Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart is quietly planning a new Walmart Neighborhood Market in Athens-Clarke county. The new 41,000 square foot store would be built in the 3000 block of Atlanta Highway in Athens, adjacent to an older Ingles.



Interestingly, the store is being developed in near complete secrecy. Chattanooga, Tennessee-based Polestar Development is listed on planning materials as the developer of the store. Brief research shows that Polestar has previously developed multiple Walmart Neighborhood Markets. Plans for the store are labeled only as "Grocery Store" with some plans labeling the store as "more than 100,000 square feet," although in reality, the store is 60% smaller. Multiple readers I spoke with who live in Athens credit this to the likelihood of significant community uproar over the possibility of having yet another Walmart, of any kind, in Athens-Clarke county.





This site plan is for the "Grocery Store" coming soon to Athens (click image to enlarge)





This site plan is for an upcoming Walmart Neighborhood Market in Warner Robins





Notice anything similar between the two?





Personally, I think that had Walmart adopted a less-Walmart-ized name for their market concept, they might have faced less opposition. Could they not honor their founder Sam Walton and call the stores "Walton's Neighborhood Market" ?

According to a source at the Athens-Clarke county planning department, the "Grocery Store" planned for 3140 Atlanta Highway has a building permit. Amazingly, I confirmed with the same source that the store could go quite far into the zoning & permitting process without disclosing the actual name of the business. Additionally, the parcel is nearly 14 acres, but over half of the property is reportedly unusable because of Georgia Power easements , environmental issues and other reasons.

According to site plans, the Athens Walmart Neighborhood Market will also have a fuel station, an amenity added to newer locations of the concept.

Athens is already home to a number of grocery stores including two Publix Supermarkets, the aforementioned Ingles, and a new Kroger Marketplace. The Kroger Marketplace, located about ten miles from the planned Walmart Neighborhood Market , opened this past August and measures 123,000 square feet

Walmart has tried multiple times over the past few years to add new stores to Athens-Clarke county and has been rebuffed in many of their attempts. Most recently, Atlanta-based Selig Enterprises proposed a Walmart Supercenter- anchored development in Athens in 2011. The project, dubbed "The Foundry at Broad" would have covered three city blocks, with several buildings on nine acres between East Broad and Oconee Streets. After facing stiff opposition from the neighborhood, and after multiple reworks, Walmart pulled out of the project in 2012. The following year, Selig abandoned the project altogether.

The first Walmart in Athens opened in 1990 and was in the Perimeter Square shopping center on Huntington Road across Atlanta Highway from Georgia Square Mall. It was a standard Walmart of the time, without groceries. In the late 90s, Walmart tried to get a site on Atlanta Highway near Mitchell Bridge Road rezoned to allow for the construction of a new Supercenter that would have replaced the old Perimeter Square store. Due to significant push-back from the community on that proposal, Walmart withdrew their zoning application for the proposed Atlanta Highway Supercenter in March, 2000.

The original Perimeter Square Walmart later became a Steve and Barry's. Following Steve & Barry's bankruptcy and store liquidation in 2009, the store sat vacant for a time before Athens Church purchased the store in 2011 and renovated it for their congregation. Athens Church, part of Alpharetta-based North Point Ministries, is reportedly the largest church in Athens.

In place of the store, Walmart purchased land on Epps Bridge Parkway in Oconee County in 2001 and opened the new Supercenter in 2002. The now outdated Perimeter Square store was closed at the same time.

According to one of my readers with whom I consulted in preparing this article, it is believed that the proposed Walmart from the late 90s would have been somewhere around the current intersection of Heyward Allen Parkway and Atlanta Highway. The new Walmart Neighborhood Market will be located just west of this area in that remaining green space fronting Atlanta Highway, between Athens W Parkway and Ultimate Drive.

The Walmart Neighborhood Market banner was launched by Walmart in 1998. Although growth was slow at first, with more Supercenters being built than Neighborhood Market locations, the opposite is true now.

Interestingly, many Walmart Neighborhood Market that have opened in metro Atlanta are only a few miles from existing Supercenter stores. In the case of the Athens store, there is already an existing Walmart Supercenter less than three miles away on Epps Bridge Parkway (opened 2002). There is also another Walmart Supercenter on Lexington Road in East Athens (opened 2000).

Given Walmart's size and reputation, it has faced more than its fair share of community battles to get new stores built.

Lindbergh Place

Though Walmart was never officially publicized as the anchor at Fuqua Development's Lindbergh Place redevelopment, it was understood that they were the "150,000 square foot Anchor Tenant." After over two years of bureaucratic wrangling and neighborhood uproar, Fuqua officially took Walmart off the table and replaced them with an 82,000 square foot Kroger . The neighborhood has been far more receptive to the revised plan.





Glenwood Place

Another intown Fuqua project, Glenwood Place, would have been anchored by a 143,000 sq' Walmart Supercenter. After neighbors and community organizers made clear their preference for basically anything but Walmart, a deal was brokered to bring a Kroger to the project instead. The Kroger that will open there is not your average Kroger. At about 114,000 square feet, the new Kroger will be a "Marketplace" store and carry far more items than a typical Kroger. Having visited a few, I've observed that the Marketplace stores are almost Walmart-like in size and variety and also feature fuel stations.





Suburban Plaza / Decatur





Tucker

A new Walmart Neighborhood Market opened at Tucker Square in 2013. The new 40,000 square foot store replaced what was originally a Wayfield Foods and was most recently operating as Mercado del Pueblo. The new Neighborhood Market is less than three miles from an existing, recently remodeled Walmart Supercenter in Cofer Crossing, at LaVista Road and Lawrenceville Highway.





What are your thoughts on this (secretly) planned Walmart Neighborhood Market? Does Athens need another grocery store? Does the world need another Walmart?



