When Will the Suburban Plaza Walmart Open? What Will It Look Like?
Decatur Metro | August 17, 2015 | 1:48 pm
With the Suburban Plaza Walmart quickly taking form at Suburban Plaza, you may be wondering when it’s going to open and what it will ultimately look like.
Well, the Medlock Area Neighborhood Association is here to help. They have posted the above rendering looking at the project from Scott Boulevard/N. Decatur Road/Medlock and a list of facts about the coming Suburban Plaza Walmart on its site.
- The store is projected to open in November 2015.
- Walmart reserves the right to open 24 hours/day but the current plan is to open 6am – midnight.
- 150,000 sq ft super center that will offer merchandise and groceries.
- The store will not have an optical center or a tire/lube center
- The store will not carry guns but will carry ammunition
- the store will include a small garden center with some outdoor and seasonal merchandise
- the store will employ 300 people. Hiring for this store is now in progress (scroll to end of this post)*
- trucks servicing Walmart will enter from North Decatur Rd. at the new traffic signal, proceed to the back of the building and on to the loading docks there. The trucks can back directly into the loading docks. Trucks will exit onto Medlock Road, and proceed to Scott Blvd. We should expect 3-5 trucks per day
- improving the intersection and the light timing (for Medlock Rd.) are part of every discussion
Oh good. Ammunition. I feel safer already.
I’ve bought quite a bit of ammunition at the Memorial/Columbia Wal Mart. I’ve never heard of any issues with the store selling it.
You can also buy it on line, and in bulk. Super scary!
I wonder what Selig spent to relocate all the utilities underground.
I don’t believe the rendering is accurate as to utilities. I doubt they are going underground. There are some rather large regional transmission lines on N Decatur Rd.
What Will It Look Like? If it looks like that, the answer will be: nondescript suburban high school.
3-5 trucks per day? Seems impossibly low.
Wish they did not have the back side facing the street.
As with much new development, the picture shows that the store seeks to cater to really, really white people (who even dress in all white!).
Where is the diversity?
Yet another reason for everyone in Decatur to hate Wal*Mart!
😉
Hey now! Don’t be making fun of the paper doll people! Print it out and color ’em in to create a wonderful Walmart rainbow world! :0)
This is even more hideous than I could have possibly imagined. What happened to the fancy renders with like reclaimed barn lumber or some such?
Yes, this looks 1970s sterile outer burbs, not like the rendings from 2014: atlanta.curbed.com/archives/2014/10/02/updates-on-suburban-plazas-la-fitness-starbucks-and-timeline.php#more
Yep. Saw the prefab walls propped up with sticks. Not exactly a barn raising.
What did you expect? It’s Wal-Mart!
The 2014 renderings are of the shopping center, not Walmart.
Folks, all big box stores stick with formulas they believe best support their ability to do business, whether it’s a set look or insisting on a parking lot out front (grocery chains). Here, Walmart bent to meet Selig’s requirements of the building being pulled to the street, deck parking, pedestrian access. I’d say that’s a pretty decent effort on Walmart’s part– enough to be commended, not knocked. (And it can’t just be me who gets excited about the site’s transformation when viewing it from my car on the other side of the intersection. Wow! We’re truly on our way to becoming a walkable community!)
It also bears reminding that Walmart is THE catalyst for the area’s redevelopment– a point that’s been made to our Cross-Neighborhoods Committee by the folks tackling nearby redevelopment projects . Not the proximity to cool lil City of Decatur or the improved economy: Walmart. Selig has endured a lot of insults to bring this project through. Don’t think that the criticisms haven’t stung. Fortunately, they persevered because they knew it would not only revitalize the shopping center, but would jumpstart the entire area.
The proximity to “Lil ‘ol Decatur” is the raison d’etre for this entire project, let’s get that much out of the way. So there’s that. Also, Decatur is the catalyst. Wal-Mart is more like the lil ‘ol fish that attaches itself on the larger predator, in this case poaching tax dollars from the municipality it deliberately chose to locate adjacent to but not within. Yes, they should be commended – not by us, but by their stockholders.
Jeremy, am I understanding you correctly that you think Walmart is seeking some kind of prestige from being down the street from City of Decatur? If so, how exactly do you see that as helping out Walmart?
