MILWAUKEE — A proposed redevelopment of the abandoned Walmart at Midtown Center says it would bring affordable housing, a library, city offices and a data processing facility to the site.
City leaders and a developer faced a skeptical crowd at a community information meeting about a proposed redevelopment of the long-vacant Walmart at Midtown Center, with some residents unconvinced that the project does not include a data center.
AFS Milwaukee LLC, which owns the property, wants to redevelop the empty building.
If approved, the project would include 200 affordable housing units, a new Milwaukee Public Library branch, City of Milwaukee offices and a data processing facility.
District 2 Alderman Mark Chambers Jr. pushed back on characterizations of the project at the meeting.
"This isn't misleading no one. The reason we are having these events and two other ones in addition, to tell people what it is and what it's not," Chambers said.
Chambers said a data center is not part of the proposal.
"Absolutely not. Right now, it is being proposed as a computing research facility," Chambers said.
He added that the facility would not require significant energy.
"There's no need to upgrade grids, there's no need for fresh water intake or anything of that nature. Absolutely not," Chambers said.
The developer, Trent Overhue, said the data processing facility would take up only a fraction of the entire project and drew a distinction between that and a large-scale data center.
"You're looking at data storage, they do a lot of different things, so those help enable things from cell phones to cloud-based storage, all your internet traffic," Overhue said. "So there's been a narrative that this is a large scale data center, that is simply not the case."
Some residents said they left the meeting feeling reassured, though not entirely without reservations.
"I did get my questions answered. So I am pretty okay right now with what they're planning, but I'm just don't trust, it's hard to trust, you know, the process," said nearby resident Vanetta Collins.
Others raised concerns about the affordable housing component of the project.
"I feel like it's a great idea affordable housing and everything, but really we don't need that in this vicinity because of all the elderly people, it's going to bring the crime rate up," said Gillian Brown, who lives near Midtown Center.
Some neighbors expressed hope that the long-vacant property could become an asset for the community.
"I know it's not going to have the same effect, because the location, but can we make it where it is just as beautiful as Bay Shore?" Collins said.
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