Jack Smith, Sanger's city manager, tells GlobeSt.com the pactbars any tax collection prior to completion, which is anticipatedin June or July. Consequently, city officials do not want theproject listed on its tax rolls come Jan. 1, 2001, the date used topro-rate tax bills on the basis of what is completed. Wal-Mart iswalking away with a $156,000 per year tax abatement for 10 years inexchange for the promise of 650 jobs initially and another 300 bythe end of five years, says Smith.

Rumor has it that Wal-Mart had bought the acreage for about$8,000 per acre from Dr. Edward Wolski. "That's the rumor," saysSmith, calculating that same acreage in Denton or Dallas couldfetch as much as $40,000 per acre for the seller.

The center, estimated to cost up to $80 million, is bringingjobs, revenue and additional growth to the town situated alongInterstate 35 just 53 miles north of Dallas. Some 3,000 acres arebeing developed to construct a $1.7-billion golf course retirementcommunity about four miles south of the Wal-Mart project whileeight other residential projects--some with commercial andmultifamily components--are being planned in the immediate vicinityof Wal-Mart's 63rd US distribution site.