
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 23, 1993                   TAG: 9305210101
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: F-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: HALLANDALE, FLA.                                LENGTH: Medium

FLA. CITY TO PAY $15 MILLION JUST TO KEEP WAL-MART OUT

Hallandale residents will pay a bill of up to $15 million for the next two decades to ensure that discount titan Wal-Mart doesn't establish a retail beachhead on the city's main road.

City commissioners voted 3-2 last week to borrow up to $15 million through bonds to buy the land on which a Wal-Mart store is being built on Hallandale Beach Boulevard.

"There is no second chance for this, there is no tomorrow," said former Commissioner Nat Cutler, a Wal-Mart opponent.

Commissioners hope those 15 acres will cost only about $9 million. They plan to use any money left over from the $15 million for projects such as a new City Hall, a community center or renovations in the business district.

They say the city can pay back the money by raising water and sewer rates. But no one knows exactly how much bills will rise. The mayor estimates a $42 annual boost, but the city has no appraisals of the property yet, no plans for the land and no proposals from banks that would issue the bonds.

The city may need to give Wal-Mart a nonrefundable deposit, perhaps $500,000, this week, City Manager R.J. Intindola warned.

Mayor Eudyce Steinberg and Commissioners Gil Stein and Hymen Cohen voted to buy the land, they said, because Wal-Mart will strangle their city with traffic and crime. The commission needed to take a decisive step, Stein said.

"It's time to turn around and make something happen," Stein said.

Supporters believe the $15 million will save the city from traffic and criminals attracted by Wal-Mart and leave enough change to fund big-ticket improvements for the city.

But opponents like Commissioners Arthur "Sonny" Rosenberg and Arnold Lanner say the rise in tax bills could wreck families strapped for cash.

Intindola still must negotiate a final price with Wal-Mart.

Last month, Wal-Mart said the city also would have to buy land from Three Islands Associates, the company building shops and apartments on the remaining 19 acres on the site. But Steinberg said the city doesn't need to buy Three Islands' land.

by CNB