Three Meetings For Public To Learn About Controversial Walmart Redevelopment

Vacant Wal-Mart at 5825 W. Hope Ave. Photo by Alison Peterson.

Neighbors will soon have the chance to learn more and ask questions about a proposal to redevelop a long-vacant Walmart at the Midtown Center retail complex into a combination of housing, a new library, self-storage and a data center.

The City Plan Commission was to consider a zoning proposal for the project last month, but it was pulled from the agenda after the Sherman Park Community Association circulated an image online that depicted the entire 663,000-square-foot property being redeveloped as a data center. Only the rear 19,000 square feet of the 160,000-square-foot Walmart building is to house a “Data Processing/Computer Services/Computer research facility.”

A series of three open-house-style community meetings is now being held to provide the public with the opportunity to ask questions about the multifaceted proposal.

“There were a lot of misconceptions that were going on, so we want to set the record straight,” said area Alderman Mark Chambers, Jr. in announcing the meetings during Tuesday’s Common Council meeting. “Community has always been at the forefront of this project.”

The meetings are being held June 10, 18 and 27.

As Urban Milwaukee previously reported, the building would house a 17,000-square-foot replacement for the nearby Capitol Library. The city will also control what tenant moves into the neighboring 31,000-square-foot stall at the front of the building. The former garden center would be reconfigured as a community space connected to the library.

The rear of the building would house an 89,000-square-foot self-storage facility and the computing facility.

The parking lot of the former Walmart, which closed in 2016, would be redeveloped as 200 units of affordable housing.

Property owner AFS Milwaukee, a limited liability company owned by Iowa-based Affordable Family Storage, will be present at each of the meetings to answer questions, said Chambers.

Representatives of the Department of City Development, Milwaukee Public Library and Gorman & Company, the housing developer, are also to be present.

AFS acquired the former Walmart in 2022 and was denied a zoning change to turn the building into a self-storage facility in 2023.

Large data center campuses from hyperscaling companies focused on artificial intelligence computing have encountered substantial opposition in recent years for their electrical use and potential for heavy water consumption. At 19,000 square feet, the Midtown Center proposal is slightly more than 1% of the size of the first building Microsoft completed in Mount Pleasant.

“‘Data centers’ are a couple of very bad words these days,” said Chambers in a May press release. “They conjure images of gray buildings covering thousands of acres, creating nuisance levels of noise and taxing local water supplies and other resources. The development proposed for the Midtown Center includes nothing even close.”

Meeting schedule

All meetings are being held at the former Walmart, 5825 W. Hope Ave.

• Wednesday, June 10 – 5:30 to 7 p.m.
• Thursday, June 18 – 5:30 to 7 p.m.
• Saturday, June 27 – 12 to 1:30 p.m.

Former Walmart

Walmart site plan. Image submitted to CPC by KORB.

Inaccurate data center image circulated by Sherman Park Community Association. Screenshot.

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