Big Y vs Walmart file.jpg

The former Big Y supermarket on Newton Street in South Hadley is seen alongside a Walmart store in California in this composite of file photos. Big Y Foods is reevaluating its plans to open a store in Holyoke in the wake of Walmart's plans to open a store in the area.

(Republican File Photo)

HOLYOKE - Big Y Foods is reevaluating whether to put a store here in light of Walmart's plan to build a store with supermarket features near the site of a planned retail plaza Big Y was to anchor.

Big Y's pause led officials with O'Connell Development Group, which owns the property at Lower Westfield Road and Homestead Avenue where the retail plaza would go, to say Monday they would need to reduce or otherwise reevaluate the whole $16 million project if Big Y withdraws.

Big Y's Claire M. D'Amour-Daley said Friday the company should know in about a month whether it will continue with the plan to build here after analyzing shopping patterns, traffic and other factors.

"We are still excited about Holyoke. I guess everybody is excited about Holyoke. We have not abandoned that location. Nothing has changed. We're just evaluating new information, which is that Walmart" has announced its own plan, said D'Amour-Daly, vice president, corporate communications.

Having Walmart - the world's largest retailer, according to forbes.com - emerge as a competitor close by changes the outlook. The cost to establish a Big Y store is $12 million to $13 million and there's only so much of a customer base in Holyoke for rival stores to draw from, she said.

"So we really have to be sure," D'Amour-Daly said.

Stop & Shop has two stores here, including one at Whiting Farms Road and Route 5, up the road from the proposed Walmart location at 222 Whiting Farms Road, between Autumn and Lynch Drives.

Company spokesman Chris Buchanan said June 11 Walmart is currently finalizing its traffic plans to submit to the city this summer. The Walmart supercenter of 160,000 square feet would have 300 employees and a full line of groceries, including fresh produce, frozen foods, meat and dairy products and organic items, officials said.

O’Connell Vice President Andrew J. Crystal said the company would need to reassess its plan for the 110,000-square-foot project at Homestead Avenue and Lower Westfield Road if Big Y backs out.

"I think if there's no Big Y it would be prudent for O'Connell to reevaluate the situation," Crystal said.

That project actually consists of two parts. There's the retail plaza, which O'Connell controls, and traffic improvements, such as widening of roads at the intersection, which the city is leading. As it stands, approvals from the state Department of Transportation for the traffic improvements aren't set to be ready for construction to begin on the retail plaza until 2015, Crystal said.

The lengthy permitting process has been an issue.

"The permitting process has taken an awfully long time," D'Amour-Daly said.

"It's been slow," Crystal said.

But O’Connell Development Manager Francesca Maltese was quick to note any permitting delays aren't the city's fault. The Planning Department approved the site plan for the retail project in March 2012.

"There isn't a hold up on our project with the city," Maltese said.

A spokeswoman with the Department of Transportation didn't return a call seeking comment.

The reevaluation being done by BIg Y underscores the numerous factors that must fall into place before such a project can proceed. That means the Walmart plan also isn't a done deal, officials said..

Mayor Alex B. Morse said traffic issues will be a big part of the permitting regarding the Walmart plan, as it was when Lowe's planned and then backed away from a project for 222 Whiting Farms Road in December 2009.

"The city has been nothing but supportive of the Big Y project, and we will continue to be," Morse said.



Walmart's presence in the area already is significant. The chain is in the process of enlarging its Westfield location to include groceries. Walmart also has stores in Chicopee, Springfield, Hadley, Northampton and Ware.