Lancaster, MA. Wal-Mart Abandons Plans

Wal-Mart pulls out of Lancaster [Sentinel & Enterprise (Mass.)]

Wal-Mart announced Friday it has dropped its controversial plan to build a 24-hour Supercenter in town, saying it has scaled back the pace at which it will open these stores nationally.

“At this time our corporation has made the decision that this project is not in sync with our overall growth strategy,” said Christopher Buchanan, a company spokesperson.

Wal-Mart is still building another Supercenter—though not a 24-hour one—at a new retail development nearby in Leominster. It is expected to open by summer 2008, according to Buchanan.

The retail titan first announced plans for an approximately 217,000-square-foot store on Old Union Turnpike, just off Route 2, in May 2006.

Since then the project has taken several turns, culminating in today’s announcement: the formation of Our Lancaster First, an opposition group; a special town meeting proposal to put all large-scale retail development here on hold; a reduction in the store’s size by about 30,000 square feet; a lawsuit that was dismissed; and plan approval by the Planning Board.

The Supercenter still needed the Conservation Commission’s approval. Wal-Mart had spent upwards of $40,000 on the project so far.

Project opponents rejoiced when they heard of the news. They’re even celebrating with a party on Tuesday.

“I’m absolutely delighted that Wal-Mart has made the right choice. I’m a little stunned really, that it ended like this,” said one, John Harvey. “It was an extreme waste of time for Lancaster’s money and Wal-Mart’s money to go ahead with this once they decided to go ahead in Leominster.”

Harvey said the opposition to the project was almost all Wal-Mart-specific. He noted he hasn’t opposed plans for a new car dealership just down the road from the Wal-Mart site.

“I’m not a crusader against everything in town,” he said. “It was this project.” Arthur P. “Jay” DiGeronimo, one of Our Lancaster First’s financial backers and area Wal-Mart critic, said the decision “is a credit to the people in the neighborhood who kept up the pressure to oppose it.”

He thought it was a “foregone conclusion” that Wal-Mart would drop the Lancaster project because of the ongoing Leominster one. But he also noted, “at the end of the day Wal-Mart’s in our marketplace.”

Buchanan said in an interview Wal-Mart’s decision to withdraw its plans had nothing to do with Our Lancaster First or the proximity of the Leominster store under construction.

“This is a decision that’s a larger overall corporate growth strategy,” he said. “It has to do with the plan to moderate our growth in opening supercenters across the country and Lancaster was one project we took a second look at.”

He added the proposed Lancaster supercenter is the only ongoing project among several in the state that’s been nixed.

Orlando Pacheco, the town’s administrator, said Friday he wasn’t surprised when Buchanan told him of the decision in a morning phone conversation.

“As time went on, you could see some changes in Wal-Mart nationally,” Pacheco said in an interview. “You could tell more and more there was less likelihood this store was going to be built in terms of sales were down and the stock was down.”

He also said the town’s financial situation won’t be hurt by the decision, though Wal-Mart said it would give the town $500,000 upon opening the store and annual taxes were projected to be about $200,000.

“I wasn’t anticipating that money would be used to balance the operating budget in any way shape or form, but simply provide more stabilization and savings for the town long-term,” he said.

Pacheco also expects future proposals at the site to be welcomed more readily.

“I think a lot of it had to do with the tenant,” he said. “So I think a lot of your litigation goes away if Wal-Mart doesn’t pursue it.”