Wal-Mart invests in growth
Wernher von Braun once
said, "One test result is worth a thousand expert opinions."
Not that we don't have a thousand expert opinions here in Charlotte
County.
On the
other hand, the Wal-Mart Corporation, planning to expand its stores
here. has its test results. The area from the existing Supercenter in
Venice to the Punta Gorda store has already been targeted for growth.
The Punta Gorda store has been planned for a Mediterranean-style
rebuild, taking the store from just under 100,000 square feet to just
over 192,000 square feel, with parking for 693 cars. The new Wal-Mart
stores planned for Kings Highway and 1- 7S and the new store at
Sumter and U.S. 41 in North Port will both be Supercenters.
The
Supercenter planned for Kings Highway will be even bigger than the
Punta Gorda store. At well over 220,000 square feet, the store will
be on a 50-acre site just inside the Charlotte County line, adjacent
to Lake Suzy. Ground-breaking should take place early next year. The
store is planned for opening in about two years.
While
the new North Port store will only occupy 26.3 acres, it is also
planned 8S a Supercenter, Rumors of a "Food Only" Wal-Mart
grocery store coming to North Port have been around for a while, but
this new store, adjacent to a planned new Home Depot, is planned as a
full scale Supercenter.
The
Wal-Mart store in Englewood will soon face the boom in home sales and
building in West County and will eventually be considered for growth,
if it hasn't already. In fact, if you go to the
Wal-Mart
Web Site, www.wal-mart.com, and search around a little bit, you'll
find a page to suggest where to build the next one in case you don't
have one in your neighborhood.
Punta
Gorda, though, may face the remote possibility of forcing the new
store out of the city limits into Charlotte County. The new store
will certainly be close to the 'old store, so complaints against
Wal-Mart may leave local residents with an empty building while a new
Supercenter opens not far away in Charlotte County. The corporate
planners at Wal-Mart know where the potential growth areas are and
most certainly plan on maximizing their current assets.
Abandoning the old store is not the preferred course of action.
Both
the Punta Gorda and North Port stores will be built to comply, and
probably exceed, the local beautification standards and guidelines.
The end of the "ugly gray box" has been dictated by local
design standards. The design standards local communities impose are a
sign of growth . management, helping shape the environment in which
we will live.
The care with which
Wal-Mart approaches the zoning and beautification mandates are an
indication of the willingness of Wal-Mart to invest in the growth of
our community. The potential revenues the stores are planned to
generate are not just numbers based on expert
opinion. It
doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out Wal-Mart isn't planning
on wasting its money.
George Mindling ©
2004
