Former West Allis Kmart proposed as Hobby Lobby

The recently closed West Allis Kmart would be redeveloped as a Hobby Lobby and other stores under a new proposal pending before city officials.

However, city staffers are recommending the Plan Commission reject the proposal because it doesn’t follow the community’s zoning ordinance.

The store, 6900 W. Greenfield Ave., shut down in September as part of a series of store closings by Kmart’s owner, the financially troubled Sears Holdings Corp.

The 86,500-square-foot Kmart is part of West Allis Towne Centre, a shopping center operated by Ramco-Gershenson Inc., based in Farmington Hills, Mich.

Ramco-Gershenson is proposing to lease just under 50,000 square feet to Hobby Lobby, according to a city Plan Commission report.

Two other retail tenants, the names of which aren’t disclosed in the report, would lease around 20,000 square feet and 8,000 square feet. The smaller store would be built where the former outdoor garden center is located.

This would be the second Milwaukee-area Hobby Lobby to open in a former Kmart in recent years. Another opened at 18200 W. Blue Mound Road in the Town of Brookfield in 2015.

The West Allis proposal is to be reviewed Wednesday by the Plan Commission.

The city Department of Community Development is recommending the commission deny Ramco-Gershenson’s proposal because it fails to meet the city’s site and zoning design standards.

“The existing vacancy and proposed demand from new tenants is an opportunity for the developer to reposition the subject property,” a department report said.

But Ramco-Gershenson’s plans, including a lack of windows, blank walls and a loading dock facing the street, would conflict with the city’s design standards and guidelines, it said.

Department staff wants to work with the company to create a stronger proposal that would “embrace the street frontages and the intersection,” according to the report.

A Ramco-Gershenson spokesman couldn’t be reached for a response.

The problems include Ramco-Gershenson’s plans to demolish a 12,100square-foot portion of the building closest to the corner of S. 70th St. and W. Greenfield Ave., the report said.

The company says that demolition would make way for a loading dock and trash compactor. They would be screened by a 6-foot wall and landscaping.

The department report called the landscaped area “a plaza to nowhere.”

“While the corner landscaping plaza would be an aesthetic feature, it’s limited in function as to simply screen the loading dock and trash area on the west side of the building,” the report said.

“Instead the plaza should function as an entrance portal allowing pedestrian movement into the shopping center,” it said.