Data centers in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin: 2 projects mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

In Milwaukee, developer Trent Overhue proposed converting the back of a vacant Walmart at 5825 W. Hope Ave. into housing, a library branch and self-storage, with a small "computing research facility" added late in talks: under 10,000 square feet drawing 9 to 10 megawatts at full buildout. Residents of the majority-Black Sherman Park and Metcalfe Park neighborhoods said the facility was being placed where it would not be proposed elsewhere. A June 29 hearing ran more than six hours and ended without a vote.

On July 6, Ald. Mark Chambers Jr. announced the developer would drop the computing facility, and the city's Plan Commission approved the housing, library and storage redevelopment on July 20 without it. The fight exposed a gap: Milwaukee's zoning code does not treat data centers as a distinct use. Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic's proposed year-long moratorium on new data center applications cleared a technical committee on August 10, and the Plan Commission holds its first public hearing on the moratorium on September 28.

A pending amendment from Ald. Robert Bauman would exempt tribal land of the Forest County Potawatomi Community, which through Data Holdings already runs a 46,000-square-foot data center on the former Concordia campus. "We're trying to get ahead of a market that's moving way faster than we can react and regulate," Dimitrijevic said.

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.