With bullet holes in the skylights, profanity graffitied on nearly every surface and fire damage throughout, the derelict former Northridge Mall has been a growing blight on Milwaukee’s far northwest side since the shopping mall closed in 2003.
In January, the City of Milwaukee was awarded its long-sought ownership of the property from previous owner U.S. Black Spruce Enterprise Group, a Chinese investment group, after the company stopped paying its property taxes, on top of failing to secure the property and being held in contempt of court.
“Finally, we can exhale,” alderwoman Larresa Taylor said after the foreclosure hearing. Her district includes the Northridge Mall site.
Now, the public and private sectors have the opportunity to find the highest and best use for the 58-acre property at North 76th Street and Brown Deer Road. There is no shortage of ideas.
“I’ve seen everything floated there from another retail development to an office development to turning it back into a farm,” said Jim Barry, president of Milwaukee-based commercial real estate firm The Barry Company.
Amid a strong industrial market and a significant need for housing, local real estate professionals are split on how to best use the property, but one local developer says figuring out how to connect future development to the area’s existing stock of housing and industry is paramount to set the site up for future success.
The City of Milwaukee, which has said it does not have a grand plan for the site, is beginning demolition and environmental remediation work, aiming to have it ready for new development by the end of 2025.
Build on existing industrial base
Across Brown Deer Road from Northridge is the Bradley Woods Industrial Park, sometimes called the Milwaukee Land Bank, which has several hundred acres of industrial development already.
“There are a lot of very good companies, very good employers in that area,” Barry said. “But it’s pretty much built out. If you were to develop Northridge (as an industrial park), you could really create an expansion of Bradley Woods with modern facilities for expanding companies.”
Barry isn’t referring to the 1 million-plus-square-foot distribution centers that are popping up in Kenosha and Germantown, he said. Industrial development at the Northridge Mall site could provide space for local and regional manufacturers.
With metro Milwaukee’s industrial vacancy rate less than 5.5%, according to the most recent report from Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin, adding more industrial supply is welcome, according to Barry.
Further, as already-developed land, the Northridge property has an existing road system as well as sewer and water lines that would only need to be modernized to support new development.
“To me, that’s not only the highest and best use, but the most obvious use,” Barry said.
Adding residents and density
However, the far northwest side of Milwaukee also has a significant base of housing, which could make it prime for more.
There are other sites on the northwest side that have better access to freeways, such as sites available closer to I-41, that make them more attractive for industrial development, said Jeff Hoffman, an industrial real estate broker and principal at Cushman & Wakefield | Boerke.
Given its size, the Northridge property could lend itself ideally to a large corporate headquarters, according to Hoffman, but those deals don’t come around often. Thus, Hoffman said the quickest and most beneficial use for the land would be a comprehensive mixed-use workforce housing project that drives density and residents to the area.
“If you’re populating that particular area, it’s just going to help the existing industrial base,” Hoffman said. “More importantly, having more people in that area reactivates that retail corridor on Brown Deer Road.”
Creating a community impact
Despite the economic drain that an abandoned Northridge has been on the area, there have been a few new housing proposals to come forward in the area recently. Two separate developments just southeast of Northridge could bring 298 market-rate apartment units to the area and, just west of Northridge, Milwaukee-based Royal Capital has proposed more than 1,100 affordable housing units at a “healthy living campus.”
“If Royal Capital’s got this huge commitment up there, you’ve got to look at that for cues as to what you should consider doing,” said Bob Monnat, senior partner at Milwaukee-based multi-family development firm Mandel Group.
Monnat said any development at Northridge should consider how to create a sense of community for the surrounding area.
“You look at what the major deficiencies are, and right now you have this series of umbilical cord developments, but nothing that ties it all together,” Monnat said. “Regardless of what is done with it, how can you use Northridge to help everybody feel like they’re in the same community? That requires some fine-grained thinking.”
