WAL-MART HEARING POSTPONED IN RIALTO, CA

Rialto Wal-Mart Supercenter proposal postponed [Press Enterprise (Calif.)]

A Wal-Mart Supercenter proposed for a long-vacant corner lot, where it would anchor a 25-acre shopping center north of Interstate 10, was slated to be up for approval at tonight’s Rialto City Council meeting.

However, on Monday afternoon Rialto officials learned that legal notices had not been published in newspapers, as is required, and therefore the City Council would not be allowed to vote on the matter tonight, said Mike Story, the city’s development director.

It was not clear Monday whether the council would take public testimony about the project during tonight’s meeting. City officials advised Wal-Mart attorneys about the glitch, and company representatives likely will request the City Council to postpone the matter until July 1, Story said.

The council, anticipating strong community interest in the Wal-Mart proposal, moved the 6 p.m. meeting from Rialto City Hall to the campus theater at Wilmer Amina Carter High School, 2630 N. Linden Ave.

Bigger and Better

The 197,000-square-foot Supercenter would be built on the southwest corner of Riverside and San Bernardino avenues—just north of an existing Wal-Mart, which it would replace. That store, at 1610 S. Riverside Ave., opened in 1992 and measures 125,000 square feet, said Robb Steel, the city’s redevelopment director.

City officials have heard that home improvement chain Lowe’s is interested in building a store at the current Wal-Mart site.

“They tell us they’re under contract—when Wal-Mart vacates and moves north—to buy that property and demolish it and rebuild,” Steel said.

It would be the only Lowe’s in Rialto.

The Supercenter would sell groceries and operate 24 hours a day. Wal-Mart recently dropped plans to build stores in Highland and in the future Fontana Promenade just south of Highway 210. The retailer has been pursuing construction of a new store in Rialto for four years.

City officials estimate the Supercenter would employ 400 to 600 people, Steel said. The Supercenter would pay about $980,000 in local taxes, $480,000 more than the existing Wal-Mart, he said.

Street Improvements

The city hired a consultant to conduct an environmental impact report, a cost that was passed along to the developer. As a condition of the city’s approval, Wal-Mart would be required to construct several street improvements meant to handle the increased traffic the store would bring.

Steel said plans call for a traffic signal to be installed for the residents of Capri Mobile Home Park, on the northwest corner of Riverside and San Bernardino avenues, across the street from the future store.

Wal-Mart would repave the north side of San Bernardino Avenue and pay the cost of that project, Steel said.

For another road improvement, the widening of Riverside Avenue, the city will reimburse Wal-Mart.

“The goal is to get it to three lanes in each direction from San Bernardino Avenue to the 10 freeway,” Steel said.

The Rialto Redevelopment Agency will reimburse Wal-Mart for the cost of installing a storm drain near the project site and for installing a traffic signal at Willow Avenue and Valley Boulevard, Steel said.

The store could be open for business between late 2009 and 2011, Steel said.

The developer, NewMark Merrill Companies, will seek additional tenants for the shopping center, such as restaurants and smaller retailers, Story said. The plaza would have 880 parking spaces just for the Supercenter.

If a new tenant is not found for the existing Wal-Mart site, the city will require the structure to be torn down, under its conditions of approval with the developer. Story said that was a lesson Rialto learned from the misfortunes of other cities, where a new store replaced an aging location in the same community, leaving a large, empty storefront behind.