ALL WAL-MART PROJECTS IN MAINE PUT ON HOLD

Maine Wal-Mart projects on hold [Republican Journal (Maine)]

Wal-Mart put Maine projects in the planning stage on hold while the company restructures and there may not be any action for the rest of the year, says a Lincoln town official.

Ruth Birtz, economic development director in Lincoln, said a company official in New York told her recently that Wal-Mart will fill a vacant job in the firm’s real estate office in Boston after restructuring is complete and the projects on hold will then be reevaluated.

Belfast has been trying to lure a Wal-Mart to the new big box zone on the city’s west side.

Bob Bahre, the man who bought the entire west side big box zone, plans to visit Belfast in a few weeks to see the land he bought sight-unseen, but nobody involved in Belfast development is sure of what to expect.

“Maine is a great state, but they don’t really care about business,” said Bahre, who also does business in New Hampshire.

“We didn’t buy the land to raise cucumbers and tomatoes,” Bahr said. “I think there’s going to be something there in time.”

The town of Lincoln, population 5,200, is a little smaller than Belfast’s 6,800, but Lincoln already had a 47,000-square-foot Wal-Mart store that draws customers from the area.

Birtz said Wal-Mart was the first big box store in town and was successful, but lacked adequate space for inventory, expansion and a grocery department.

Lincoln granted Wal-Mart permits last summer to build a 99,000-square-foot Supercenter, but Birtz said wetlands mitigation issues had delayed construction and the company was still working on obtaining permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection and Army Corps of Engineers.

Birtz tried to reach company officials after she heard a news story that Wal-Mart was restructuring and she was told June 6 that all projects in Maine were on hold.

She identified the source of the information on the retrenchment as Philip Serghini, senior manager of public affairs in Wal-Mart’s New York office, but said Serghini couldn’t say what the fate of the project in Lincoln would be.

“There was no time schedule, but I thought we would know by the end of the year,” Birtz said.

Serghini couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Construction had already begun on Wal-Mart stores in Ellsworth, Bangor and Sanford, and work continues on those, Birtz said, but they hadn’t broken ground in Lincoln for that store.

Belfast City Manager Joseph Slocum calls Serghini periodically to try to draw the company here since the City Council has put a priority on building a big box general merchandise and grocery store, but company officials who appeared interested some time ago now seem lukewarm and non-committal.

Slocum keeps trying to find out what is stalling things.

“Are we fighting a national or international or localized trend?” Slocum asked. “I hope Bob Bahr can help me find out.”