The former Kmart building in Cudahy is for sale. Find out what could go there.
The former Cudahy Kmart building is up for sale and the parking lot could transform to host multiple businesses.
Mid-America Real Estate – Wisconsin has listed the property at 6077 S. Packard Ave. for $3.2 million. The property owner is Transformco.
The site includes the 116,142-square-foot building built in 1971 with one loading dock and 657 surface parking spaces on a total of 6.39 acres.
The sales materials identify the potential to create four outlots/pad sites in the existing parking lot from 0.5 acres up to 2.5 acres each. Each space could host a separate building and business.
One potential issue could be parking, depending on the size and number of new businesses that could potentially take over the outlots. City Administrator Casey Griffiths said since there are no specifics yet in terms of the proposed use, he can’t comment yet on how much parking space the city would require.
Use of the city’s Planned Unit Development Overlay district may also aid in the creation of joint parking spaces between businesses or other uses, such as multi-family residential, Griffiths said.
The plan commission does have authority to adjust the number of required parking spaces for a project if a developer has shown their parking demands will be lower than what code requires or if there is enough shared or street parking.
Cudahy has not been contacted by the owner or broker of the site, nor any potential buyers, since the Mid-America listing went live, according to Griffiths. The city is working to get in contact with the broker to offer any assistance needed.
“Our planning staff has just done a very brief review of the materials that Mid-America has posted and didn’t see any concern with the concept, but obviously any proposed division of land or new building(s) would need to be reviewed and approved by the city,” Griffiths said.
The closing of Kmart, what came after and what could come
The Cudahy Kmart, the last of the retail chain operating in Milwaukee County, closed in 2019. Sears Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2018 while closing hundreds of stores.
U-Haul proposed creating a storage retail center on the site in October 2019, but the city rejected the proposal which would have required a rezoning of the property. Cudahy Mayor Tom Pavlic said at the time “we have enough storage facilities.”
Since Kmart’s closure, the building has been used as a COVID-19 vaccination site in early 2021, it was a Sears Hometown store for less than a year, and It has also been an annual Spirit Halloween store.
The property is currently zoned B-2 Community Business District. Cudahy’s zoning code lists 58 types of uses or businesses that are permitted in this district. They include antique stores, art galleries, banks, bakeries, barber/beauty shops, bookstores, clinics, catering services, professional offices, taverns, cocktail lounges, grocery stores, hobby/craft shops, fitness centers, restaurants and theaters.
Contact Erik S. Hanley at erik.hanley@jrn.com. Like his Facebook page, The Redheadliner, and follow him on X @Redheadliner.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The old Kmart property in Cudahy has been listed for $3.2 million
