Second Springdale Supercenter Planned

Brian Hooper, from left, Walmart vice president of real estate, property owner Robin Lundstrum and Mayor Doug Sprouse detail a new Walmart Supercenter on Thursday to be on Elm Springs Road near the intersection with North 48th Street.
Brian Hooper, from left, Walmart vice president of real estate, property owner Robin Lundstrum and Mayor Doug Sprouse detail a new Walmart Supercenter on Thursday to be on Elm Springs Road near the intersection with North 48th Street.

Fast Facts

Walmart Information

The planned Walmart Supercenter on Elm Springs Road west of Interstate 540 will be the second in Springdale. The store at 2004 S. Pleasant St. opened in 1972 and was remodeled in 2010.

This will be the first Supercenter built in Northwest Arkansas since the store on Pleasant Grove Road in Rogers opened in 2005.

The new Springdale store will be Walmart’s eighth in Benton and Washington counties.

Walmart has 103 Arkansas locations and the average wage for regular, full-time hourly workers in the state is $11.88 an hour.

The retailer plans to build between 220 and 240 stores in fiscal 2014, which runs from Feb. 1, 2013, through Jan. 31, 2014. Plans call for more than half of the new stores to be Supercenters.

Source: Staff Report

— Leaders hope store spurs growth

Officials hope a planned Walmart Supercenter on the west side of town spurs economic growth.

“We’ve been bleeding sales tax revenue to other communities,” said Mayor Doug Sprouse. “Our hope is to recover those funds.”

Sam’s Club moved from Springdale to Fayetteville in 2007, and Sprouse estimated the sales tax revenue lost is about $1 million annually.

Walmart and city officials gathered Thursday at the home of Margie Hall on Elm Springs Road west of Interstate 540. The family sold 28 of the farm’s 70 acres to Walmart.

Brian Hooper, Walmart’s vice president of real estate, said construction on the 180,000-square-foot Supercenter is slated to begin in late summer or early fall. The store should open in the fall of 2014.

He said the store will employee between 300 and 350 full- and part-time employees.

“We believe this will be, in the years to come, a retail asset for the area,” he said.

Walmart’s presence will help spur the area’s growth by attracting other retailers and restaurants, Sprouse said.

“You don’t see many of these Walmarts sitting out by themselves,” he said. “We expect business to grow out here.”

Macadoodles sits across Elm Springs Road from the planned Supercenter. The store opened in April 2010.

Erica Jones, Walmart spokeswoman, said the company plans to seek a beer and wine license.

Robin Lundstrum, daughter of Max and Margie Hall, said she remembers when her parents announced 30 years ago they were moving to a farm on Elm Springs Road.

“At the age of 13, I was worried that my sister and I would never date because no boy in his right mind would want to drive that far out of town,” she said. “Funny how life changes.”

Lundstrum said her father, who died in 2000, was confident Springdale would grow out to the farm.

“Walmart’s presence on this interchange, on this corner, will open up northwest Springdale as would no other retail development,” she said. “Coupled with the taxpayer’s investment in street improvements, schools and a park, this development corridor will rival any in Northwest Arkansas.”

Perry Webb, president of the Springdale Chamber of Commerce, said he doesn’t think the development would have happened without a voter-approved bond proposal.

Springdale residents approved a $71 million bond issue Aug. 15 that allows $45 million for street improvements. Sprouse said about half of that money will be used for the Don Tyson Parkway interchange on I-540.

Work widening Elm Springs Road to the site of the new store is complete. Sprouse said 56th Street will be widened and extended from Don Tyson Parkway to Elm Springs Road.

“This is the first domino to fall and more is to come,” Webb said. “We just have to be patient and prepared.”

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