Milwaukee Takes Ownership of Northridge Mall

Northridge Mall in August 2022. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The Northridge Mall saga reached an anti-climatic, but incredibly impactful point Thursday morning. The city, not China-based U.S. Black Spruce Enterprise Group, now owns the long-vacant mall.

During a hearing before Judge Glenn Yamahiro that lasted less than five minutes, the city was awarded ownership of the mall via property tax foreclosure. The city had filed the action in the fall against approximately $1 million in unpaid taxes, fees and interest for taxes levied between 2018 and 2021. At the end of January, more than $1.4 million in taxes, fees and interest will be owed on taxes from 2022 and 2023.

“The property owners have not redeemed within the statutory deadline, nor have they answered by the deadline, which was Jan. 19,” said assistant city attorney Hannah Jahn. Black Spruce has previously paid off taxes at the 11th hour to avoid foreclosure.

“It’s a shame,” said Yamahiro who said he worked at both Gimbels department store and a Red Lobster restaurant in the complex during the late 1970s. “It was a short bike ride there… It was nice. I will never forget my days in the women’s shoe department.”

The mall, located near N. 76th Street and W. Brown Deer Road, closed in 2003 after 31 years of operation. A predecessor of Black Spruce acquired the property for $6 million in 2008. It has proposed creating an Asian marketplace, but those plans have never advanced.

The city now gets the property and a chance to start over. It’s something it has sought for years.

A representative for Black Spruce did not appear at the hearing. It has 45 days to appeal the judgement, but, in a Common Council committee on Jan. 9, Jahn downplayed the viability of Black Spruce pursing that strategy.

While demolition won’t immediately commence, change is expected to quickly come to the property. During a hearing on a separate case last week, assistant city attorney Michael Radavich said that the city would begin securing the property once it was granted ownership. A $15 million grant, via the State of Wisconsin‘s American Rescue Plan Act grant, is expected to pay for the cost of demolition, which would begin later this year. Demolition is expected to cost $9 million, according to the mayor’s office, and site preparation work is expected to cost $4 million. The state grant will also cover some of the security costs.

A separate 2019 court case is ongoing before judge William Sosnay, though its relevance if Black Spruce no longer owns the property is unclear. Black Spruce is appealing a ruling by Sosnay that the city’s raze order was valid, but the appeals court has not issued a ruling. Sosnay previously indicated he is likely to rule in the city’s favor to transfer the property once the appeal is resolved. The city, in 2023, asked for the property in exchange for waiving the hundreds of thousands of dollars in contempt fines levied by Sosnay for failing to comply with a 2019 security agreement. The mall has been subject to several break-ins and fires in recent years.

The properties subject to the foreclosure are 9009 N. Granville Station Rd., 9101 N. Granville Station Rd. and 8221 W. Northridge Mall Rd.

Mayor, Alderwoman React

“We are now ready to think about what’s next for razing as well as restoring this very, very important site in the city,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson in a press conference held Thursday afternoon. “For the past 20 plus years, the former Northridge Mall has been a site of blight, and not just a site of blight, but a danger.”

“This is a big day. This is a real big win,” said area Alderwoman Larresa Taylor. “What I would like to see there is something that is real benefit for the whole city.”

She said securing the property would provide an immediate boost for the neighborhood.

“The people who live on the northwest side deserve to have something new, deserve to be without blight, deserve to be without the danger that the former Northridge Mall has presented over the last two decades,” said Johnson.

“To be clear, we don’t yet have a big, grand plan for the former Northridge Mall,” said the mayor. He said contractors would start demolition this spring, starting with the city-owned Boston Store building. A plan, conceptually identified in a series of land-use plans and design charettes as a mix of uses anchored by industrial tenants, is to be refined through work with area stakeholders, including neighbors.

Johnson said the city wasn’t fearing an appeal, but was unlikely to begin demolition until after the 45-day appeal window had lapsed.

August 2022 Photos

April 2019 Photos

Northridge Property Map

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