Walmart builds Wyoming store

Walmart builds Wyoming store

Wal-Mart Stores, which is traded on the NYSE, operates 11,723 stores under 59 banners in 28 countries. Courtesy Walmart

Wyoming city officials expect that construction will start on the city’s first Walmart some time next month.

The $10.5 million superstore is set to break ground in July at the vacant lot located at 325 54th St. SW, across from a Home Depot store, said Wyoming City Planner Tim Cochran.

“It’ll probably (open) next year, but they should have the facility under construction by July,” he said.

The space, formerly a VKW Hardwoods store, will be home to a 183,000-square-foot Walmart that will occupy approximately 18 acres of the redeveloped 40-acre site.

Home Depot owns the other half of the site, Cochran said.

The plans also include two out lots for retail space that Cochran said belong to Walmart. No new tenants have yet been identified, he said.

“(Walmart owns) everything but the frontage of 54th Street,” Cochran said. “They will sell the out lots off to whoever they choose.”

Walmart approached the city about re-zoning the land for commercial use near the end of last year, Cochran said. In March, the plan was approved unanimously by the planning commission and the city council, he said.


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A "metropolitan" market

Cochran sees the incoming superstore chain as a sign that Grand Rapids’ suburbs are taking on a more metropolitan culture and economy.

“It demonstrates Wyoming is a very viable place for commercial development and certainly redevelopment as well,” he said.

“Everybody views it as such a large metropolitan area that Walmart can certainly come into," he said. "It’s a competitive field out there, and they have a niche. It’s just the commercial makeup of a strong metropolitan area. And we are that.”