Walmart Stores Inc. has purchased five acres on South Glenstone Avenue with the intention of building the city’s first Neighborhood Market, according to Hannah Textor, who represented the seller in a May 20 transaction.
Textor’s company, Hannah Textor Brokerage LC, listed the property – near the northeast corner of Glenstone Avenue and Bennett Street – for $1.85 million. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Textor said Walmart officials have indicated the company would start construction in the fall, but she had not seen any design plans.
Walmart first expressed interest in the property last summer, and it signed an intent to purchase through an assigned buyer Aug. 24, Textor said. The land was home to the former L-shaped Glenstone Gardens strip center among other businesses and was on the market for more than three years by owner Kenneth Barth, president of Branson-based Industrial Park Plaza Inc.
The acreage covers six addresses and eight parcels that appraised for more than $2.1 million in 2010, according to Greene County Assessor records.
“It’s been a long and tedious contract as it is with any big deal,” Textor said. “I’m just happy I was able to find a qualified buyer for my client.”
A Walmart Stores media relations representative did not respond by deadline.
According to
www.walmartstores.com, Neighborhood Market stores are typically 42,000 square feet and sell groceries, pharmaceuticals and general merchandise such as household and pet supplies. Since adding Neighborhood Market stores in 1998, Walmart now operates 183, with each employing about 95 associates.
The better-known Walmart Supercenters average 185,000 square feet and house banks, hair salons, portrait studios, tire centers and eateries. The 2,921 Supercenters nationwide employ 350 on average.
Walmart officials may still need to persuade one property owner to sell if it wants to fulfill its plans in Springfield.
Ben Tehrani, owner of Bennett Street Laundry LLC at 1829 E. Bennett St., said Walmart representatives have expressed an interest in his property for an entryway to the store. Tehrani declined to say whether Walmart officials made him an offer on the Laundromat he said he purchased for an undisclosed amount in September.
Tehrani said he hasn’t yet decided to sell the property, which is one-third of an acre and holds an appraised value of $110,600, according to Greene County Assessor records.
“I would love to keep it. People in this part of the town, they need it,” Tehrani said, adding that his business serves a number of nearby apartment complexes.
Textor said relocating the lone tenant on her client’s property was a key factor in the final transaction. Owners of Missouri Title Loans, 1328 S. Glenstone Ave., sought a freestanding building on Glenstone, and Textor found one at 214 S. Glenstone Ave., in the parking lot of the Great Southern Operations Center.
Daniel Neal, senior planner for the city of Springfield, provided documents that showed both Barth and Tehrani had applied in February to combine the lots.
He said that application is pending because the seven addresses were not under one owner. Should Walmart acquire Tehrani’s property, Neal said combining the parcels is a simple administrative process that shouldn’t take more than a week.
In March, Springfield Business Journal reported that a big-box retailer was purchasing the land based on talks with the seller.
Neither Barth nor Textor would disclose the retailer at that time, citing a confidentiality clause in the contract.[[In-content Ad]]
