NO STREETCAR, NO SCHUSTERS. Now no Goldmann's.

A Milwaukee icon, the 55,000-square-foot general merchandise emporium outlasted Schuster's, Gimbels, Kunzelmann-Esser, The Grand, Singers and others on a long list of stores that once graced Mitchell St.

Don't forget Irv the Workingman's Friend!

The store catered to well-built South Siders.

Sales at Goldmann's peaked about 30 years ago at $4.5 million a year. Now the store does about $3 million a year, in part by selling large sizes and items that are hard to find elsewhere.

Men's belts, for example, go up to 70 inches. And in a world where 56K means a slow modem to most people, it's a bra size at Goldmann's, available in purple.

Snuggies are a big draw, too. Retirement homes bring in busloads of residents who are delighted to be able to buy the sensible, warm cotton underpants they've worn for 70 years, said Jerry Lewis, who owns Goldmann's with [Milton] Pivar.

The current owners would prefer to retire while the business still has some value.

"It's not like we have to close," Pivar said. "We're doing some business. But there's getting to be less and less demand for a store like this.

"We're going out when the time is right. We can hold our heads up high. We don't have to say we were pushed out of business."

The new owner plans to convert part of the building into a sporting goods store.

Pivar and Lewis sold the Goldmann building for $625,000 to Don Kim, owner of Milwaukee City Sports, an athletic shoe store at the Midtown shopping center; and DK USA Development Co.

Kim plans to open a second athletic shoe store in the lower level and to lease out space on the first and second floors. He expects to spend about $2.5 million on renovations and is hoping to qualify for city assistance for the plan.

Kim plans to keep the Goldmann name on the building and will allocate space on the main floor near the front door for a Goldmann's Department Store museum that will be free and open to the public.

"I would like to keep all that tradition," Kim said.

Here's the Retro Milwaukee Goldmann's page. The quest for some tax money for the makeover does not come as a surprise. Some observers might view the Mitchell Street shopping district as "blighted." At one time the anchor stores were the Schuster's a few blocks west, which has a collection of rental stalls on the first floor and some community organization offices upstairs, and the Sears, no longer in operation as a store.