You’ve been to the Granville Blues Fest and had a fabulous time. You’ve even driven through the vast manufacturing corridor in Granville. And perhaps you know a business owner interested in setting up shop in the Granville Connection. However, do you know about the hard-working woman behind the scenes to keep all of this movement going in Granville? That energetic woman is Mary Hoehne, Executive Director of the Granville Business Improvement District (BID).
“I was the director of the Granville-Brown Deer Chamber, and we knew that we didn’t have any real resources or opportunity to make any difference in the community. We just didn’t have any money and we were limited in the number of people who could join the Chamber with the mix of businesses we had in the area,” Mary said. “So, I was getting my degree in Urban Studies at the time and I happened to know about Business Improvement Districts. After doing my research, I told my board, ‘Hey let’s form a BID!’ They totally trusted me, so we started the process with the city and within six months, we had formed the Granville BID.” That was 11 years ago. The four boundaries of Granville are County Line Road south to Good Hope Road, 95th street East to Brown Deer Road at 68th or 60th Streets and within these boundaries live the most diverse young families alongside older residents from African American, Laotian, European, and Hispanic backgrounds.
According to Mary, the Granville area is important to her because Granville was neglected for so long. Once the Northridge Mall started going in the wrong direction and the commercial corridor began getting neglected, to the point where the grass wasn’t even getting cut, the area was in a downward turn, businesses were leaving in very large numbers, even the industrial base was starting to move out to the suburbs and they were seeing basically an area that was once the pinnacle of Milwaukee turning in the wrong direction. The Chamber at the time wanted to stop the bleeding, only, they didn’t have money to do that. So the Chamber formed the Business Improvement District, which is a tax assessment on the commercial property owners, and that gave the Granville BID the resources to begin a turnaround.
Mary explained, “It takes a very long time to turn around an entire area. We started with cutting the grass, we started picking up the litter in the area, we started marketing the area, we had the area patrolled more by the District 4 police station and then eventually we hired a security company so that residents, visitors, and business owners felt more secure. The scope was a lot larger than most people knew at the time. The perception of crime that people had said had happened over 20 years ago, however crime in the Granville area was a lot lower than most areas in Milwaukee. We started getting busy and doing events to try to get people to come up to Granville and experience first hand that it’s a safe area which you’ll see once you come.”
There’s so much happening in Granville and it’s all because of the Granville BID! The Blues Fest started out as one day with only 50 people and has now grown to three days and hundreds of people from all over. And this year Blues Fest is June 14, 15, and 16 under the big tent on Brown Deer Road. You can shop for gifts, listen to amazing, traditional, old school blues performers for free, purchase food and drink by many local chefs. Harvest Fest takes place on September 14 and 15, and it has a car show, music, karaoke for teens, fun activities for children, drive-in movies, dancing, and of course, our vendors. The Granville BID is at last showing off the “Granville Connection” in the building located at 8633 W. Brown Deer Road during Blues Fest. If you’re an entrepreneur looking for a stable place to start your retail store, this is the perfect opportunity to open on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
According to Mary, Granville also has jobs, jobs, and more jobs in the modern Industrial corridor that has 95 companies. In fact, companies such as Snap On Tools, Hy-Drite Chemical, Marking Services – two locations, Hellerman Tyton, and Douglas Dynamics Western Snowplow all call Granville their home. “Big businesses really are the heart and soul of our Granville BID and their support in turn allows us to do all the things I’ve mentioned. Big business really funds the whole community,” Mary said.
And speaking of BIG, Mary asks you to give your input on the City of Milwaukee’s website regarding the biggest opportunity Granville has: the 800k square feet at Northridge Mall. In the fall of 2025, the ball drops and is tearing down the building. The Granville BID will be doing market research and studies to see what the people want, what the businesses want, and what the region wants for the next 20- 30 years.
For more information on all that Granville offers, contact Mary Hoehne at the Granville BID: 414-736-2891.
