New owners revive Windsor Jewelry with bridal room, fancy-color diamonds

Windsor Jewelry came back from the brink by changing how it sold, not just what it sold. Fernanda Beraldi and Ed Broecker, both Indiana University McKinney alumni and transaction attorneys, bought the downtown Indianapolis jeweler on Feb. 1, 2025, after Greg and Lynn Bires announced plans to retire and liquidate the business. Their first move was practical and visible: keep the staff, preserve the 3,000-square-foot Meridian Street location, and remake the selling floor around bridal, custom work and a tighter assortment.

That mattered because Windsor was never just another mall-case jeweler. Founded in 1919 by Sig Asher in the Lyric Theater building on Illinois Street, the store moved to 16 N. Meridian St. near Monument Circle in 1970 and passed through only two more owners, Herman Logan in 1946 and Greg Bires in 1998. By late 2024, after the pandemic and two break-ins in mid-2020, the family-owned business had reached the point where liquidation seemed like the end of the story.

Beraldi and Broecker bought Windsor without taking on inventory, a move that gave them room to curate rather than inherit old stock. They reopened first for custom work and repairs, then restocked around Valentine’s Day and later staged a public grand reopening on Aug. 23, 2025. The renovation shifted the checkout, improved side-by-side displays and added a dedicated bridal room, a clear signal that engagement rings and custom designs would again anchor the store’s identity. Fancy-color diamonds became part of that reset, giving Windsor a more differentiated offering than a standard white-diamond case.

For jewelers, the lesson was in the mix. Bridal created a more personal appointment setting, while the new display plan made comparison selling easier for customers weighing ring styles, metals and stone options. Fancy-color diamonds broadened the conversation beyond round brilliants and helped Windsor stand apart in a market where many independent stores compete on service alone. Beraldi, who said she had loved jewelry since childhood in Brazil, where her mother was born in Minas Gerais, brought an emotional connection to the category, but the turnaround was built on business discipline.

That combination of curation, layout and continuity helped preserve a store that customers had treated as a downtown institution for generations, including during moments when Windsor’s role went far beyond retail and into the life of the community itself.