On April 3, 2008, Sprawl-Busters reported that Wal-Mart had tried to squeeze too many stores into Port Orange, Florida, population 56,000, and the retailer was cancelling a proposed Wal-Mart supercenter. There already is a Wal-Mart supercenter on Dunlawton Avenue in Port Orange. There’s another Wal-Mart supercenter just over 3 miles away in Daytona Beach. So the trade area is not deprived of cheap, Chinese imports. It was not a great loss to the economy when the Daytona Beach News-Journal announced that corporate headquarters in Arkansas had pulled the plug on the Wal-Mart supercenter project — which became, at the time, the 46th superstore pullout since June of 2007. That’s when Wal-Mart stunned many shareholders at its Annual Meeting by announcing a major cutback in its new store growth plans. The news of the withdrawal was left to Port Orange Mayor Allen Green to announce. “The (Wal-Mart) board made a decision it’s not in their best interest to pursue it,” the Mayor said. “They did not say definitely what they’re going to do.” Thus ended two years of work on the part of the city. The Mayor added, “They were trying to fit way too much on that piece of property.” On March 26th Wal-Mart sent a note to the city asking that their the site plan applications be sent back to the city’s Planning Commission. “We continue to examine various options for addressing the City’s concerns, and we are now in the process of significantly revising the proposed development plans,” the letter stated. The original 128,000 s.f. superstore appears to be dead, because a company spokesman said that Wal-Mart might put a Neighborhood Market in the city instead, which would be ‘only’ 53,000 s.f. — less than half the size of the superstore. The supercenter squeeze was great news for local residents who had fought the 24/7 superstore. Residents said such a store would increase crime in the area. Port Orange’s Director of Community Development told the News-Journal that the plans for the area now include much smaller stores. “It’s a major change to go to a smaller store with out-parcels,” he said. “It’s almost like going back to the drawing board.” This week, two months after ruling out a superstore, Wal-Mart announced that its not going to build a second anything in Port Orange. “The land will be put on the market,” a Wal-Mart spokesman told the News-Journal. The retailer said its decision was based on a national strategy to cut capital spending on new buildings in FY 2009. The newspaper noted that several other Wal-Mart projects in central Florida have been scrapped. One of the reasons the 2nd superstore in Port Orange was dropped, is because Wal-Mart is moving forward with plans for a second supercenter in larger Daytona Beach. Wal-Mart’s intention to drop even the smaller Neighborhood Market in Port Orange apparently caught local officials by surprise. “The last meeting we had was in late March, the city’s Planning and Development Manager told the newspaper. “That’s when they said they were going to look into to doing a smaller store.”
Port Orange is just one more victim of Wal-Mart’s nation-wide squeeze play. On June 1, 2007, Wal-Mart announced it would do an internal review of planned stores throughout the nation. “We’ve been looking at sites across the country making sure we are growing in the right way,” Wal-Mart told the News-Journal. “This change is a part of that review.” This gives the city of Port Orange a chance to ask the same question: “Are we growing in the right way?” Or, as one Mayor once said to Sprawl-Busters: “It’s not how big you grow, but how you grow big.” Port Orange describes itself as a community that “blends beauty and opportunity… From its tree-lined streets to its parks.” In fact, Port Orange defines itself as “150 distinct neighborhoods.” The city has been operating under a Vision Statement prepared 10 years ago, which boasts of “a premier, unique, accessible, safe, and innovative city.” Readers are urged to email Port Orange Mayor Allen Green at [email protected] with the following message: “Mayor Green, Wal-Mart has now left Port Orange at the altar — twice. No supercenter. No Neighborhood Market. The retailer said it was ‘making sure we are growing in the right way.’ The city should ask itself the same question. You take pride in the fact that Port Orange is unique and innovative, ‘where people feel at home and experience a sense of community.’ Does another huge supercenter — or even a Neighborhood Market almost the size of a football field — make sense in such a community? It would be more consistent with your efforts to redevelop your Town Center and marina, to adopt a cap on the size of retail buildings, and make companies like Wal-Mart fit into Port Orange — and not the reverse. A cap of 60,000 s.f. makes more sense for your future than suburban sprawl. The superstore cancellation is a super opportunity to engage in some thoughtful planning. One giant supercenter in Port Orange, is one more than enough. Don’t let Wal-Mart squeeze Port Orange again.”
