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Meijer plans to open its first four Wisconsin stores in the summer.

(Mlive file photo)

GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- In its first expansion to a new market in 20 years, Meijer Inc. is set to spend $750 million to bring its supercenters to Wisconsin.

The Midwest retailer plans to open least 12 to 16 stores over the next five years, Meijer spokesman Frank Guglielmi told MLive and The Grand Rapids Press.

Those new stores will result in the company hiring at least 7,000 Wisconsin residents. Meijer currently employs 60,000 people at its Walker headquarters, various distributions centers and at 213 stores across in a five-state footprint of Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky.

The Walker-based retailer is set to open four stores in the state next summer in the Milwaukee suburbs of Wauwatosa, Oak Creek, Grafton and and Kenosha. Another two to three more stores could open annually through 2019, Guglielmi said.

The pace of the openings will depend on property negotiations and the response of the communities the retailer is eyeing, he said.

Meijer dropped plans to build a store in the Milwaukee suburb of Franklin in January after the retailer decided it was hitting too many roadblocks in its efforts to get approval to build on the site. The community's mayor said he was disappointed by the decision.

In March, co-chairman Hank Meijer told Wisconsin business leaders that the family-owned company's march into Wisconsin would be rapid, and unprecedented for the retailer.

Not everyone is thrilled with that plan. The CEO of the Roundy's, a Milwaukee-based supermarket chain with several banners including Pick 'n Save stores, said in May he didn't know why Meijer was entering the market because it already had plenty of stores.

Shandra Martinez covers business for MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. Email her or follow her on Twitter @shandramartinez.