Walmart to Supersize?

Last Monday, attorney's representing Walmart jumped their first hurdle in an application to convert the existing store at 420 Buckland Hills Dr. to a Supercenter location.

The store, which was originally built in 1993, is currently 121,565 square feet, and the proposed expansion would increase the building's size to 148,578 square feet. 

"The plan is to include a grocery store making this Walmart a SuperWalmart," said Matt Bordeaux, Environmental Planner and Wetlands agent for the town. "[The applicant is proposing] to relocate the garden center to a different end of the building, add on to the north end to accommodate truck loading, and renovate the west side face of the building," he said.

The proposal also includes an addition of approximately 100 parking spaces at the north end of the lot, Bordeaux said.

The Walmart expansion proposal is represented by Milford-based Hurwitz, Sagarin, Slossberg & Knuff, LLC.

Bordeaux said last Monday's meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission, which also serves as the town's inland wetlands agency, determined that the proposed expansion would create no significant impact to nearby wetlands. He added that the Conservation Commission has also reviewed the application and found the plan acceptable with regard to proposed impacts to the wetland buffer area.

As a result, no public hearing for a wetlands application will be required. The applicant will be seeking additional approvals from the PZC at its Sept. 19 meeting where they will be presenting  an erosion control plan and site plan modification.  

"Obviously, we were pleased with the outcome," said Bill Wertz, Media Director for Walmart's eastern region. "Our customers tell us they like the one-stop shopping that they get with the Supercenters, plus we're going to be doing some exterior updating to the building which will make it more attractive," he said.

Wertz added that while the number of new jobs created by expanding to a supercenter vary from store to store, they expect to add between 50 and 75 new jobs at the Manchester location.

Wertz said Walmart has been expanding its general merchandise stores into supercenters for several years now in response to input from customers who say they prefer to do the bulk of their shopping in one place, especially as the price of gasoline has increased and people want to limit their number of shopping outings.  

"The next step is to go before the [Planning & Zoning Commission] for additional approvals, so I can't project any timelines at this point," said Wertz.