On January 20, 2008, Sprawl-Busters reported that Wal-Mart was back before local officials in the town of Colonie, New York (pop. 80,000) floating the idea of a 195,000 s.f. superstore project, surrounded by a sea of asphalt parking spaces totaling 431,000 s.f.. Building a new store, however, means sinking their existing discount store several miles away, which would leave one of the largest mall developers in the nation with a hole in its mall. In June of 2006, a developer, Widewaters Group, of DeWitt, New York, waded out into water over its head. This is the same developer who has lost supercenter battles in Saratoga Springs and Ballston, New York, and in Bangor, Maine. Widewaters also ran into rough seas in Ithaca and Greece, New York. In 2006, this developer walked away from the so-called “First Prize Center” project in Colonie because the town wasn’t supportive enough. After spending nearly a year trying in vain to gather neighborhood support, Widwaters pulled the plug. Widewaters would have had to spend a large sum to tear down the former Tobin meat-packing plant. When the developer met with Colonie officials, the project went aground. “We met with the leadership … and they told us they couldn’t support it in any way,” said a development manager at Widewaters. “There was not much point in going forward.” The Town’s Supervisor said the site was not appropriate for a big-box store and that the town would prefer a mix of retail and residential uses. “The amount of traffic I feel it would generate is not something we’d like to see in that area,” she said. “It’s still a residential neighborhood.” Widewaters said it was shocked that the town would not support a Wal-Mart supercenter. “It wasn’t meant to be under the current political leadership,” the developer’s spokesman added. “We weren’t willing to swim upstream on this one.” But Wal-Mart played the waiting game in Colonie, and now Widewaters is swimming upstream again. The 23 acre site that Wal-Mart wants is owned by a local car dealer. The site at one time was a drive-in movie theatre, but now is an empty field. So the Colonie Planning Board is going to be asked to fill 23 acres of open space for a retail use similar to one being vacated by the same company less than two miles away. This week Widewaters came up for this first hearing before local officials. According to Capital 9 News, dozens of residents came out to the planning board meeting to hear about Wal-Mart’s plans. “I want to see all of the facts about it and how it will impact our traffic situation, what the residents feel about it,” Colonie Town Supervisor Paula Mahan, told the TV station. “The main thing is that is goes through the process the way it should.”
There are 8 Wal-Marts today within 10 miles of Colonie, including 4 supercenters in Glenville, Halfmoon, East Greenbush, and Glenmont. There’s a Wal-Mart discount store in Albany, and a discount store in Latham four miles away. The Latham Wal-Mart is around 125,000 s.f., and was built in 1993. Wal-Mart will close this 15 year-old store, which is the size of two football fields. Wal-Mart spent money in 2001 remodeling the Latham store. The “old” store has about 275 employees, many of whom will have to seek employment at the supercenter if it is approved. The supercenter will “create” 175 additional jobs, Wal-Mart claims, but once you subtract grocery workers laid off at other merchants, the net impact on jobs and taxes is minimal. The mall where the “old” Wal-Mart sits is owned by Kimco Realty, the nation’s largest publicly-traded owner and operator of neighborhood and community shopping centers with interests in over 950 centers totaling more than 147 million square feet. Kimco owns malls in 44 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Mexico. The company owns 70 malls in New York state alone. Across the country, Kimco has Wal-Mart anchors in 23 of its malls. The Latham Farms mall that Wal-Mart is leaving has 616,130 s.f., including a Dick’s, Hannaford’s grocery store, Home Depot, and Sam’s Club. Kimco has a lease with Wal-Mart that will require several years of rent from the retailer while Kimco searches for a replacement tenant. Wal-Mart says it expects the site plan approval process in Colonie to take a year and a half, and building the store another year. Readers are urged to email Colonie’s new supervisor, Paula Mahan, who took office 3 months ago, at colonie@colonie.org with the following message: “Colonie was right in 2006 to reject the Wal-Mart/Widewaters plan. But now they are back ready to shut down their Latham Farms store, and move two miles away onto 23 acres of open space. In your 2005 Comprehensive Plan, it says that ‘while these commercial retail areas provide needed services to Town residents, many residents have expressed through the public outreach process concern over the amount of large scale development in the community.’ Your plan says you will try to ‘preserve key areas of open space in the Town.’ This project makes no sense. It’s the wrong size and the wrong place for Colonie. You open a bigger Wal-Mart, and you close another one a few miles away. This project will not create “new” jobs. It will merely shift existing jobs from Latham Farms, and from area grocery stores, to the new Wal-Mart. I urge you to vote against this project.”
