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Palm Harbor Wal-Mart Adding Grocery
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Published: November 9, 2007
PALM HARBOR, Fla. - PALM HARBOR, Fla. - Attention Wal-Mart shoppers!
The retail chain is drawing up big plans to upgrade its Palm Harbor store, at Alderman Road and U.S. 19.
The store makeover will include adding a grocery store component.
Wal-Mart's plans have already garnered the approval of the Pinellas County Commission.
Paul Cassel, county development review director, said the company plans to expand its store, to the west. It will grow from 87,196 square feet to 118,640 square feet.
Wal-Mart officials met with residents and business owners from the area surrounding the 15-acre store site. Improvements to traffic flow around the store and some of the other suggestions the locals raised were incorporated into Wal-Mart's expansion plans, Cassel said.
Those changes appear to have eliminated the objections residents and business owners raised when Wal-Mart's expansion plans were filed with the county, Cassel said.
One of the changes will involve shifting the store's Alderman Road exit slightly to the west. The move should improve the flow of traffic to and from the store and reduce stacking of vehicles waiting to leave the parking lot, according to Cassel.
In addition, a number of improvements will be made at the U.S. 19-Alderman Road intersection. Turn lanes from U.S. 19 into the shopping complex and onto Alderman Road will be added and improved.
Wal-Mart went beyond what county regulations require in the case of a major retail center expansion, Cassel said.
Jim Porter, who represented Wal-Mart at a recent County Commission meeting, said the Palm Harbor store is an older design that produces tight quarters. It will be expanded and more pedestrian friendly amenities will be added to the parking area, he said.
Wal-Mart, Porter told commissioners, is getting away from its oft-criticized "big box" design concept and moving toward a more aesthetically pleasing store layout.
Commissioners unanimously voted to make land-use changes to allow for the expansion.
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