Remember that proposed redevelopment of the shuttered Midtown Center Walmart at 5825 W. Hope Ave.? Remember how the proposed redevelopment called for a new Milwaukee Public Library branch, roughly 200 affordable housing units, a bunch of self-storage units, some civic and city space, and a 19,000-square-foot computing research facility? Well, the plan is still moving forward, but without the “19,000-square-foot computing facility” part.
Why? Well, as you probably already know, everyone was calling the computing research facility a “data center,” and everyone showed up to a recent City Plan Commission meeting and flipped out about the supposed data center for more than six hours. That meeting ended with no decision from the Commission; on Monday, a press release from Ald. Mark Chambers Jr. announced that developer Trent Overhue of Affordable Family Storage had nixed the data center / computing research facility / whatever it was anyway.
“Following extensive discussions with the property owner, developer, and city staff—and after carefully considering the feedback shared during three public information sessions and the testimony presented before the City Plan Commission—the applicant has made my office aware of plans to remove the proposed computing research facility from the redevelopment of the former Midtown Center Walmart at 5825 W. Hope Ave.” Chambers said.
“While this change comes with a reduction in potential tax revenue, it is a better reflection of the vision shared by residents throughout this process,” Chambers said later in the release.
Chambers’ words were slightly at odds from those he shared in a May 14 press release titled “Clearing Confusion at the Midtown Center.” In that release, the 2nd District alderman said “the development proposed for the Midtown Center includes nothing even close” to a data center. “I have always been committed to the redevelopment of the Midtown Center. And I want it developed in a way that brings the highest and best uses possible to those in the area and throughout the City,” he said. “Those two goals do not contradict, but we can only achieve them if everyone acts based on accurate information and not hyperbole driven by the press and social media.”
Monday’s press release ended on a more hopeful note:
I have full confidence that the amended development will be a transformative investment for Midtown. A development anchored by a Milwaukee Public Library branch, housing, and expanded storage units will reactivate a property that has sat vacant for nearly a decade, expand access to essential services, create new housing opportunities, and improve the overall quality of life for residents throughout the 2nd Aldermanic District.
My commitment remains unchanged. I will continue working to attract quality investment, expand housing opportunities, strengthen our tax base, and revitalize Midtown Center through a process grounded in transparency, collaboration, and genuine community engagement.
The City Plan Commission will discuss the amended development on July 20.
The now-dead data center / computing research facility / whatever it was would have taken up 19,000 square feet of the 160,000-square-foot Walmart site. For comparison, the real-deal data center campus coming to Port Washington is 2.5 million square feet.
Here are previous plans for the Walmart site, with the data center / computing research facility / whatever it was in the shaded yellow section:
Affordable Family Storage has been trying to get something cooking on the site since at least 2023.
Here’s a clip from the BBC version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, which is where the top picture of Deep Thought comes from.
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