Stone Creek Coffee is remodeling the second floor of its factory at 422 N. 5th St. and will move into new company offices in January 2007.

The Stone Creek Factory, located in a two story cream city building designed by Chicago architects Burnham and Root, will house company offices, conference rooms, café meeting rooms and lounge areas for meetings with wholesale customers and venders.

Eric Resch, President of Stone Creek Coffee, calls it "Milwaukee's first 'Coffee Showroom'." The showroom will include a training center where coffee workshops will be held for both Stone Creek employees and wholesale partners. The area also will have an equipment demo area where wholesale partners of Stone Creek will be able to review and test drive coffee equipment and sample it. The area also will have a design center where Stone Creek wholesale partners can come to design custom coffee products for their businesses.

The showroom will initially not be open to the public but with the completion of the Marquette Interchange over the next two years the showroom may be opened to all.

"The new location will be like an interactive coffee museum with hands on activities, exhibits etc. It will be like no other coffee experience - think Lego land meets coffee," said Resch.

In addition, the company closes its Downtown store at 215 E. Wisconsin Ave. on Dec 30.

"Stone Creek Coffee has operated this store for nearly 10 years. The decision to close this store is based on multiple factors that were incompatible with Stone Creek's plans to grow. The store was not growing at a rate that offered future sustainability. Additionally, the retail store model for future Stone Creek development will include stores that are 1,500-2,000-sq. ft. and offer a broader array of coffee and food products," said Resch.

The current downtown location is only 915 sq. ft. and would not easily accommodate these changes. When asked if Downtown can still accommodate more coffee houses, Resch said, "I am not sure. I can only comment on our store and our plans. Our (Downtown) store has continued to grow but it simply is no growing fast enough to fit our expectations for the new model of store we are working on. It is also a small store that will be hard to do some of the new things we want to do."

Stone Creek has no other plans to close stores. All employees at the Downtown store will be offered positions in other parts of the company.

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