The future of the overstocked, dusty fabric shop at the top end of Bourke Street is uncertain after its founder and owner, Jacob Zeimer, died on Sunday.
A postwar migrant, Mr Zeimer ran the Job Warehouse fabric emporium for more than five decades, continuing the trade that his family in Poland had worked in for three generations.
Sitting at the top end of town, the cluttered, dusty, faded rolls of fabric in the windows of the Job Warehouse gave little away.
But the shop that Mr Zeimer ran with his son David served local businesses as well as theatre costume departments.
There was more to the Zeimer name than a set of dusty shopfronts with faded signs promoting printed woollens and handkerchief linen.
The man who arrived in Australia in 1948 with little died, aged 91, a millionaire.
According to some in the property industry, Mr Zeimer's city property portfolio - 15 shops, including a tailor, shirtmaker, bookshop, men's hairdresser, gallery and a cafe - is worth about $5 million.
One property valuer said the real estate at the top of Bourke Street was valued at about $3000 a square metre.
The double-storey Job Warehouse building is classified by the National Trust and listed on the Victorian Heritage Register. It was once home to landscape artist Eugene von Guerard (1812-1901).
Over decades Mr Zeimer became a feature of the area.
Sometimes he would chase out customers because they were browsing for too long. Other times he would sit in the sunshine feeding pigeons bread he had collected from neighbouring Pellegrini's cafe.
A co-owner of Pellegrini's, Sisto Malaspina, who was Mr Zeimer's neighbour for 31 years, described him as a father figure.
"He was always giving me advice on how to run a business, so he was a father figure. He was the pioneer here," Mr Malaspina said.
"Often he would say, 'Look after the business, be careful with the business.'
"He was a great man, a generous man and a wonderful man.
"It wasn't just a cafe for him to come and have a coffee, it was a place for him to come and get his thoughts together."
Mr Malaspina said he saw Mr Zeimer at least twice a day over the more than three decades that the two were neighbours.
"He had two personalities, both as a businessman and one as the most wonderful person outside the business," Mr Malaspina said.
One tenant, who wished not to be identified, said Mr Zeimer spent as much time out of the shop as in it.
He often sat on the bench or walked up and down the street talking to people.
She said he was a bit of a character - and could be both the grumpy old man and the perfect gentleman.