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THE WOODLANDS, TX-One hundred acres at the intersection of Woodlands Parkway and FM 2978 will soon be home to retail, medical office and multifamily projects. The acreage frames the western entrance to the master-planned Terramont, which now boasts more than 650 homes.

"Now that some of the residential has filled in, this particular intersection is opening to up to commercial development," says Greg Jordan of the Woodlands Development Co. The Bentonville, AR-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. bought 25 acres for a 210,000-sf store, its second in the Woodlands and the first retail space for the Terramont Shopping Center. The Wal-Mart Supercenter will open in early 2006.

"We're trying to make the area pedestrian-oriented," says Dan Leverett, the Woodlands' vice president of commercial development, "and the Wal-Mart has specific design guidelines that include the use of flagstone, brick and planters as well as forest preserves in the parking lot."