44 acres for Waynesburg Wal-Mart purchased in Franklin Twp.
WAYNESBURG – Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. on Monday purchased 44 acres of land in Franklin Township, a site which is expected to become the long awaited and much maligned – Waynesburg Wal-Mart Supercenter. Wal-Mart purchased the land from developer McHolme/Waynesburg LP to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter, expected to be the anchor of a retail complex on Route 21 across from the Greene County Airport. The move is the most concrete step of a long process of bringing the retail giant to the county.
“We can finally confirm that we are planning on coming in with a Supercenter,” said Wal-mart spokesperson Laurie Smalling. “We plan on opening in late 2007 or early 2008.”
Robbie Matesic, county director of economic development, said the purchase of land by Wal-Mart is the first step toward actualizing the county’s plans.
“It’s a major milestone for the retail development,” she said. “There’s an awful lot that goes on behind the scenes before any milestone is achieved. What we begin now is huge. Now we have serious work to bring these schedules and these budgets all together.”
With the planning and conceptualization part of the project behind them, the first step is clearing the site for construction, Matesic said.
“We expect to see dirt flying very, very soon,” she said. “The start date is up to the developer. To my knowledge, right now, he is still negotiating with a contractor.”
Matesic said she believes the developer and contractor are close to an agreement, which may make a start date before the end of April a possiblity.
According to Smalling, once completed, the 155,000-square-foot store will contain general merchandise, groceries, a garden center and a tire and lube express. The proposed store is smaller than the national average of 186,077-square-feet. According to Wal-Mart’s Web site, the average store contains 116,000 items.
Wal-Mart plans to open 335 to 370 new U.S. stores this year. It opened 341 stores last year and operates nearly 3,200 stores total. In Pennsylvania alone, as of January, the retailer operates 70 Supercenters and 46 discount stores with 48,555 associates.
According to Smalling, the Waynesburg Wal-Mart Supercenter will employ around 350 associates. The average wage for a regular full-time hourly associate in Pennsylvania is $9.66 per hour, according to Wal-Mart’s website.
The parcel Wal-Mart purchased was part of the 115-acre lot controlled by McHolme. The developer had requested permission in January from the township to divide the total lot into two smaller parts. McHolme purchased the site for over $666,652 from the county in December of 2003. Smalling was not able to provide a cost for the parcel Wal-Mart purchased. Norm McHolme did not return several messages seeking comment.
Smalling said the retailer is in the final steps of due dillegence with the county and will soon begin working with the developer to get the site ready for construction. There is currently no timetable to begin construction, she said.
Even though there are 20 stores within a 45-mile radius and four stores within 25 miles of Waynesburg, Smalling said she does not anticipate the new store to be a drain on the retailer’s current employee pool.
“We typically do not experience that problem,” she said, noting that Wal-Mart has a policy to allow current employees to transfer to a store closer to their own hometown.
“It’s an opportunity for our associates to work closer to home and keep those tax dollars closer,” she said.
“We are always looking at better ways to serve our customers,” she said. “I have no specifics in regards to other sites.”
The Wal-Mart Supercenter will be built on an access road called Murtha Drive, named after U.S. Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Johnstown). Last year, the county received $3 million in state and federal funding that will be used for Murtha Drive and upgrades along Route 21.
Matesic said Murtha Drive is part of recognizing “the valuable resource” the I-79 interchanges represent.
“The opportunity we have here with building Murtha Drive is a lot bigger than simply a retail development,” Matesic said. Efforts have been made for years to bring a retail complex near I-79. McHolme is the third developer to attempt to realize growth at the site after two other unsuccessful efforts in the late ’90s.
Current efforts took root last August, when county commissioners announced that Wal-Mart confirmed that it had executed documents with McHolme. County Commission Chairwoman Pam Snyder said Aug. 2 the agreement between Wal-Mart and McHolme means that the project should start moving, and the agreement was “signed, sealed, and delivered.”
C onstruction was initially anticipated to begin in 2004, but the project was delayed.