A new convenience store opened Monday in Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.’s Tower and Commons on its Downtown campus.
The 4,090-square-foot, first-floor space, known as Mutual Market, is accessible to patrons from inside the building and through a public entrance on East Mason Street. The store’s offerings include a wide range of products including snacks, grab-and-go food items, a beverage bar featuring fruit smoothies, juice and coffee, a bakery counter and lunch area. Mutual Market also stocks household items and gifts, along with providing meeting and collaboration space.
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The store will serve as a valuable amenity for Northwestern Mutual’s employees, visitors and the community, said Cal Schattschneider, vice president of campus and event experiences at Northwestern Mutual.
“It’s a reflection of our continued investment in Downtown Milwaukee,” he said. “Our investment also reflects our continued belief in creating both an engaging work environment for our employees while also helping to support a dynamic Downtown environment.”
Mutual Market, which is open from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, features the products of many local vendors, including:
- Aly Miller Designs
- Blu Mountain Co.
- Buckley’s Restaurant and Bar
- Emmanuel’s Mix
- Milwaukee Pretzel Company
- The Nutman Co.
- Olympia Granola
- Oro di Olivia
- Tapped Maple Syrup
- Veteran Roasters
Northwestern Mutual employees were surveyed in order to determine which types of products to carry in the store.
“They said make things easy and convenient,” Schattschneider said. “Grab-and-go items, lunch items, drinks and other amenities. We also based a lot on how we could support our local small businesses.”
The opening of Mutual Market fills a void created by the closure of Maurer’s Urban Market grocery store, which opened in 2019 on the first floor of Northwestern Mutual’s 7Seventy7 apartment tower located immediately east of the company’s corporate campus. The store closed in 2020 and the space was filled by Lupi & Iris, a fine-dining restaurant, and Andiamo, a café.
Schattschneider said that Mutual Market builds on the strategy of having businesses that are open to employees and the general public alike, including a Starbucks that has operated on the Northwestern Mutual campus for many years.
“Starbucks has been a huge hit,” Schattschneider said. “You see people from the community and our employees sitting down and collaborating there and building relationships. This is an extension of that.”
Schattschneider also announced that the existing Starbucks will be moving to a larger location on the very eastern end of the building, which will allow for the creation of an outdoor patio space at Prospect Avenue and Mason Street.
“It’ll be a really great place for (Starbucks) to be more visible and open to our community,” he said. “We know it’s such a valued amenity for local folks and employees.”
Starbucks will open in its new location some time in 2025, he said.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Schattschneider said.
The Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons opened in August 2017. The glass structure, which reshaped the city’s skyline, features 1.1 million square feet of office space. The company is also investing more than $500 million in its Downtown corporate campus, a move that will eventually bring an additional 2,000 employees to the site following the eventual closure of the company’s sprawling Franklin complex.
The investment is focused on the major redevelopment of Northwestern Mutual’s North Office Building at 818 E. Mason St.
