Wal-Mart to become Supercenter

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November 18, 2008

By Greg Stiles

Mail Tribune

MEDFORD —Wal-Mart is poised to enter a development agreement with the city of Medford in anticipation of expanding its store on Crater Lake Highway into one of its Supercenters.

Medford Public Works Director Cory Crebbin said Monday that a deal was struck earlier this month culminating a year of discussions that will provide the city with nearly $474,000 for the Owen Drive/Coker Butte project near the store on Highway 62.

The matter goes before the City Council Thursday for approval.

Wal-Mart plans to add a 25,000-square-foot grocery sales area to the 127,000-square-foot store that opened in September 1993. A site plan was submitted to the city about a year ago, but hasn't gone through the approval process.

Karianne Fallow, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman, said the expansion is part an overall plan the company adopted a decade ago.

"We've gone to the Supercenter concept because it's our customers' preferred method of shopping," Fallow said. "We're trying to move all of our original discount stores to Supercenters where we can. We're doing it everywhere where there aren't restrictions on our ability to expand, such as city codes."

Supercenters generally range between 190,000 and 200,000 square feet, Fallow said, although some have been as small as 140,000 square feet.

There is no scheduled time line for the project.

Crebbin said the city and Wal-Mart have talked about road changes for years. Reworking of the stretch of Highway 62 is still being hashed out by the Oregon Department of Transportation, he said. The project will cost roughly $10 million, aside from donated property. Crebbin said Table Rock Holdings, another land owner in the area, is donating $2 million worth of right-of-way to the job.

"It's still under design and we have more land to acquire," Crebbin said. "Then it has to be approved by the state."

Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., owns 16 acres bordered by Lear Way to the west, Costco to the north and Lowe's to the south. A panhandle extends to where Owen Drive will eventually cross Highway 62.

Medford Assistant City Manager Bill Hoke said the expansion on a rectangular property about the size of football field makes sense.

"It's a good spot for them to do it," Hoke said.

Fallow said Wal-Mart's south Medford Supercenter at the former site of Miles Field on South Pacific Highway is still on track, pending an appeal before the state Land Use Board of Appeals. That decision should be announced within the next two months.

She said the north Medford expansion is independent of the south Medford development plan.

"We have one strategy for the entire market," she said. "What we are doing at the north Medford store is looking for additional convenience. I'm not sure which is going to happen first."

Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail business@mailtribune.com.

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