Suburban Plaza Walmart Site Plan Updates and a Renovation Timeline
Decatur Metro | June 4, 2012
The Medlock Area Neighborhood Association website has a very informative update for all of you interested in staying up-to-date on all the Suburban Plaza Walmart goings-on.
The map above from MANA indicates changes from the October 2011 site plan. More detail on all 5 updates are available on MANA’s website.
As for a potential schedule for the renovation of Suburban Plaza, MANA says that Selig/Walmart is looking at the “the first half of 2013, barring unanticipated delays.”
Map courtesy of MANA website
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Disapointed in Walmart’s flip flopping on the garden center. I was cautiously supportive of their redevelopment of this site, until now. The bait-and-switch on the garden center shows heavy handed bad faith. Sign me up for Team Stop Walmart.
Sign me up for Team Vow-not-to-shop at Walmart. I will never set foot in that store. I seriously worry about Intown Ace right down the street. People that treasure that store will hopefully not take it for granted that it will always be there.
I hope I am right about this, but I think Ace will be fine. The people who buys plants at Ace at a premium instead of driving 4 miles to Home Depot sure as hell aren’t going to start buying shrubbery at Wal-Mart. Not to mention that any garden center at WM will not be able to compete with the experience at the garden section at Intown Ace, especially after the recent expansion/improvements.
WM could never match the wide number and variety of products, the product knowledge and the customer service at ACE. They’ll be fine.
If all of Intown Ace’s adoring customers stay true, then they’ll not only survive, but thrive! And while I sure wish Walmart was publicly handling the Garden Center news better (and don’t think they haven’t gotten an earful privately!), I give them props for at least trying to undo some of the damage by having Glen Wilkins go to meet with the Intown Ace owners in person. If what was supposed to have happened did happen, then Walmart went the extra mile in offering up a head start so that they can begin making inventory adjustments.
I agree with everything you wrote. I fear the apocalypse is fast approaching.
Silly Walrus, you can’t always get it wrong! :0)
Excellent points. One advantage to being relatively small like Ace is the ability to be nimble and quickly adapt to change. They already have done so with the Home Depot as they don’t carry lumber or gas grills, for example. Customer service is a niche where they will continue to excel, imho.
Uh, yes they do carry gas grills, and as much as I love Intown Ace (spent money there twice this weekend) I did NOT buy my Weber from them since it cost between $700-$800 LESS online. I do draw a line with my desire to shop locally.
Husband did much research on grills before replacing our defunct Weber. Got the best price, earliest delivery and assembly from Ace. Yea!
I may have been a better shopper. When I bought this one a year ago it was somewhere around $2200-$2300 (maybe more) at Intown before tax and delivery. It was $1709 total delivered to my front door within a week by buying it on-line. Like I said before, I do love Intown, but you have to be realistic and a fair up-charge is okay for me when buying local. In this case, it was a no-brainer to shop online.
http://forrester.smugmug.com/Miscellaneous/Miscellaneous/i-X8BpRR8/0/M/Picture1-M.png
Same for us! Ace had the best price, and it came assembled. We loaded it up, drove it home and had the charcoals glowing in time to cook dinner. (Weber charcoal grill with gas starter.)
Intown Ace could be a great hub for quirky do-it-yourself yard art , vintage refinishing projects, neighborhod crafting circles, etc. Maybe they’ll factor in the possibility of workshop space.
So where does the MARTA light rail station go? And why isn’t DeKalb trying to protect the ROW for it?
MARTA’s plans show the light rail station smack in the middle of the site. ROW is not needed. Selig’s agreement to sell the property to Marta is.
According to the Selig folks when we met with them a few weeks back, it’s a non factor in their plans. MARTA’s never contacted them, and they said that’s normal and never happens until much later in the process. They also said that since it’s not a part of what the TSPLOST is covering, if it passes, then it wouldn’t come up again for a long, long time. If and when it ever is a lock to happen, then everything will get reevaluated again. It’s very interesting to hear about it from their perspective– no worries and major enthusiasm.
Anybody have a link to a larger image of the site plan? Or better yet, DM please reconfigure the one above to be enlargeable? Can’t see a darn thing! Thanks.
Just follow the link. The large plans are there.
Duh. Thanks, Scott
I hate to be a debbie downer, but Intown Ace will lose business for sure. Adapt and change? They better. Survive? I hope so because I love that store.
Yeah, they might lose some business, but will they lose enough business to put them under? Doubtful.
Nothing can substitute for familiar, friendly, knowledgeable service and a really nice nursery. Furthermore, they have recently expanded their property to provide even more resources to customers.
The only thing they have going against them is that their basic sundries are generally cheap and China-made, just like Wal-Mart’s, but they sell them at much higher prices.
As a local, I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. But let’s not forget that Wal-Mart clearly has the expectation that this newest location “fits” the neighborhood and would be a profitable venture; otherwise, they would never have considered building a store there. Millions of dollars go into determining potentially viable spots for new outlets.
Well I’m just depressed. Although I plan to never set foot in this new store (I avoid all walmarts in general – I’m just not their demographic) I don’t know if I should hope they are profitable…because if not, they’ll leave in a few years, leaving behind a gargantuan and ugly and unuseable development. Drive through most small towns – you’ll see the “first” walmart and the “new” walmart. Of course…the current center is not exactly attractive…