Newmarket, NH. Wal-Mart Smells New Market in Newmarket

Everywhere Wal-Mart has stepped along the seacoast of New Hampshire, controversy has followed. In towns like Stratham and Exeter, New Hampshire, Sprawl-Busters worked with local residents to oppose Wal-Mart superstores. Today local merchants in the coastal community of Newmarket contacted Sprawl-Busters in response to a newspaper story that the giant retailer is now looking at Newmarket. You couldn’t pick a more unlikely place for a superstore. This town of roughly 8,000 people describes itself as having “white church steeples, old mill buildings, a dammed river, park land with nature walks, and good road access to beaches, skiing and golfing, Newmarket is an ideal place to work and live.” This scenic mill town along the banks of the Lamprey River and Great Bay has also been planning for nearly ten years to revitalize its existing downtown. The Main Street Reconstruction Project is the result of an extensive public process that grew out of the work of a group called the Newmarket Tomorrow Committee, which was formed by the Town Council in 1999 to formulate a vision for the future development of Downtown Newmarket. The town also recreated a Downtown Business Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District in 1998 for the purpose of financing the investment needed to attract new development and revitalize the downtown and the mills. At the time of its creation, the assessment level of all properties located within the TIF District established the tax revenue that would continue to go into the Town’s General Fund. Taxes from any subsequent increase in property value would go into the TIF Fund. These “incremental taxes” are not subject to County or State education taxes, so all of the money stays in Newmarket. Town voters approved bonding authority of $2.0 million in 1998 and $2.5 million in 2003 to help improve the downtown. Despite all this focus on the core downtown, and local businesses, the Exeter News-Letter reports that Wal-Mart is sniffing around the edges of Newmarket. “I have been told there is work being done to evaluate a site in town (for a potential Wal-Mart store),” said town Planner Diane Hardy. “No paperwork has been filed with us yet.” The newspaper also cited a Planning Board member confirming that Wal-Mart is definitely looking at Newmarket as a possible location for a new store. “The town manager mentioned it to (the members of the board),” the local board member said. “He was kind of informing us it’s in the works.” Wal-Mart, as ususal, denied any specific plans for Newmarket, just as they did in Stratham and Exeter, where they encountered strong local opposition. “While Wal-Mart is interested in the entire southern New Hampshire area, we have not publicly announced plans for Newmarket,” said the company’s senior manager for public affairs. The site Wal-Mart wants, local merchants told us, is the Rockingham Country Club and Golf Course, located at the corner of Route 108 and Ash Swamp Road. The golf club owner denied any knowledge of the plan. “As far as I know, Wal-Mart is not coming here,” she said. Score that comment as a double-bogey.

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Posted by Al Norman on Thursday, May 31 | 0 comments | Permalink

PENNSYLVANIA SITE FIGHT: SOME PENN HILL RESIDENTS, RETAILERS WARY OF WAL-MART SUPERCENTER

Some Penn Hills residents, retailers wary of Wal-Mart Supercenter

Jonelle Phillips isn’t a bit worried by the Wal-Mart Supercenter being built across the road from the shopping center in Penn Hills, where she and her mom opened a small soul food restaurant a little more than a year ago.

Indeed, she hopes her business will benefit from the traffic the store likely will generate.

“We’re the only restaurant around here that serves soul food,” Phillips, 25, said recently as she worked the grill during lunch. “If the new Wal-Mart is like all the other ones I’ve seen, it’s going to draw a lot of people. I think we’ll get some of them coming over here to eat.”

In February, Wal-Mart announced plans to build a 150,000-square-foot Supercenter on a 16-acre parcel that was part of the former East Hills Shopping Center straddling Penn Hills, Wilkinsburg and Pittsburgh.

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Posted by Jason Korta on Wednesday, May 30 | 0 comments | Permalink

NEW YORK SITE FIGHT: RAMAPO AWAITS ANSWERS FROM WAL-MART DEVELOPERS

Ramapo awaits answers from Wal-Mart developers [(Westchester, N.Y.) The Journal News]

RAMAPO - Town officials are waiting for the developer of the proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter to complete a draft environmental impact statement before referring the project to the Planning Board.

The Community Design Review Committee, an advisory group to the Planning Board, wants an additional review of the potential environmental fallout, but the developer has not yet filed the information with the town.

