GILROY
– Wal-Mart has entered a contract to sell its 7900 Arroyo Circle
home in anticipation of moving into a larger store on Camino
Arroyo, company spokeswoman Amy Hill said Tuesday.
GILROY – Wal-Mart has entered a contract to sell its 7900 Arroyo Circle home in anticipation of moving into a larger store on Camino Arroyo, company spokeswoman Amy Hill said Tuesday.
“I think that it’s very good news in that it certainly alleviates any concerns that the building will remain vacant for any significant amount of time,” Hill said.
The buyer is a South Bay developer, according to Hill, but she did not identify him. Bill Lindsteadt, executive director of the Gilroy Economic Development Corporation, said he spoke to the buyer Tuesday but also declined to identify him since the deal is not yet closed.
As for the price, the figure Lindsteadt said he heard mentioned was $6.5 million, although he emphasized that he never saw this in writing.
The buyer plans to lease the 67,200-square-foot building to one or more retailers, of which he has “a couple” in mind, Lindsteadt said. Trader Joe’s, Nordstrom Rack and Beverly’s Fabric and Craft Store are possible tenants, he said. He added that the developer has not entered contracts with any tenants yet
Wal-Mart and the developer decided not to close the sale until after the Gilroy City Council decides whether to approve a proposed, 220,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter, Lindsteadt said.
“They are just waiting for their approval from the City Council, and then they’ll close,” Lindsteadt said.
The Council’s decision is scheduled for Feb. 17 but could be pushed back, according to city Clerk Rhonda Pellin. A public review period is currently open for the Supercenter’s environmental impact review, which stated that traffic from a Wal-Mart Supercenter with 986 parking spaces would result in the emission of 132.4 pounds per day of nitrous oxide fumes, more than 50 pounds above the state threshold of 80 pounds.
The Wal-Mart Supercenter would include a full supermarket in addition to the current Wal-Mart’s assortment of goods. It would be part of the Pacheco Pass Center, a shopping complex on Camino Arroyo near the intersection of highways 152 and 101.
Wal-Mart’s critics say the company – the world’s largest retailer and a staunch resistor of union labor – has a poor record of leaving its big-box stores vacant as it moves from its already large digs into its larger Supercenters. No Supercenters have yet opened in Northern California; the one proposed for Gilroy is part of a wave of 40 or so statewide.
City Councilman Paul Correa has been a vocal critic of a super Wal-Mart since his campaign last year. Getting a new tenant for the Arroyo Circle building if Wal-Mart moves was “definitely” a concern of his, he said Tuesday, and he called news of the sale “a good sign” and “a positive gesture.”
“I don’t want a vacant building where we’re losing valuable tax dollars,” Correa said.
Although Correa is glad to see the retail giant taking steps to avoid leaving behind a blighted footprint, he hopes Wal-Mart officials don’t take their Council approval for granted and thus ignore the issues raised by the environmental review – most prominently, traffic and air pollution.
“It sounds like the Wal-Mart officials are pretty confident they’ll get all the needed approvals from the City Council,” Correa said. “I think they believe they have the votes to carry them through, … and it probably will be approved.
“But I still would like to hear what they would do to address the concerns that came up in the (environmental review), specifically the traffic.”
Lindsteadt said, “I’d say it has a very good chance of approval,” giving four reasons why:
• “It’s going in exactly the right place, where other big boxes are.”
• “It’s going to provide more than $2 million in development fees for the city.”
• “It’s going to provide more sales tax revenue.”
• “Over 150 new jobs. No, they’re not union jobs, but they’re jobs.”
The Supercenter’s plans will next come before the city Planning Commission, scheduled for Feb. 5, and then the Council.
