Proposed Midtown Center redevelopment; public input wanted

MILWAUKEE - The public is invited to discuss the future of an abandoned Walmart located at Milwaukee's Midtown Center. There are a number of plans in place for the area – including a possible data processing center.

Milwaukee Alderman Mark Chambers says it's critical the public is involved in the process of the project. 

Public informational meeting

What you can do:

Discussion surrounding this vacant Walmart and the parking lot was scheduled to happen weeks ago. However, that was postponed to allow for more public discussion. 

Wednesday's information session is scheduled from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at 5825 W. Hope Avenue. There will be two more sessions:

• Thursday, June 18 from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
• Saturday, June 27 from12 to 1:30 p.m.

"It is absolutely critical for the public to be a part of the process for this project, and these meetings will be a key part of that public involvement," Alderman Chambers said. "I strongly urge anyone interested in the project to attend at least one of the public informational meetings."

Midtown Center plan

The backstory:

The plans call for affordable housing, a library, community space, self-storage and a data center.

The plan is to transform the parking lot of the old Walmart at the Midtown Center into affordable apartments, 100 of them.

Then, the front of the Walmart building is planned for a public library and community space.

The company that owns the building says in order to do the housing and community spaces, they need the money from the rest of the proposal.

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That is planned for the rear of the building, where the company plans to set up self-storage, and 19,000 square feet for what it calls "data processing/computer services/computer research." That later for computing represents about 12% of the whole building.

That's about the size of about 1.5 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

This Walmart has been sitting vacant since 2016. In 2022, a company called AFS Milwaukee LLC bought it.

What they're saying:

"'Data centers' are a couple of very bad words these days. They conjure images of grey buildings covering thousands of acres, creating nuisance levels of noise, and taxing local water supplies and other resources," writes Milwaukee Alderman Mark Chambers, who represents the area.

"The development proposed for the Midtown center includes nothing even close."

He says the plans call for a closed loop system for water—meaning the water gets reused, and he says electricity usage will be limited.