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Posted by Jason Korta on Wednesday, May 30 | 0 comments | Permalink

Spring, PA. Wal-Mart Bounced Out of Spring

On January 25, 2007, Sprawl-Busters reported that Wal-Mart had attempted to use the court system to intimidate public officials in Spring Township, Pennsylvania. Wal-Mart took the township to court, charging that the township’s supervisors and attorney were “biased” against the retailer’s plans for a supercenter. But a judge in Berks County, Pennsylvania rejected Wal-Mart’s claim, and ruled that the officials can continue to lead the zoning hearing for a proposed store, located at Broadcasting and Paper Mill roads. Now, four months later, the giant retailer has withdrawn its application entirely. Wal-Mart and the landowner, Tulpehocken Ltd., from Wyomissing, :Pennsylvania, announced at a public hearing two days ago that they will withdraw their plan for the shopping center on a 68-acre site. The Broadcast Pointe proposal included a Wal-Mart Supercenter, four other stores, three restaurants and a bank. The store would have replaced the Wal-Mart discount store in nearby Wyomissing. This ends a two year old controversial application that forced local residents to spring into action. At the public hearing, Wal-Mart’s lawyer read a prepared statement which read, “Wal-Mart has very carefully considered its current operations in the immediate vicinity of the supercenter proposed for the township of Spring. Based on our analysis of existing operations, Wal-Mart has decided to withdraw the conditional-use application and Tulpehocken Ltd. joins in that decision. Wal-Mart will continue to serve our Berks County customers at the Wal-Mart store in Wyomissing and other stores nearby.” That brief statement was then followed by an explosion of applause from the residents at the hearing. “That is what we have been hoping for for 23 months,” Ginny Chudgar, a spokeswoman for the group, Spring Township Organized For Proper Planning, STOPP, told the Reading Eagle.

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Posted by Al Norman on Monday, May 28 | 0 comments | Permalink

Massachusetts Site Fight: Fail-Safe Review Sought on Plan

Fail-safe review sought on plan [Worcester Telegram]

WORCESTER— Ten city residents have petitioned the state secretary of Environmental Affairs for a “fail-safe review” of the proposed Worcester Crossing shopping center development — which includes a 209,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter — in Quinsigamond Village.

The group has asked for the review because it believes the project is subject to the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office, requires the filing of an Environmental Notification Form, and compliance with other environmental provisions to avoid or minimize damage to the environment.

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Posted by Jason Korta on Friday, May 25 | 0 comments | Permalink

Pennsylvania Site Fight: Wal-Mart Withdraws

Wal-Mart Pulls out of Spring Township Proposal [WFMZ-TV (Allentown, PN)]

Wal-Mart may have to start shopping for a new location in Berks County. After nearly two years of back and forth between citizens and the retail giant, some in Spring Township got the answer they were waiting for.

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Posted by Jason Korta on Friday, May 25 | 0 comments | Permalink

R.I. Treasurer Exposes Jacobs Trading Racket

Rhode Island treasurer asks SEC to probe Wal-Mart [Associated Press via International Herald Tribune]

BENTONVILLE, Arkansas: Rhode Island’s state treasurer has asked U.S. regulators to investigate whether Wal-Mart Stores Inc. violated securities laws by not disclosing that the son of the retailer’s chief executive works for a company that does business with Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart said there is no conflict of interest and no requirement under the law for a disclosure. Mona Williams, Wal-Mart’s vice president of corporate communications, said the question is a “non-issue.”

In a letter made public Thursday, Rhode Island General Treasurer Frank T. Caprio asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate Wal-Mart. Rhode Island’s state employee pension fund has substantial holdings in Wal-Mart shares through index funds that group large corporations, he said.

Caprio said Eric S. Scott, son of Wal-Mart Chief Executive Lee Scott, works for Jacobs Trading Co., which buys unsold furniture from big retailers like Wal-Mart and resells it to smaller discount stores. Caprio said Eric Scott “staffs” the Jacobs Trading office in Arkansas, where Wal-Mart is based.

Caprio argued that SEC rules require publicly traded companies to tell investors if an immediate family member of an executive has a “material interest” in another business’s dealings with that company.

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Posted by Jason Korta on Friday, May 25 | 16 comments | Permalink

Johnson City, NY. Manufacturing Jobs Gone, Wal-Mart Arrives

The shoe industry is long gone from Johnson City, New York. Now, instead of manufacturing jobs, residents can buy shoes made in China at their local Wal-Mart, on the site where the old shoe factory once stood. Johnson City is buzzing this week in reaction to a developer’s announcement of a proposed Wal-Mart superstore. Newman Development Group, which is based in nearby Vestal, New York, wants to build a 130.720 s.f. Wal-Mart supercenter on the site of the former Endicott Johnson Ranger Paracord site in the village. Newman Development has been trying to redevelop this property as a retail center for 14 years, the company claims. The Gannett newspaper chain opened a 96,000-s.f. printing plant near this site last year—another project of Newman Development. The businesses most likely to feel the impact would be the village’s Wegmans and Price Chopper grocery stores. A spokesman for Wegman’s told the Press & Sun Bulletin, “Initially there’s a significant impact. Over time, people do return and shop with us, but there will always be some impact.” The newspaper interviewed several local businesses in the area, who suggested that Wal-Mart would not hurt their operations. These are usually the same businesses that are gone within 5 years after a Wal-Mart opens. The Johnson market area already has a larger Wal-Mart supercenter in Vestal, which is only a five minute drive from Johnson. Newman Development’s plan must go through the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). The store would be open all night.