FLORIDA SITE FIGHT: HIGH SCHOOL KNOCKED DOWN TO MAKE WAY FOR WAL-MART
New Walmart buildup begins [News-Journal (Fla.)]
DAYTONA BEACH—Plans for a Walmart Supercenter moved a step closer this week after the city issued a demolition permit for the old Father Lopez Catholic High School.
The nation’s largest retailer is buying the property, on Nova Road between Mason Avenue and Madison Street, and will build the city’s second Walmart Supercenter on the 21-acre site.
The high school moved in the summer to a $24 million facility on LPGA Boulevard, across from Municipal Stadium.
Quenta Vettel, a Walmart spokeswoman, said the company has not finalized the contract with the Catholic Diocese of Orlando and also is still going through the permitting process.
“We don’t own it yet,” Vettel said Wednesday in a telephone interview.
Susan Cerbone, city spokeswoman, said the city issued the demolition permit earlier this week to Wines & Sons Demolition.
Crews from Wines were at the site Wednesday but it might not have been obvious to passers-by that anything was happening.
That is because, according to owner Frank Wines, workers spent the day dismantling the bleachers in the school gym and clearing out other buildings.
The value of the demolition is $225,000.
Cerbone said the property owner has six months to complete demolition at the site.
She also said no one has applied for a building permit, which cannot be issued until the final site plans are approved.
Walmart also announced this year that it will not build a second Supercenter in Port Orange. The new one would have been at Nova Road and Madeline Avenue.
The plan was opposed by residents of the area, but company officials said the decision was part of a nationwide effort to reduce capital spending for fiscal year 2009 in the face of a slowing U.S. economy. The land was slated to be put on the market.
Walmart is, however, going forward with a second store in Palm Coast, near the intersection of Old Kings Road and State Road 100.
Palm Coast City Council members gave final approval to site plans for an estimated 184,000-square-foot store in August.
The store will be on 31 acres, and include a liquor store, general retail and food, a garden shop and vehicle service center.
Walmart has six Supercenters, a Discount City and a Neighborhood Market in Volusia County and a Supercenter in Flagler County.
Posted by Luke West on Friday, October 03, 2008
