Northridge is Gone, Milwaukee Looks to Transform the Site

Mayor Cavalier Johnson hosts press conference to celebrate Northridge Mall demolition. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

For the first time in more than two decades, Northridge Mall is open for business. Sort of.

Milwaukee officials gathered Wednesday to celebrate the completion of demolition work on the long-vacant mall. The city now wants to find the next user for the site.

“This is really, really a tremendous day, not just for the city of Milwaukee, but the entire state of Wisconsin,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson. “This site has long stood as a reminder of what once was. Today, though, it stands as a symbol of what can be.”

The 58-acre site — the largest development parcel in the city — is now ready to be redeveloped.

“This represents more than just the clearing of a site. It represents the creation of a foundation,” said Johnson. “There is huge opportunity here for new jobs, for new housing, for new investment.”

“We have clear ground to imagine what’s possible for District Nine,” said area Alderwoman Larresa Taylor. “It’s the voices of the community that will shape the development here in the future.”

But the biggest factor shaping future development is an anchor tenant.

“Our overall objective here will be to facilitate a redevelopment of this site that adds value to the Granville area, the city of Milwaukee and, ultimately, the entire state of Wisconsin,” said Department of City Development Commissioner Lafayette Crump. “To do that, we will be looking to recruit a large anchor user that will create jobs, grow the tax base and have ripple effects that spur additional investment in the surrounding area.’

Crump said the city is looking for sports and entertainment, health care or advanced manufacturing uses. Johnson said housing and other uses are also under consideration.

“We will also be looking to leverage this investment to create a new community focal point for the area, with potential for public gathering spaces and neighborhood identity features,” said Crump.

Crump said a draft redevelopment plan is expected by spring 2026 and will include a community meeting for public input. It is not expected to include immediate plans to run new roads through the site or specific locations for specific uses, but it is expected to include details from an area market study. DCD is looking to maintain maximum flexibility in recruiting an anchor tenant.

“We are more than committed to a transparent process that positions us for long-term success and meaningful impact,” he said.

“This is really a blank slate,” said Johnson.

Crump and Johnson said the city is ramping up its discussions with the business community, including M7 and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, on landing an anchor user.

“I think you will see us be very aggressive about landing the appropriate use here, not letting it sit for an extended period of time,” said Crump.

The mayor doesn’t think a data center is a likely anchor user, but he isn’t explicitly ruling it out. “I doubt that’s something that would happen at this site,” he said, citing the larger footprints in the Mount Pleasant and Port Washington projects.

A proposal to use the site for storage, as was proposed while the city fought in court for control of the property, is being ruled out. “We want something more dynamic than that, something that has more vibrancy than that, something that creates more touch points than that, something that creates more jobs than that,” said the mayor.

Demolition by the numbers

Thirty-nine companies worked on the project to tear down the old mall, including 21 based in the city. Veit led the demolition, funded by a $15 million grant from the state’s allocation of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.

Asbestos abatement, the largest portion of the demolition work, was conducted by Balestrieri Environmental & Development. Sixty percent of the workers on that component, said the mayor, were city residents.

Much of the former 800,000-square-foot structure was diverted from the landfill.

Department of Neighborhood Services Commissioner Jezamil Arroyo-Vega said about 80 percent of the mall was recycled. “Five thousand tons of steel were removed and will be recycled,” she said. In addition, 57,000 bricks were salvaged and 70,000 tons of concrete were crushed for reuse in other projects.

Two beehives were also relocated. “Can’t forget about that one,” joked the commissioner.

Mall history

The mall was initially built in 1972 as a sister project to Southridge Mall in Greenfield. It closed in 2003 as a result of a variety of factors, including its distance from the freeway, an increase in poverty in the area and the reputational damage from a domestic violence homicide that was initially falsely framed as a hate crime.

A predecessor of China-based U.S. Black Spruce Enterprise Group bought the property for $6 million in 2008. But Black Spruce never advanced its plans for an Asian marketplace beyond conceptual drawings. The city ultimately acquired the property via tax foreclosure in January 2024 after a multi-year legal fight.

The City of Milwaukee acquired the former Boston Store and the mall’s ring road in 2017 through a donation from William Penszey, who had unsuccessfully attempted to acquire the entire complex. Value City Furniture had occupied a portion of the property until 2009, but the remainder of the mall was closed. HM Brandt demolished the building for the city in early 2024.

At about the same time the city took possession of the Boston Store property, a YouTube video spurred a seemingly never-ending series of break-ins and fires. More than half a million dollars in contempt-of-court fines were levied against Black Spruce for its failure to comply with a 2019 agreement to secure the property. In 2019, a maintenance worker died on the property as a result of touching electrical infrastructure damaged by thieves. In 2022, Fire Chief Aaron Lipski held a news conference at the site after trespassers set four fires within a one-month period.

Demolition began in March 2024.

“The mall has come to an end, my friends, and it feels stupendous, tremendous,” Crump said, paraphrasing rapper The Notorious B.I.G.

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Property Map

Map of ownership of area around Northridge Mall. Image prepared by Department of City Development.

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