A SUPER WAL-MART? THINGS APPEAR TO BE SHAPING UP FOR SUPERCENTER TO BE BUILT

No formal announcement has been made, and no deed has been made for any land, but it appears that Columbia may be getting closer and closer to having a Wal-Mart Super Center built here. At Monday night’s meeting of the Columbia Planning and Zoning Commission, the commission was presented with a preliminary site plan for a proposed Wal-Mart that would be built on 20 acres of land south of Columbia near the Louie B. Nunn Parkway and the new KY 61 South interchange. This was the first time any information about a possible new Wal-Mart and its location was made public, although there has been much speculation about it in the past few years. The plan was presented by Kim Henry of Site, Inc., a site development firm hired by Wal-Mart. According to Henry, the new store would be about 156,000 square feet, and in addition to general merchandise, would contain a grocery, tire and lube center and a garden center. The land on which the store could be built is not in the city limits of Columbia at the present time, but city officials are pursuing consent annexation of the property, which is owned by Holladay Place LLC, along with other property along KY 61 South. Local Realtor Richard Lee Walker, a partner in Holladay Place LLC along with Don Franklin and others, said that while progress is being made toward getting a new Wal-Mart and Monday night’s presentation to the planning commission was another step in the process, it’s not a “done deal” that it will become a reality. “Wal-Mart makes their own announcements (when a new store will be built),” Walker said in an interview Tuesday. “However, we have been working and will continue to work to try to get them to locate a new super center here.” Walker said that he has been working with Wal-Mart for about the past two and one-half years, and they have had an option on the approximately 20-acre site for about a year. “They do all their due-diligence work - core drilling, environmental studies, planning and zoning regulations, etc., before making any final decisions,” he said. “This is the way Wal-Mart does business everywhere, and that’s the way it is being done here. “We’re just jumping through the hoops, and there’s a lot more to go through - for Wal-Mart, for the city, for everyone involved,” he continued. “Hopefully, all sides can work together and it will become a reality.” Walker said that, according to what he has been told, if Wal-Mart makes the decision to build a new super center here, construction could begin next year, and the facility be opened by the first half of 2008 if everything went well. “We feel it would be a big asset to the community,” he said. “It would bring in a lot of jobs, and it would also offer residents shopping opportunities they have to drive out of town for now.” While everything appears to be heading in the right direction for the new Wal-Mart to be built here, Walker reiterated that no final decision has been made yet, saying “nothing is set in stone.” “I’ll believe it when I see people carrying things out of the store and putting them in their cars,” he said jokingly. At the planning commission meeting, the Site, Inc. representatives were told that the city is in the process of updating its zoning regulations - something that should be completed by the end of January - but went ahead and voted to approve the preliminary site plan with the stipulation that Wal-Mart comply with zoning regulations being developed concerning landscaping and buffer zones.