Attention Walmart shoppers: In about a year, you’ll be able to shop at a new store at Federal Highway and Gulfstream Boulevard — to the chagrin of some residents.
Residents from nearby Gulf Stream, particularly residents from the Place Au Soleil neighborhood across the street from the store site, urged commissioners to delay a vote and work to make the store more aesthetically pleasing. They also implored that the store not be 24 hours, a request that was rejected.
Commissioners approved the plans, along with requests from Wal-Mart to build farther away from the road than city regulations require. There was no zoning change needed, since that location is already a commercial zone.
Wal-Mart is planning to open the store in the spring of 2011, Community Redevelopment Agency Executive Director Lisa Bright said.
“Construction would likely be close to eight to 12 months,” Planning Director Mike Rumpf said in an e-mail.
The store will replace a property that includes an abandoned strip mall, nightclub and strip joint.
The planning department imposed a litany of conditions on the 93,000-square-foot store’s design, mainly in an attempt to give it a more urban feel. They include awnings, more windows and other features to make it appear that there’s more than one storefront rather than one big box of a store.
CRA officials in the city pointed to the 150 full-time and 50 part-time jobs that will be created, saying that employment opportunities along Federal are needed as part of the urban fabric the city is trying to create there.
“I think it’s an excellent project — that’s what we’ve been talking about for three years,” Bright said. “It’s the brand-new prototype for Wal-Mart so we’re excited to have the new model.”
The CRA will pay Wal-Mart $500 per full-time job — in addition to $2,500 per job from the state Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development. The CRA’s $75,000 will be paid over five years, Bright said.
Bob Ganger, head of the Gulf Stream Civic Association, said he was happy to have been included in talks with Wal-Mart representatives and city officials, but wished more changes would have been made to the design.
And he remains concerned about crime.
“I gave them a challenge and I said, ‘Make this the safest, the most beautiful and the most neighborhood-compatible in all of the state of Florida,’” Ganger said. He doesn’t feel that mission was accomplished, but said the design conditions that were imposed are at least something.
Police Chief G. Matthew Immler said the Super Wal-Mart in the city had 989 calls for service last year. The main crimes were shoplifting, fraud and forgery, traffic accidents and auto burglaries. That compared to about 800 calls for service at the Boynton Mall, a difference Immler attributed to the Walmart’s extended hours and the presence of mall security.
The round-the-clock schedule is what most displeases residents.
Ganger said: “That’s the one outcome we’re not satisfied with.”
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