Wal-Mart Seeks To Build Second Manchester Store
MANCHESTER, Aug 08, 2012 (Menafn - The Hartford Courant - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --Wal-Martis seeking to build a second store in town, on the site of the former Kmart building on Spencer Street.
The company has submitted plans for a 152,000-square-foot store at 205 Spencer St., Mark Pellegrini, town director of neighborhood services and economic development, said Tuesday. The company has applied to the planning and zoning commission for the necessary permits and the matter is tentatively slated to be on the panel's agenda in September, Pellegrini said.
"This will be a Supercenter with a full grocery offering,"Wal-Martspokesman Christopher Buchanan wrote in an email. "Our internal market research shows this market area can be benefited by another Wal-Mart with full grocery."
The former Kmart building, vacant for about 10 years, is being demolished. Property owner Gateway Lauren Inc. also owns The Plaza at Burr Corners off Tolland Turnpike and is among the town's top taxpayers. The company is affiliated with New York City-based Emmes Asset Management Co.
Bill Bond, senior vice president at Emmes, has said the company planned to level the approximately 95,000-square-foot building "with the hopes of redevelopment." The building, appraised at about 1.77 million, had been vacant since Kmart left in 2003. The store was among six in Connecticut and 326 nationwide that Kmart closed that year as part of a plan to emerge from bankruptcy.
Wal-Mart also has a store on Buckland Hills Drive, across town from Spencer Street. The company has received approval to expand that store for a grocery section. The addition is expected to be completed next year, Buchanan wrote in another email.
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