A new grocery store could be coming to the former north side Aldi location on North Hopkins Street.

Milwaukee business owner Gurdev Singh submitted plans for a full-service grocery store at 5301 N. Hopkins St., the former site of a 17,000-square-foot Aldi location that shuttered in January. Aldi’s departure capped off a string of recent grocery store closures that hit north side neighborhoods particularly hard.

Dubbed Hopkins Grocery, the store would sell fresh produce, meat, dairy and frozen foods, according to its occupancy permit application to the city of Milwaukee July 10. It would also carry liquor and tobacco products.

The business will use the site’s retail sales floor, checkout sections, parking and loading areas, and food, alcohol and cigarette displays, according to the application.

If approved, it plans to open in September. Proposed hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

Singh did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Aldi location closed “to better allocate resources and continue providing a high-quality shopping experience at our nearby stores,” the company said in January.

By the time Aldi closed its doors, five Milwaukee-area Pick ‘n Save locations – including one in Metcalfe Park – had already shuttered. Meanwhile, Sentry Foods at 6350 W. Silver Spring Drive permanently closed Jan. 19, while Sherman Park Grocery Store at 4315 W. Fond du Lac Ave. risked shutting down that month before receiving additional support.

Residents and city officials have sought to address food deserts particularly in the predominantly Black north side. In April, the city formally recognized food apartheid as a public health emergency and created a task force to attract and retain grocery stores.

Milwaukee County’s predominantly White census tracts have more than three times as many large grocery stores per capita than predominantly Black census tracts, and twice as many as predominantly Hispanic census tracts, according to a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee study released in February.

“Food security is about dignity,” 1st District Ald. Andrea Pratt said in February. “I should be able to get a tomato in my neighborhood… It has to be easier than this.”

Since then, the former Sentry Foods at Silver Spring Drive reopened as One City Supermarket.

Francesca Pica can be reached at fpica@usatodayco.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: New grocery store eyed at former Aldi on Milwaukee’s north side