TRANSFORMATIONS
by Tom Groenfeldt / photography by Brett Kosmider
A BLiSSful Transformation Marketplace breathes new life into downtown A centerpiece of old downtown Sturgeon Bay sat empty for two years, leaving the city scrambling to find a tenant who was willing to take on the former Younkers building at the corner of 3rd Avenue and Louisiana Street. It turned out that city administrators didn’t have to look very far to find a perfect fit. In November of 2020, Bliss and The Marketplace brought a blast of classy retail to the building. “I’ve heard a lot of people say it reminds them of Marshall Field’s in Chicago,” said Todd Trimberger, who, with his partner, Dr. Kelton Reitz, reimagined the building as the new home of their
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longtime Jefferson Street store and The Marketplace. The ground floor is home to Bliss, Lola May’s women’s boutique, and a branch of Monticello, nicknamed Monti, that carries an array of items such as pajamas and cashmere sweaters, but leaves the more complex and customized wardrobe outfitting for the larger and more intimate main store on Jefferson Street. “I went in there kind of reluctantly,” said Monticello owner Diane Magolan, who has run her store on Jefferson for 26 years. “So I did a pop-up. My business was really hurting [in 2020], so I thought I had nothing to lose. But from the minute I walked in there, it was just delightful. The design was unbelievable, and I have been having a great time there since.”
The three stores flow into each other with no barriers, and they complement each other through an emphasis on design, quality and occasional bits of the unexpected. A wall along the edge of the mezzanine has been removed, revealing the original wrought-iron railing and opening up the space that a second branch of De Pere’s SmithMaker Artisan Co. occupies. It sells crafts, attire and organic dog food, mostly from Wisconsin makers. It is also the location of Shear Style Plus salon, which moved from Institute and has been relabeled as KMS. The space has been transformed, but the core is original. Dave Phillips, the construction executive for Bayland Buildings who supervised the Bliss project, said his team found the building’s original drawings, which
