Walmart Shuttering Silver Spring Drive Store

Walmart. Photo by Mike Mozart. Licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Walmart will close its store at Timmerman Plaza on Milwaukee’s far northwest side the retailer announced Wednesday.

The closure is expected to happen by March 10.

Newly-elected area alderman Mark Chambers, Jr. called it “terrible news” in a press release.

“It’s infuriating that such a massive, resource-rich, and wealthy Fortune 100 enterprise like Walmart cannot keep such an important location open,” said Chambers Jr. “The move not only negatively impacts shoppers, pharmacy customers and store workers, but I fear it will only add to the food desert issues that we are seeing in that area.”

Located at 10330 W. Silver Spring Dr., the store opened in 2012. It includes a substantial grocery store component. The building spans 157,000 square feet according to city assessment records.

The company said it made the closure decision after a “thorough review process.”

“While our underlying business is strong, this specific store hasn’t performed as well as we hoped. There is no single cause for why a store closes and our decision is based on several factors, including historic and current financial performance, and is in line with the threshold that guides our strategy to close underperforming locations,” said the company. Employees will be offered transfers to other stores, including the seven supercenters located within 13 miles.

Chambers said he has started working with the Department of City Development on replacement opportunities that are “worthy” of the location. The retailer owns the 17.15-acre property, which is assessed for $7.96 million.

The store replaced a smaller store that was near N. 76th St. and W. Brown Deer Rd. That property, 8700 N. Servite Dr., is now one of multiple former big box stores occupied by transmission remanufacturer ETE REMAN.

Walmart continues to operate “supercenter” stores at 3355 S. 27th St. and 401 E. Capitol Dr., a smaller format store at 7025 W. Main St. and several in surrounding suburbs.

In 2016, Walmart closed its Midtown Center store at 5825 W. Hope Ave. That property is now proposed to be redeveloped as a self-storage facility without outlot buildings.

It has also closed stores in Wauwatosa, Menomonee Falls and Waukesha in the past decade.

The latest Milwaukee closure was accompanied by the announcement of at least three other store closures, all in the Chicago area.

The Silver Spring Drive store was an anchor at a shopping center known as Timmerman Plaza. A Pick ‘n Save grocery store at the shopping center closed in 2017, but has been replaced by BioLife Plasma Services and AutoZone.

Other tenants in the shopping center include Dollar Tree, Rainbow Shops, Cosmo Beauty, Value Beauty and GameStop.