New Berlin Rec Center Planned For Former Walmart Store

NEW BERLIN, WI— The City of New Berlin announced Tuesday that it has officially partnered with Burghardt Sporting Goods for the acquisition and re-use of the former Walmart building within the City Center area of New Berlin, according to a press release.

New Berlin recently closed on purchasing a portion of the building and land from Burghardt's and has begun master planning for the construction of the New Berlin Recreation Center.

According to BizTimes, Burghardt Sporting Goods will move its headquarters to the former Walmart building. The move is expected to bring about 80 jobs to the new location at 15333 W. National Ave. A new 152,000-square-foot Walmart store at 15205 W. Greenfield Ave. was built in 2015, BizTimes reported.

The recreation center will "serve as an inter-generational, dynamic space where the City Recreation Department can create, cultivate, and expand a number of its current programming opportunities for city residents and program attendees," the press release said.

Some of these events include Summer Day Camp, cooking demonstrations, aerobics & exercise classes, to ultimately, hosting tournaments such as volleyball and basketball.

"Burghardt's has been wonderful to work with and I anticipate this partnership only growing stronger and more beneficial to both parties as we move forward" stated Mayor Dave Ament said in a press release.

Burghardt Sporting Goods will be relocating their Brookfield retail, team and web sales departments, in addition to their screen printing, embroidery & fulfillment operations to New Berlin's City Center.

The Burghardt space will also include a new state of the art Performance Center featuring a HitTrax baseball and softball hitting facility, expanded team and corporate sales show rooms and interactive retail displays.

"We are thrilled to be working with the City of New Berlin to create a desirable and synergistic destination for residents and athletes" stated Lynn Burghardt in the release.

Burghardt Sporting Goods has been doing business in the Milwaukee area since 1881, Burghardt's is recognized as one of the oldest family-owned and operated sporting goods stores in the United States. Brian, Carl & Lynn continue to carry on their family's work as the fifth generation owners focused on being one of the elite independent sporting goods stores in the nation.

Burghardt's plans to open up their web and printing operations as well as the performance center by January 2021 with their retail and team sales areas opening sometime around March of 2021, the release said.