WILDOMAR, FL BEGS FOR WAL-MART DESPITE ECONOMIC HAZARDS

WILDOMAR: “Fighting” for a Wal-Mart Supercenter [The Californian]

City officials and members of the business community are lobbying Wal-Mart to revive plans for building a supercenter near the Bundy Canyon Road/Interstate 15 interchange.

A supercenter features a full-service grocery store and all the products stocked at a regular Wal-Mart ---- clothing, tools, electronics, toiletries and more ---- under one roof.

Based in Bentonville, Ark., Wal-Mart owns about 25 acres of land near the southeastern corner of the interchange and the company was moving forward with the construction of a new supercenter there as recently as spring 2005.

Those plans were shelved, however, when the company decided in fall 2007 to scale back on building new stores, said Wal-Mart spokesman John Mendez.

Wildomar City Councilwoman Sheryl Ade said Monday that a new market-study matrix developed by Wal-Mart shows the area might not be able to support a supercenter. She said Wildomar missed the cutoff by a couple of percentage points.

The results of that new study haven’t stopped her, however, from pitching Wildomar directly to the company’s board of directors as a great spot for a new store.

Ade said she has sent a letter to the board, lobbying them to take into consideration how the new supercenter would affect financing for the city, which incorporated July 1 after voters approved it in February.

When county officials were looking at putting the question of incorporating on the ballot, a fiscal study was produced that approximated the budget for a then-hypothetical city of Wildomar.

Included in that study was $450,000 in sales tax revenue that was directly attributed to a new Wal-Mart.

City Councilwoman Bridgette Moore said the author of the fiscal study, Gary Thompson, produced an alternate version of the study that showed Wildomar’s budget would be OK without the $450,000.

“We don’t need Wal-Mart to succeed,” she said.

Ade agreed, saying Wildomar will be able to survive without that revenue. Yet, she said she’s not giving up on Wal-Mart because development at that corner has been anticipated for years.

Many of the residents who live near that interchange, including people who live in the planned community called The Farm, have been patiently waiting for a new supermarket and shopping center.

During the incorporation campaign, some of those residents, particularly residents in The Farm, said they were supporting cityhood in part because the county had not been able to spur development at that site.

On the other hand, cityhood critics said a Wal-Mart would never be built in Wildomar and that the incorporation supporters were using the promise of the store to help sell cityhood.

Gatlin Development, a San Diego company, filed an application to build the 240,000-square-foot supercenter and an adjoining commercial building in the spring of 2005.

Ade, who said she talked with Frank Gatlin of Gatlin Development on Friday, said he also is fighting to move the project forward.

“He’s not accepting the fact that Wildomar might be cut off the list,” she said. “Wal-Mart made a commitment. He’s saying, ‘I gave the county and the city my word and now Wal-Mart is going back on its word.’”

Ade said Wal-Mart’s plans for the site could shift when Wall Street looks at the effect the company’s scaled back growth plan has had on its earning reports.

“I haven’t given up, (Gatlin) hasn’t given up and certain people in the Wal-Mart regime haven’t given up,” Ade said.

Gatlin Development was contacted Monday, but a representative at the San Diego office declined to comment.

Mendez said Wal-Mart still owns the land in Wildomar and the company plans to hold on to it until it determines its best use.

“In the meantime, we continue to serve Southwest County with the stores in Lake Elsinore, Murrieta and Temecula,” he said.

The president of the Wildomar Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors, Jeff George, said chamber members have talked to people and they haven’t found anyone in the business community opposed to a new supercenter.

Chamber members believe a supercenter would be a rising tide that lifts the entire city’s business community by making Wildomar a destination for area shoppers.

“A lot of people drive by Wildomar, but this would make them stop here,” he said.

The closest Wal-Mart Supercenters are in Hemet and San Jacinto and there are talks of building one in Murrieta near Madison Avenue and Murrieta Hot Springs Road.

Mendez was asked if Wal-Mart executives would take into consideration the wellspring of goodwill in Wildomar when it makes a decision on a new store opening.

“We’re always looking for the best locations to serve existing and new customers,” he said.