Retail giant wants to build next year

Wal-Mart's Supercenter in north Kalispell could have its building permit a month from now, putting it in line for a March or April 2009 groundbreaking.

Josh Phair, Wal-Mart senior manager for public affairs and government relations, said if weather allows the early spring start-up and if construction follows Wal-Mart's norm of nine to 12 months, the new store should be finished in early 2010 and be in business by early summer that year.

"About 18 months ago we announced a significant cutback in all our construction nationally, so we're only looking at projects at this point that fit really well with the community and fit really well with our profile," Phair said.

"Certainly our current store is servicing a fairly large trade area and does a lot of business, so we anticipate for that for our customers this will be a very welcome expansion and improvement, and for us as well."

The new Wal-Mart will nearly fill the southern end of Hutton Ranch Plaza, just north of the Flathead Valley Community College campus and south of a planned Hilton Homewood Suites that has been in the works for two years on land east of Hu Hot Mongolian Grill.

"I have to tell you, we're really excited about the new Wal-Mart," Hutton Ranch Plaza developer Phil Harris said. "The design on this building is not what people expect. It's really a very, very high quality building. It's the type of quality we brought to Hutton Ranch in the other buildings."

He cited the Sportsman and Ski Haus, Stadium 14 theaters, Hu Hot and others at Hutton Ranch. He said the design of the new super center (basically a regular Wal-Mart with a full grocery area) has moving lines rather than a big boxy look and features nice landscaping and more sophisticated colors.

Although Phair said he has not seen the most recent design updates, the company's plan is for an attractive building.

"We have certainly come a long way in our design and really attempt to make it fit in with the community, and make it look modern," Phair said. "It's not your typical big box. It's designed to make the community feel good about driving by there " and shopping there."

The store's design for its 17.7-acre site at Hutton Ranch Plaza was approved by the city's architectural review committee this month.

City planners have begun the site review, a process that normally takes three to four weeks. City Planner P.J. Sorensen said it will be on the site review committee's agenda when it meets Dec. 18.

If Wal-Mart's site plan wins the committee's approval, its building permit almost certainly will be approved and construction can begin in early spring.

And unless the Kalispell City Council adopts its proposed transportation impact fee schedule before the store's building permit is granted, Wal-Mart could save thousands of dollars with the timely permit approval. Sorensen said building permits approved before the transportation impact fee is in place will not be assessed the fee.

Transportation impact fees are intended to help the city cover costs for roads and mitigate effects caused by the additional traffic the store will generate.

Wal-Mart plans to build 176,000 square feet under roof, with another 10,000 square feet in a seasonal garden center. That compares with about 130,000 square feet at the existing Wal-Mart in Evergreen.

And it will have a proportionate impact in the local economy.

Following Wal-Mart's custom, the approximately 275 Evergreen store employees will be offered positions at the new super center, Phair said. Another 100 jobs will be added to operate the larger store. Some of those positions will be managers " the grocery department in particular will need managers " but most will be hourly workers.

He said regular full-time Wal-Mart associates earn an average of $11.06 an hour in Montana. Managers are salaried.

Phair didn't have the estimated property tax bill for the new Kalispell store, but he said Wal-Mart stores in Montana paid $6.8 million in taxes last fiscal year.

Harris said he finalized the land sale with Wal-Mart on Nov. 24. He is putting in the pad now, relocating utilities to fit the store layout and getting the land ready for Wal-Mart to build a foundation. Paving, landscaping and other features will be finished by next fall.

A general building contractor will be hired regionally, Phair said, but not necessarily from Montana. Subcontractors, however, often are local companies that hire local people, Phair said.

Wal-Mart holds a lease on its Evergreen building through June 2015 and is working to find a tenant to sublease the facility for the final five years.

Phair tried to assuage the fears of people worried about Wal-Mart's expansion, since smaller local merchants typically lose business when the store moves into town and the super center's grocery department is likely to impact other grocery stores.

"We actually help many area businesses because of the increased traffic. A lot of people will be walking and driving past some of these small businesses that didn't in the past," he said.

That may be true in the north Kalispell shopping area, but downtown shopping isn't likely to see much of that increased traffic.

"We're very happy to work with the entire community, the city of Kalispell to make sure our impact is as positive as possible for the city," he said. "We have, in the past, met with small businesses and helped educate them on how other businesses have managed it.

"We have been really fortunate in terms of our relationship with the city. They've been really good to work with," Phair said. "We want to put together a plan [everyone] can be proud of and be a bigger part of the community."

In the rest of Hutton Ranch Plaza, Harris said, he still has three pads to sell " one for an 8,500-square-foot building next to Hu Hot, a 5,600-square-foot pad at the north entrance off Hutton Ranch Road and a 40,000 square-foot pad between the theaters and the Sportsman building.

"Hutton Ranch is the only truly mixed-use development in the Flathead Valley, so I try to put in uses that are complementary to the other uses," he said.

He's looking for retailers, restaurants, professional spaces, specialty shops or other niches that have not yet been filled or that will not compete unnecessarily with businesses already there.

It's hard to predict when those final three pieces will sell and the development will be built out.

"The economy is really tough in the Flathead now. We trail the rest of the nation by eight to 12 months," Harris said. "Now we're seeing layoffs, we're not seeing the hiring " If the broader economy starts to recover we'll have a bit of delay time and then start to see it here."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com