A Burlington store is planned to replace the Piggly Wiggly store at 709 E. Capitol Drive in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood.
Piggly Wiggly Midwest notified the state this week that it plans to close the store, a move that will eliminate 52 jobs.
But the space might not stay vacant for long. In a permit application filed with the city, a sign company is requesting to place a Burlington sign at the Piggly Wiggly storefront. Plans show Burlington would occupy the entire Piggly Wiggly space to open a 25,000-square-foot store.
The Piggly Wiggly store is the anchor tenant of a strip mall that was sold last month. A limited liability company affiliated with Brown Deer-based Midland Management, LLC, purchased the entire 84,748-square-foot shopping center building in late December for $5.85 million.
The seller – a Des Plaines, Illinois limited liability company – applied for the sign permit for Burlington before selling the property to Midland Management, records show.
Attempts to reach Midland Management about the Burlington store and any other plans for the shopping center, were unsuccessful on Wednesday.
The Piggly Wiggly layoffs are expected to begin on March 18 and will occur during a 14-day period, according to a letter to the state from Piggly Wiggly Midwest senior director Bill Sullivan.
Piggly Wiggly Midwest has about 100 stores, nearly all of them in Wisconsin. It only has one other store in the city of Milwaukee, located at 123 W. Oklahoma Ave. in the city’s Bay View neighborhood.
New Jersey-based Burlington, formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory, currently has three stores in the Milwaukee area – one in Brookfield, one in West Allis and one at 1501 W. Zellman Court in the city of Milwaukee.
