Wal-Mart Fights for Three Urban Store Sites

But residents tell local government officials they are concerned that new Wal-Mart stores will bring with them declining property values, pollution and traffic and garbage problems.

Preliminary development plans filed in the three counties show the Bentonville, AR-based retailer would like to erect an estimated total 613,000 sf at three sites at an aggregate development cost of $30 million, or about $10 million per store.

Wal-Mart is especially interested in constructing a new 185,000-sf store on 43 acres at Cascade Road and Interstate 285 where Home Depot and Starbucks have already set up shop, brokers tell GlobeSt.com. This is Wal-Mart's second rezoning request for the Cascade Road area which has blossomed into an affluent black neighborhood in recent years, local brokers familiar with the submarket tell GlobeSt.com.

In DeKalb County, the retailer wants the City of Avondale Estates to annex and rezone 23 acres at the vacant Avondale Mall site to make room for an estimated 200,000-sf Wal-Mart store, retail brokers in the submarket tell GlobeSt.com.

And in South Forsyth County, an affluent, laid-back residential area, Wal-Mart plans a 203,000-sf -sf Supercenter on a 53-acre tract at Bagley and Mathis Airport Roads and GA 141, also known as Peachtree Parkway. This area has evolved into a vibrant retail hub, brokers tell GlobeSt.com. The county's planning commission is reviewing Wal-Mart's development request, even though the land has been zoned commercial since 1988.

Wal-Mart's push into urban areas for new store development follows an estimated 10-year lease the retailer is expected to sign this quarter with Atlanta-based Selig Enterprises for a 150,000-sf, $11-million store at the former Castlegate Hotel site, off Interstate 75 and Howell Mill Road, in Midtown, as GlobeSt.com previously reported.

That store, like the others planned in the three counties, will have a complete supermarket-style grocery section, a fact that irks many family owned, local food store operators, retail brokers familiar with the market, tell GlobeSt.com.