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Wal-Mart Scraps Supercenter Plan For Holiday Area

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By CARL ORTH

The Suncoast News

Published: May 12, 2008

HOLIDAY - Wal-Mart has scrapped plans to build one of its supercenter grocery-discount stores at State Road 54 and Grand Boulevard, a company official said Friday.

"This is one of the stores that have been dropped," Quenta Vettel, senior manager of public affairs in Central Florida for the nation's largest retailer, said in a telephone interview.

"Some of it was due to the economy, some of it was, 'Are we growing the right way?'

" Vettel said about the decision to scrap the store.

Wal-Mart executives have been reassessing the retail chain's growth strategy since June 2007, Vettel said. Some new stores were reduced in size, plans for other stores were delayed and some, like the Holiday-area store, have been discarded.

Wal-Mart attorneys won a hard-fought battle to get the preliminary plan approved on Nov. 8 by Pasco County's Development Review Committee. County development officials last week said they were waiting for construction drawings.

Commissioner Ann Hildebrand, who represents the county commission district that includes the former store site, said she hadn't heard any news about the project being dropped.

"I'm sure ultimately that property won't remain vacant," Hildebrand said Friday about the 30-acre parcel. Cox Lumber and an auto auction firm used to occupy that space.

Hildebrand hopes the site would be redeveloped, perhaps into a business-office center.

"It's a great location right where it is," Hildebrand said.

At one time area residents were suggesting the county buy the acreage for a park. Hildebrand, however, said the county doesn't have the money to purchase the land.

Cynthia Besio, who led opposition among residents, couldn't be reached for comment.

Residents who had opposed Wal-Mart plans had suggested scaling back the size of the S.R. 54 location. The typical supercenter has more than 200,000 square feet of space.

In December, Besio said the residents opposing the store had resigned themselves to the Wal-Mart Supercenter being built because they couldn't afford any more legal fees to appeal county approval of the plan.

The residents won some appeals before county commissioners, who had ordered rehearings on revised plans that led to the Nov. 8 approval.

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