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Wal-Mart Gets Green Light For Store On Dale Mabry

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 13, 2007

LAND O' LAKES - Five years after first submitting plans, Wal-Mart has won the county's approval for a superstore, just south of the apex of U.S. 41 and North Dale Mabry Highway.

The approval follows three attempts by the Arkansas retail giant to build a store just north of Hillsborough County. Previous attempts - the first in 2002 and another in 2003 - failed after the company was forced to withdraw.

Plans approved this month were put into the county's review pipeline in 2004. In the ensuing three years, Wal-Mart spent hours negotiating with state highway officials and CSX railroad officials about how future shoppers will get to the store.

In the end, Wal-Mart failed to persuade the state Department of Transportation to open a full-access median on Dale Mabry between County Line Road and U.S. 41. DOT officials said the location didn't meet state standards for the proper distance between traffic lights.

So, drivers on Dale Mabry will be able to reach the supercenter only if they're going north from County Line Road and can turn right into the plaza. Drivers exiting onto Dale Mabry will be forced to turn right, according to plans approved by the county.

The DOT will let Wal-Mart install a full intersection on U.S. 41 instead. But that access point will require drivers to cross the CSX tracks that parallel the highway's southbound lanes.

Under a three-way deal with the county and CSX, Wal-Mart will maintain that crossing, which will include gates to block it when trains are there.

Construction could start in the second quarter of 2008, with the store to open about a year later, said Quenta Vettel, spokeswoman for Wal-Mart's Florida operations.

When the store opens, the aging Wal-Mart store at the Village Lakes Shopping Center on State Road 54 will be closed and its staff moved to the new store, Vettel said.

The 62-acre project is the latest step toward converting the wedge of land bordering Hillsborough County from a mix of largely rural land uses into another outcrop of suburbia.

Target opened its newest Pasco supercenter just south of the Wal-Mart site in October - much to the chagrin of Hillsborough residents who live across County Line Road in rural Lutz.

Since then, another shopping center, County Line Commons, has gone up facing Dale Mabry, just north of the Target plaza. Wal-Mart's 176,000-square-foot store will be accompanied by five out-parcels providing an additional 70,000 square feet of retail space and 40,000 square feet of office space.

The supercenter is Wal-Mart's fourth such store planned for Pasco.

A store is under construction on U.S. 19 in the Beacon Woods section of Hudson. Last month, county officials approved a store at State Road 54 and Grand Boulevard in New Port Richey. Still another store is on the horizon for Wesley Chapel, off S.R. 54 at the northern end of Wiregrass Ranch.

Unlike the controversial Beacon Woods and Grand Boulevard stores, the recently approved store drew no opposition from the few residents who border the site to the south.

A supercenter proposed for Dade City was put on hold this year.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@ tampatrib.com.

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