Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 20, 1994 TAG: 9408220076
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
What will happen to the retail space occupied by the Wal-Mart in the Market Place shopping center is unclear. When told about the filing of the blueprints, store manager Herb Conway said, "This is a total surprise to me. I've heard absolutely nothing. ... We run stores, not real estate."
Conway said all employees in the 81,000-square-foot Market Place store would retain their jobs, and the store would hire more when it moves.
Officials with Faison Associates, the Charlotte-based firm that owns the shopping center, would not comment, saying Wal-Mart would make any announcements.
Sandy Brummett, a public relations assistant at Wal-Mart's headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., said the company would not provide information yet.
"All the permits have to go through before we confirm it."
Still to come: the town of Christiansburg must review and approve the blueprints, and Town Council must vote on the redrawing of the property lines that the project will entail. Town officials said they anticipate deciding the new store's fate this fall.
The blueprints confirm that Wal-Mart wants to build a New River Valley supercenter, a store that would combine grocery and retail merchandise sales. People throughout the valley have wondered about the project since local developer Bill Matthews applied for a rezoning for it in April. Christiansburg approved that rezoning in June.
Matthews was out of his office Friday.
The blueprints show the new 200,384 square-foot store, which will enclose 4.6 acres of floor space and have 1,045 parking spaces, will include a garden and automotive center. Also featured in the development is a separate 88,205-square-foot building and a 36,117-square-foot building.
No one with the town or with CEI Engineering, the Bentonville engineering firm that drew up the blueprints, knew Friday what businesses might occupy the smaller buildings.
The Wal-Mart is located in the southwest corner of the 28-acre site, facing U.S. 460 about 300 yards away. The smaller buildings will be between the supercenter and Peppers Ferry Road.
The blueprints show a storm water retention pond, addressing one of Christiansburg's worries about the project, said Assistant Town Manager Lance Terpenny, who is leading the review of the plans.
Also foremost of the town's concerns is traffic, he said.
The blueprints include a proposed new traffic light at the intersection of U.S. 460 and Laurel Street, a road that will be widened to five lanes leading into the shopping center.
On Peppers Ferry Road, the traffic light at Marshall Drive would be moved to Bradley Drive.
Terpenny said the town's engineering staff will review the blueprints and then probably send them back to CEI for revision, a give-and-take that could happen several times as the town's concerns are worked out.
Terpenny said public interest in the project means he and his staff will review it especially closely.
The town's Planning Commission will look at the blueprints at its Aug. 29 meeting, though it might not offer a recommendation then.
"Certainly the Planning Commission is going to look at it, and the Street Committee is going to look at it, and we'll get recommendations from those two, and then [Town Council] will take a look at it," said Mayor Harold Linkous.
Included in the package delivered by Federal Express to town offices Friday morning is a blueprint that shows the site's topography and one that shows utilities such as water and sewer lines, and electric, phone and gas service.
by CNB