The Way I See It!

Another Chance for a Cudahy Wal-Mart?

Posted by Randy Hollenbeck on June 16, 2011

Cudahy, South Milwaukee, Wal-Mart, Tony Day, CDA

As I mentioned on May 24:

Cudahy News, Rumors, and Info

“Well, things are not a smooth as some people would like the Wal-Mart project to be going in South Milwaukee.  Now this could just be a ploy of Wal-Mart to help push the stalled project.

I was told strongly that Wal-Mart does NOT want to go to the Pennsylvania and Layton site.  I was told, please get Mayor Day, the CDA, and the Alderpersons to understand that since they are all still pushing that site.

 STOP pushing that land, even ShopKo pulled away from the development on that site.  Someone will want it.”

Now from what I am hearing, the South Milwaukee Wal-Mart is dead in the water.

Yes, yes I know the papers are reporting on hold, but I am hearing DEAD!!! 

It is also true that the City of South Milwaukee wants the Wal-Mart so badly that they are willing to put the taxpayers on the hook for 50% of the cleanup costs as long as Wal-Mart the developer picks up the other 50%. They know that Wal-Mart will bring in more development.  I just don't see the S.Milw taxpayers going for it.

I also want to strongly state this: Wal-Mart will not come to Cudahy at the Pennsylvania and Layton site so don’t try and push it.  The land has too much soft fill, would require the State DOT to make changes to the roads and bridge or to put it a simple way – It is too costly to build there!

Wal-Mart likes the Cudahy Meyer (Iceport) site!  Got it?

Here is what is in the news about the South Milwaukee Wal-Mart.

From MJS

South Milwaukee Walmart proposal on hold

Plans for a combined Walmart discount store and supermarket in South Milwaukee are on hold because of environmental cleanup costs tied to part of the site.

That's according to Danielle Devlin, executive director of the South Milwaukee Community Development Authority.

Devlin told me Tuesday that Gatlin Development Co., which was going to build the store, no longer has a contract on 6.5 acres owned by an investment group affiliated with Briohn Building Co. Gatlin declined to extend that contract because of environmental cleanup costs tied to that parcel, Devlin said.

I haven't yet reached Frank Gatlin, president of Gatlin Development. Walmart spokeswoman Lisa Nelson confirmed that the contract has been terminated, but said the retailer remains interested in the site, which includes 3.5 acres owned by the community development authority.

"I wouldn't call (the proposed store) dead," Nelson told me.  "We're hoping the developer can pull something together."

The 10-acre site is west of Chicago Ave., one block south of College Ave.

From The Business Journal

Walmart backing off South Milwaukee proposal 

The proposal for a Walmart store in South Milwaukee, one of a slew of Walmarts proposed in the Milwaukee area, is dead, according to a South Milwaukee official.

Gatlin Development Co. Inc. has decided not to buy a parcel of land for a proposed 115,000-square-foot store, said Danielle Devlin, South Milwaukee Community Development Authority executive director.

South Milwaukee agreed late last year to sell 3.6 acres to Gatlin, which develops stores for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. That parcel was supposed to be combined with a 6.5-acre parcel from Innovations Park, but the developer terminated its contract to buy the Innovations Park parcel because of environmental and site concerns, Devlin said.

Gatlin also has proposed new Walmarts for Timmerman Plaza on the northwest side of Milwaukee and on the west side at 70th Street and West Main Street, as well as in Caledonia, Menomonee Falls and Greendale.  The proposals are at various points in the approval process, but none has broken ground.

What have readers emailed me?

SoMil Walmart on the skids

Can you contact Lisa Nelson at Walmart and let her know Cudahy is back open for business?  I sent Tony Day an email already, but this could be a real boon for us.

--------------------------------------

Randy, now if the Cudahy CDA, Council and Mayor Day don’t screw this up, we can get Wal-Mart back on track in Cudahy and put this Iceport to rest!

----------------------------------------------------------------

Randy I just know Mayor Day is going to sit on his hands and do nothing.  He will claim he is waiting for walmart to come to the city.  Everyone knows they will not unless the city contacts them first.  We went from one do nothing mayor to another one.

----------------------------------------------------

Randy, if Cudahy lets this opportunity slip by again we are lost forever.  Get a bug in the ear of the powers that be to go after Walmart.

---------------------------------------------------------

My response to all of them was:  I am trying and working on it.  After all I don’t like us taxpayers paying $535,000 project to haul dirt onto the 21-acre former Iceport site so the land can be developed when Wal-Mart would have been on the hook in the first place.