A long-closed Walmart’s proposed redevelopment into affordable apartments, a library branch, self-storage units, and a small data center will be the subject of three June open houses.
That’s according to Ald. Mark Chambers, whose district includes the former Walmart, 5825 W. Hope Ave.
Chambers announced the open houses at the Common Council’s June 2 meeting – calling them a response to “a lot of misrepresentations of the project.”
The development needs Plan Commission approval.
A commission review scheduled for May 18 was postponed after neighborhood residents and others raised concerns about the data center.
Some critics compared the 19,000-square-foot data center to the hyperscale data centers under construction in Port Washington and Mount Pleasant.
According to IBM, small data centers typically require between 5,000 and 20,000 square feet of space and use one to five megawatts of energy to host between 500 and 2,000 servers.
Milwaukee’s smaller data centers include a 45,000-square-foot facility, 3135 W. Highland Blvd., and portions of downtown’s Wells Building, 324 E. Wisconsin Ave.
Microsoft Corp.’s Mount Pleasant data centers are expected to eventually total over 8.7 million square feet and use up to 8.44 million gallons of water annually Roughly 6 million gallons would be returned to the Racine Water Utility.
The open houses will be at the former Walmart, Chambers said. They are scheduled for June 10, from 5:30 to 7 p.m.; June 18, from 5:30 to 7 p.m., and June 27, from noon to 1:30 p.m.
The 150,000-square-foot former Walmart was a Midtown Center anchor store before closing in 2016. Its redevelopment plan calls for parts of the building to be used for self-storage units, and a relocation of the Capitol Branch Library, 3969 N. 74th St.
Also, Gorman & Co. has received city approval to develop Midtown Commons. That 200-unit affordable apartment community is 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.
Meanwhile, a pending Common Council zoning proposal would ban data centers with more than 60,000 square feet, and more strictly regulate smaller data centers.
The proposal’s first public review is scheduled for the Zoning Code Technical Committee’s June 15 meeting at City Hall.
That won’t affect the Walmart redevelopment plans because they were submitted to the city before the new zoning proposal was filed, Chambers says.
Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, Bluesky, X and Facebook.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Walmart redevelopment, with small data center, set for open houses
Reporting by Tom Daykin, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
