Abandoned Store Gets A Happy Ending

A gymnasium where the shipping and receiving area used to be. A media center where flat screen TVs and Wii consoles once sold. Rows of classrooms replacing rows of Cheetos, Doritos and Fritos.

Yes, a former Wal-Mart in Ottawa, Illinois, has received a new lease on life. Central Elementary School, forced to move from its building after city officials condemned it due to flood damage last fall, has found a new home in a 90,000 square foot big box.

Ottawa Elementary Schools superintendent Craig Doster said he expected to have the keys and clearance to enter the 90,000-square-foot building today, assuming the Wal-Mart corporate office has finished its last-minute paperwork on the lease...Classroom walls will be installed at 10-foot heights, and if all goes according to plan, the interior will look very much like a school.

This of course isn’t a cure-all for the thousands of empty big box shells dotting the U.S., but its still nice to hear of a productive use being found for what otherwise would be nothing but an empty eyesore. The New Rules Project says that just a couple of years ago, Wal-Mart had 246 vacant or soon-to-be vacant properties. Retailers often hold onto ownership to keep rivals from moving onto the property - especially relevant for Wal-Mart, since many of the company’s empty building are so because they’ve been replaced by larger supercenters within the same geographic area.

Luckily, Wal-Mart appears not to regard a pack of 10-year-olds to be much in the way of competition.

Ottawa starts converting old Wal-Mart into school [News Tribune]

Ottawa starts converting old Wal-Mart into school
Friday, June 19, 2009
By Kevin Caufield

From falling prices to rising grade scores — the former Wal-Mart building in Ottawa is about to begin a major transformation Monday.

Ottawa Elementary Schools superintendent Craig Doster said he expected to have the keys and clearance to enter the 90,000-square-foot building today, assuming the Wal-Mart corporate office has finished its last-minute paperwork on the lease.

“It’s going to be a wonderful opportunity,” he said. “It’s an extremely functional building that is very modern.”

The district was forced to move out of Central School after city officials condemned the building due to flood damage last fall.

On Monday, the district will start creating fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms in the building located south of Interstate 80 and a block west of Thornton’s gas station. Doster said the building has many benefits, most notably 20,000 more square feet than Central School.

The proposed layout calls for physical education classes to be held in the former big box retailer’s shipping and receiving area, which is nearly as large as any common school gymnasium. Existing office space will be used for the same purpose, a media center will be constructed in the center of the building, and classrooms will be placed along the building’s interior perimeter.

With the advent of the Wal-Mart Supercenter, Doster said many people have asked him how the district will get around the incredibly high ceilings. But the building was an older Wal-Mart design which has a faux, drop-down ceiling installed.

Classroom walls will be installed at 10-foot heights, and if all goes according to plan, the interior will look very much like a school.

Posted by Corey Himrod on Friday, June 19, 2009

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