State Street Center (Racine, Wisconsin)

State Street Center is a shopping center in Racine, Wisconsin, located on the northeast corner of State Street and North Memorial Drive. The center is anchored by Save-A-Lot #881 at 1500 State Street, and the other end is occupied by McDonald's #26253 at 1520 State Street, and four small retail spaces are between the two. The development opened in 2003, and replaced an inner-city commercial block that was declared blighted and demolished to build the center.

History
The block surrounded by North Memorial Drive on the west, State Street on the south, the Union Pacific Kenosha Subdivision railroad line on the east, and May Street on the north was home to several commercial buildings, including 1420, 1432, 1434, 1436, 1500, 1504, 1506, 1508, 1510, 1512, 1514, 1518, 1520, and 1522 State Street. By 2000, many of these buildings were vacant and the city of Racine considered the block an example of urban blight. After Marquette Food & Liquor a few blocks away was destroyed by fire in July 1999, the inner city of Racine was left without a grocery store. City leaders pushed for the blighted block to be razed and a grocery store to be built in its place.

Supervalu proposed building a Save-A-Lot grocery store at the site in December 2000. Local union leaders protested Supervalu's decision to open a non-unionized store in Racine after closing a unionized Randall's County Market location at Westgate Mall Shopping Center, and asked the company to agree that it would not interfere with any future effort to organize a union at the new store. When Supervalu refused to sign the agreement, the Racine City Council stated that it would consider proposals from other companies.

By October 2001, no other proposals had been made for a grocery store at the site, and the city agreed to begin negotiating a development contract with Big Bend Development. Labor organizers continued to criticize the proposal, especially the city of Racine's plan to finance the demolition and redevelopment at a cost of $1.34 million, arguing that public funding should not be used to establish a business opposed to union organization. Despite the controversy, the city council agreed to the plan on December 4, 2001, with the goal of razing the buildings and transferring the property by the following October and allowing the store to open in spring 2003.

After some delays, all residents and businesses in the 1500 block of State Street were evicted by the end of November 2002, including Rondone's Liquor and Nu Vu Trendsetters. The city council gave its final approval for the demolition plan on November 27. The last building remaining on the block, 1522 State Street, was torn down on February 6, 2003.

A groundbreaking ceremony for State Street Center was held on June 4, 2003. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers picketed at the construction site in October after the developers hired non-union electricians from Milwaukee, arguing that the decision deprived their members of work at a time when one-fourth of Racine's union electricians were unemployed. McDonald's restaurant #26253, the chain's seventh location in Racine, opened in the shopping center in November 2003. Save-A-Lot #881, the 12000 sqft primary anchor of the shopping center, opened at 7 a.m. on December 11, 2003.

A JJ Fish & Chicken carryout restaurant opened in the space next to McDonald's on May 10, 2004.

Deli Station, a "traditional Jewish-European" delicatessen, opened in the former JJ Fish & Chicken space in February 2009, run by a cousin of the building's owners who offered the business a discount on rent. Sales at the deli were consistently low and the operator claimed that the federal minimum wage increase of July 2009 made the business less profitable. Deli Station closed in January 2010. Great Wall, a local Chinese restaurant, moved into the former Deli Station space, opening on January 18, 2011.

The shopping center was sold to Aum Sai Shiv LLC of Hoffman Estates, Illinois in 2016, for $3,985,000.

1500 State Street

 * Save-A-Lot #881, opened December 11, 2003

1504 State Street

 * Liberty Tax Service

1508-12 State Street

 * Young Beauty Mart

1516 State Street

 * JJ Fish & Chicken, opened May 10, 2004, closed by 2009
 * Deli Station, opened February 2009, closed January 2010
 * Great Wall, opened January 18, 2011
 * Space incorporated into McDonald's in 2018

1520 State Street

 * McDonald's #26253, opened November 2003