SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio - A 177,000-square-foot Walmart Supercenter with groceries is headed to the Oakwood Commons development opening next summer in South Euclid.

Mitchell Schneider, president of First Interstate Properties Ltd., said the new Walmart will "offer an excellent and necessary alternative for the residents of Cleveland's east side inner suburban communities."

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. confirmed that the Supercenter will replace its existing store at Severance Town Center in Cleveland Heights less than a mile away.

That 126,242-square-foot store, along with the Home Depot, was built when Severance was remodeled and expanded about a dozen years ago.

"Our customers wanted more selection, more convenience and a better overall shopping experience," Brian Lorenz, Walmart Market Manager, said in a statement.

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The new store, like other Supercenters, will sell produce, bakery goods, deli foods and household supplies, and could also house specialty shops such as restaurants, vision centers, pharmacies and banks.

Schneider said the Oakwood Commons store will employ more than 300 full- and part-time workers and generate $1.7 million in new property tax revenues. A company spokesman said last month that the new store could create about 85 new jobs in addition to those employees moving from another store.

Land-use activist Al Norman, creator of the Sprawl-Busters.com blog and author of the book, "The Case Against Wal-Mart," said: "You will note that the developer does not say this project will mean 300 'new' jobs - because it will not generate any net new jobs - and the tax revenue is overstated because it fails to account for revenue losses as other stores close."

Residents who opposed the project had started a Citizens for Oakwood group and the Facebook fan page "Help Save 144 Acres of Green Space in South Euclid - Cleveland Heights."

An anonymous person had started an online petition at Change.org called "Walmart: Please Do Not Build a Super Center at Oakwood Commons" that garnered 677 signatures.

Deanna Bremer Fisher, executive director of FutureHeights, a nonprofit that encourages volunteerism and civic engagement in Cleveland Heights and University Heights, said that once word leaked out about a marketing brochure touting a 180,000-square-foot Walmart Supercenter, it was pretty clear what would happen.

"I'm sad about it, but I'm not surprised," she said.

Cleveland Heights Mayor Edward Kelley said he looks forward to the challenge.

"This is an opportunity for the city and the owners of the mall to use the space that Walmart will be vacating and come up with something fresh, new and exciting," Kelley said.

Voters in South Euclid last November approved rezoning 63 acres of the former Oakwood Country Club to allow big-box stores like Walmart.

Schneider said he is pursuing other large-format stores in addition to restaurants for the 41-acre retail development.

"A value-oriented department store would be good, perhaps an apparel store," he said.

Schneider will contribute nearly $400,000 to develop the other 21 acres as a public park.

He said the $80 million he will invest in the adjacent 90 acres in Cleveland Heights to convert it into upscale senior housing, retail and other uses will "more than make up for the Walmart jobs transferred to South Euclid."

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