Former Milwaukee Walmart to be redeveloped with mixed uses

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By TOM DAYKIN

USA Today Network via Reuters Connect

A former Walmart that closed a decade ago on Milwaukee‘s north side is to be redeveloped with a mix of new uses.

That pending development proposal could undergo Plan Commission review at its next meeting, scheduled for May 18.

That’s according to Ted Matkom, Wisconsin market president for Gorman & Co., which is working with city officials on the plans.

Matkom declined to say what types of uses are being considered for the 150,000-square-foot building, located at Midtown Center near West Capitol Drive and West Fond du Lac Avenue.

Gorman is developing affordable apartments in a parking lot next to the former Walmart – with plans to expand that project.

The Department of City Development is considering a proposed tax incremental financing district tied to Gorman’s apartment plans, said Madison Goldbeck, the department’s marketing and communications officer. She declined to provide additional information.

A tax financing district, which would need Common Council approval, could use property tax revenue generated by the new development to help finance the project.

Neither Alderman Mark Chambers, whose district includes Midtown Center, nor representatives of Affordable Family Storage, which owns the former Walmart, responded to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s inquiries.

Midtown Commons apartment plan moves ahead

The Plan Commission on April 27 approved Gorman’s plans to develop Midtown Commons, a 200-unit affordable apartment community to be built on a parking lot east of North 60th Street and north of West Hope Avenue.

That’s just north of the former Walmart, 5825 W. Hope Ave., which closed in 2016, and south of a former Lowe’s store converted in 2018 into a distribution center for Sellars Absorbent Materials, 5800 W. Hope Ave.

Midtown Commons would feature two four-story buildings, each with 100 apartments ranging from one to three bedrooms. There also would be fitness centers, community rooms, and an outside children’s play area – which would be open to nearby neighborhood kids.

Gorman plans to begin construction by Aug. 31 on the first 100-unit building. Construction on the second building is to start immediately after the first building is completed, according to a city report.

Financing for Midtown Commons’ first building includes affordable housing tax credits.

Developers receiving those federal and state tax credits must provide most of the apartments at below-market rents to people generally earning no more than 60% of the area median income.

The credits are sold to raise equity cash. A developer then typically obtains a bank loan, and perhaps other sources, to complete the financing.

Gorman plans to seek tax credits to help finance the second apartment building.

The apartments are part of a larger redevelopment, city Planning Director Tanya Fonseca told the Plan Commission.

The next phase, involving the former Walmart, will be reviewed at “a very near term” commission meeting, she said.

The former Walmart was an anchor store at Midtown Center, an underused shopping center.

The building and its 15-acre lot were sold in 2022 to an Affordable Family Storage affiliate for $3.28 million.

The Council Bluffs, Iowa-based firm in 2023 proposed converting 107,000 square feet at the former Walmart into 850 self-storage units, with the remaining space used as four small- and mid-sized retail and commercial storefronts.

That proposal was opposed by Chambers and the Department of City Development.

Self-storage centers are barred at Midtown Center, and Affordable Family Storage’s plans don’t meet the city’s criteria for providing an exception, the department said.

The Plan Commission voted to deny the company’s request for the zoning exception.

Other former Milwaukee-area Walmarts that have been redeveloped include a 157,000-square-foot building, 10330 W. Silver Spring Drive.

It’s being renovated for new uses that include a Restaurant Depot store and a Fun City Adventure Park.