Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market Coming to Highlands

The Neighborhood Market, Wal-Mart's answer to grocery stores, is meeting protests from some vocal neighborhood groups and residents.

Some people have even picketed developer Chuck Perry's nearby house and his wife's upscale restaurant in the neighborhood.

The 40,000-sf Neighborhood Market will be one of the final stages of the development at West 38th Avenue and Wolff Street.

"This is not big box retail, nor a Wal-Mart Supercenter," says Perry, principal of HGV Land Co. "The Neighborhood Market is a smaller than average grocery store with a pharmacy. It is about two-thirds of the size of most grocery stores and requires about one-third less parking."

He says the concept of the Neighborhood Market is an essential part of the revitalization of the West 38th Avenue corridor and the role that Highlands Garden Village was designed to play in the revitalization of this street and the neighborhoods that it serves.

"The problem with West 38th Avenue and a number of other similar commercial corridors is that the retail on these streets is largely unanchored and declining," Perry says. "If we are going to attract a more diverse group of national, local and regional retail business and revitalize these streets, we need mid-sized anchors that will fit on the smaller retail sites that usually line these corridors. The Neighborhood Market is exactly the size of store that is needed to revitalize infill urban neighborhoods and I am pleased that Wal-Mart is adding this type of store because few other grocers are willing to build new stores that fit into our urban infill neighborhoods."Roger Thompson, real estate manager for Wal-Mart Stores, calls Highlands Garden Village a "unique and vital neighborhood."

"The Highland Neighborhood is only 10 minutes from Downtown," Thompson says. "It is one of Denver"s most diverse neighborhoods and is in the process of being revitalized. We feel there is a strong demographic for the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market in neighborhoods of this type."

Trammell Crow retail broker Pat McHenry has been working to bring a retail anchor to the center for the past year.

We didn't want anything too large in scale, and this new concept by Wal-Mart fit in perfectly for our plans," McHenry says.