At Long Last, Northridge Begins To Disappear

Northridge Mall demolition. Photo by Urban Milwaukee staff.

“The best time to demolish a vacant mall was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

So goes the consumerist version of the Chinese proverb about planting trees.

Northridge Mall closed in 2003, leaving a black hole of more than 50 acres on the city’s far northwest side. After a YouTube video spurred a seemingly never-ending series of break-ins and fires, city officials spent five years fighting in court for control of the property.

The city finally took ownership in January 2024. An interior environmental abatement process began in the summer and demolition work was visible from the exterior by November. Now, the complex, once more than one million square feet, is quickly disappearing.

Veit is leading the demolition, which will create a 58-acre blank slate for redevelopment at the intersection of W. Brown Deer Road and N. 76th Street. Site preparation work includes leveling the property, which had substantial grade changes to provide access to different levels of the mall.

As of late May, virtually all of the three remaining department store structures were gone, the food court had been demolished and central atrium was coming apart. Veit was required to save two elevator tower structures from the atrium for potential use in a redevelopment.

The city is branding the future redevelopment, for which a plan is still being developed, as “Granville Station.”

“Nothing has been ruled out. Nothing has been locked in,” said Department of City Development Commissioner Lafayette Crump in November 2024. He said that includes whether selling the property would ultimately take the shape of one or many requests for proposals.

Suggestions of what the city should do are being accepted on the city’s EngageMKE website.

An open house, according to materials from a March meeting, is expected to take place this summer. A final report is to be published in the fall.

As of November, 80% of the materials recovered to date had been recycled. The Brickyard in Bay View is purchasing the bricks for resale.

Demolition work, backed by $15 million from the state, is expected to be completed by fall 2025.

The demolition project does not include demolishing the active Menard’s store, built after the mall closed on the site of a former Sears department store. A masonry wall divides the store from the mall structure. Menard’s acquired a former Pick ‘n Save, built in 2004 alongside the hardware store, and and now uses it as part of a self-storage complex, which also will remain.

The mall was originally built in 1972, a sister project to Southridge Mall in Greenfield.

A predecessor of China-based U.S. Black Spruce Enterprise Group purchased the property for $6 million in 2008, five years after the mall closed. But Black Spruce never advanced its plans for an Asian marketplace beyond conceptual drawings. The city ultimately acquired the property via tax foreclosure.

The City of Milwaukee acquired the former Boston Store and mall ring road in 2017 via a donation from William Penszey, who was unsuccessful in his attempt 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.

Photos

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May 2024 Interior Photos

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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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