project gave new life to a BMO Harris Bank branch burned during civil unrest in the neighborhood in 2016.
“There’s a couple lessons here,” Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said at the event. “If you want to see something done right, have a woman do it. If you want to see something done spectacularly, have two women do it.”
Barrett asked the crowd to applaud Johnson-Sabir and Kaufmann for their determination and vision to overcome the challenge of renovating the damaged building into a community gathering place.
“You can see with the people here, all ages, all races, you name it. This is our Milwaukee,” he said. “I’m standing here as proud as I’ve ever been as mayor, because of what is happening with the small businesses, with the community organizations, with the individuals that believe in this neighborhood, that believe in this community, that believe in this city, and I want to thank them.”
Johnson-Sabir thanked the project’s supporters and encouraged attendees to think bigger.
“This is a point of possibility that needs to exist across our city,” she said. “This is Milwaukee. We do not exist in one single story. We exist in love and possibility. So let this grow. Let this be a significant step forward not only for Sherman Park, but for all of us.”
