After approving a controversial zoning application for Minneapolis-based Target Stores Inc. two weeks ago, Atlanta-based Home Depot Inc. is in Clermont asking for the same favorable treatment for its planned 110,000-sf home improvement retail store. Target's store will be 187,000 sf.

The location of the Home Depot store at State Road 50 near Oakley Seaver Boulevard is crucial to its application. The Home Depot site almost touches a 32-acre site Wal-Mart bought and never developed two years ago for $2.3 million or $71,875 per acre ($1.65 per sf).

The Home Depot construction green light hinges on a road extension the city is asking the retailer to build to ease traffic congestion off State Road 50. The existing Hook Street would be extended from US 27, another heavily-trafficked artery, to Home Depot's planned store site.

The only possible problem here for Home Depot and the city is that Wal-Mart owns the land on which a right-of-way would be needed for the road extension. "We probably are not dealing from a position of strength here," a city official who asked anonymity tells GlobeSt.com.

Wal-Mart discarded plans to build a superstore in Clermont in 1998 after activist groups vigorously opposed the development and the city rejected the retailer's application. Now, retail industry sources tell GlobeSt.com, Wal-Mart may be the one dealing from a position of strength in attempting to develop a superstore here in the near future.

Wal-Mart, Home Depot and the city are discussing a possible solution that will enable Home Depot to build its store. Cameron Kuhn, a Downtown Orlando developer who is not involved in the Clermont scenario but who has witnessed similar negotiations, tells GlobeSt.com he thinks the little south Lake County city "may have shot itself in the foot" by approving the Target store development when its on-the-books big-box ordinance read otherwise. "It clearly opens the door for other big-boxers to come in."

Instant Insights /

Bedroom Community Unwittingly Opens Door for Big-Box Developers It Wanted to Shut Out

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