Not sayin’ City of Decatur won’t contribute its share of shoppers. Since just as many, if not more, customers will come from where it *is* located–Unincorporated DeKalb– and from the gazillion commuters passing by daily, it’s entirely appropriate that DeKalb will receive the tax dollars (unless and until Suburban Plaza is ever annexed). What mattered to Walmart in selecting Suburban Plaza is the overall area’s demographics and the traffic counts at that intersection (and as Walmart stated way back in 2010 at the community presentations, its location in relation to the nearby existing Walmart stores as it continues to expand inside the perimeter).
http://www.seligenterprises.com/Search-Suburban%20Plaza-75-2-2
* For the benefit of newer residents who don’t know Suburban Plaza’s story, it’s been a Selig family owned property for over 50 years. It was a thriving shopping center up until the economy started tanking in the 90’s and several anchor stores disappeared in bankruptcy. Selig had plans for an ambitious redevelopment that the recession put on hold, then killed. Signing anchor tenants during the lean years was all but impossible. (Piggly Wiggly ended up backing out due to how much it would cost to set up.) Selig approached every major big box chain (some several times) only to be turned down. Walmart came through. Selig has been upfront from the start of this project that it’s 100% due to Walmart that Selig can take on the extensive renovation of Suburban Plaza. It’s not just about slapping on a coat of paint and new signs, but attracting tenants who can pay market rates and will be there for years to come. As we’re all seeing, proximity to Walmart is very attractive to other businesses. Walmart will also be a good fit for many area residents and workers who will welcome being able to buy affordable basics nearby.
(I’m on the Cross-Neighborhoods Committee and serve as a volunteer community liaison for Selig on the redevelopment of Suburban Plaza.)
“Don’t think that the criticisms haven’t stung”
I’ve got no dog in the Wal-Mart fight, but the idea that any of us owe a debt of sympathy to Wal-Mart or Selig is utterly laughable.
This is the nature of doing business. If you want to do something that might bring profit, you need to put on your big kid pants and expect criticism. If this “feel bad for us” blathering is the Selig/Wal-Mart party line, it’s no wonder so many people are so angry at them.
Yeah! F Walmart! All they do is provide inexpensive goods that people can afford, which creates a standard of living for the “poor” in this country that is better than the middle class in most others….and jobs for tens of thousands of people. Those bastards can suck it up and take our abuse.
I’d love to hear where I asserted that Wal-Mart deserves abuse.
Instead, you’ll see that I voiced my support for the company.
But I guess it’s a lot more fun to construct straw men. Why not just talk to yourself, though? Then you can construct and rail against whatever straw men you want.
My comment was in response to Deanne’s assertion that criticism had been hurtful to Wal-Mart and/or Selig. When you do business, you need to be prepared to deal with criticism. At least, that’s how I run my business. Maybe giant corporations have the luxury of running home sobbing when someone hurts their feelings.
I don’t know what you are talking about. My comment was completely sincere.
(Walrus, oh how you make me smile! :0)
I’ve certainly not said the criticism’s been hurtful to Walmart. Heck, I’d say it had the opposite effect! Folks got so fed up with the utter ridiculousness and ugliness shown by Good Growth DeKalb and their ilk that it actually seemed to speed up getting a good many folks to go on and accept Walmart as part of Suburban Plaza.
Nope. The comment was 100% mine. I get these silly notions from time to time about folks being receptive to weighing other folks’ perspectives, and I’ll put it out there. This time it just happened to be about the Selig folks who I think highly of. I’ve been pleasantly surprised that many folks on here are indeed willing to consider other points of view, even if it strikes them as strange to do so at first. It’s what makes the Decatur Metro community so special and why I love this blog so much.
The snarkiness in your comment is really not necessary. I’m just pointing out that trying to drum up sympathy for a mega corporation that’s making a lot of money off of this is a bit ridiculous.
I don’t think the notion of “weighing other folks’ perspectives” is at all silly, nor did I or anyone else say so. I’m not sure why you seem to think otherwise. But I hope that if you value weighing other people’s perspectives, then you’ll also weigh my perspective that trying to get sympathy for Selig or Wal Mart is silly.
I’m excited about Wal-Mart’s arrival, but I’m also operating under no illusions that I, Decatur Metro, or anyone else has the obligation to consider the “feelings” of a non-human corporate entity.
You seem not to be able to recognize sincerity. There was no snarkiness in my reply.
I’m sorry I upset you such that you feel the need to insult my intelligence and ability to recognize basic communications. I’ll bow out of this one, since it’s a trivial matter and I don’t want to hijack the discussion.
You didn’t upset me. In reading my response, you mistook it as being About You and About Walmart when it wasn’t . I simply offered up an insight into me so you might get why I’d included a glimpse into how this had hit the Selig folks. No insult of your intelligence or ability was made, nor was I out to persuade you to feel differently on anything related to Suburban Plaza.
(As I don’t think it’s a trivial matter to leave someone feeling insulted, I’ve replied. I don’t expect a reply in return.)
I’m more interested in updates on the LA Fitness going up. Any info on that?
Naretha, biggies are that it’ll have a swimming pool and basketball court. They’ll also offer childcare. Selig’s project manager said today that LA Fitness is aiming to open in late December. The sign says that memberships are now available: (404) 267-2723.
For folks interested in applying to work there, the sign says they’re hiring:
sales, aerobic instructors, receptionists, baby sitters, janitors, and personal trainers
1-888-JOBSLAF