Wal-Mart has purchased part of the Indiandale Shopping Center that includes the former locations of Save A Lot Grocery and Alco Discount stores for $1.5 million, according to a deed filed earlier this month with the Garland County circuit clerk.
A Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market is scheduled to open there this summer, said Michael Lindsey, Wal-Mart's public affairs director for Arkansas.
"It depends on what happens with the weather this winter," Lindsey said of the midyear target date. "There's a lot of site work to do."
The Arvest Bank branch fronting Malvern Avenue was included in the 4.99-acre purchase, Lindsey said, adding that the bank will continue in the location until May. The store's 41,000 square feet exceeds the space formerly occupied by Save A Lot and Alco, requiring the purchase of an adjacent parcel and three houses, said Dragan Vicentic, the principal of Indiandale Shopping Center LLC, the company that sold the property.
Vicentic will retain the strip of storefronts lining the northwest section of the shopping center. The declaration of the restrictions and cross-access agreement on file with the circuit clerk limits the types of businesses he can lease to. Wal-Mart's written consent is required before a billiard parlor, night club, funeral parlor, flea market, liquor store, adult bookstore or adult entertainment venue can move in.
The agreement also conditions leasing to a competing retailer or an establishment that derives more than 50 percent of its gross sales from alcohol on Wal-Mart's consent.
"Wal-Mart is going to have a pharmacy, and I've heard they're going to sell liquor," Vicentic said. "They prefer not going into competition against businesses of that nature."
The agreement allows Spa Towne Wine and Spirits and National Park Pharmacy to stay in their present locations but prohibits them from moving to another spot within the shopping center or expanding.
A Wal-Mart representative said dirt work is scheduled to begin by the end of the month. Construction of a Neighborhood Market on Airport Road began several weeks ago. Lindsey said Neighborhood Markets are primarily grocery stores with pharmacies, fresh produce and general merchandise.
Local on 11/30/2015