WILLMAR -- Construction began Monday, but the celebratory groundbreaking was held Friday morning for the 207,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter being built at the corner of 19th Avenue and Fifth Street Southeast in Willmar.
The new store will replace the nearly 90,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Discount Center on South First Street. That store opened on June 27, 1990.
An estimated 50 people, including about 26 Wal-Mart employees, braced themselves against a 7-degree wind chill under an overcast sky to hear Mayor Les Heitke and State Sen.-elect Joe Gimse offer congratulations.
Also, they watched as store manager Dan Rodgers tried turning the first shovelful of earth. However, the frozen ground yielded only a little bit.
City Building Official Randy Kardell said the first concrete was poured at 12:30 p.m. Friday. He said about 200 inspections will be made during construction.
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The Supercenter is expected to open in late 2007 on a 25-acre site in the Water View Business Park. The store will have groceries, a bakery, delicatessen and departments for frozen food, meat, dairy and produce.
The Supercenter will have 36 general merchandise departments including apparel, accessories, fine jewelry, lawn and garden center, health and beauty aids and electronics. The center will be open 24 hours per day, seven days per week.
Also planned are a gas station on the northwest corner of the site, and restaurants and other services within leased space in the store.
The center will employ from 350 to 360 people in full-time and part-time positions, including about 200 employees who will move from the old store to the new store, said Rodgers.
"The community is very supportive and we have outgrown this building,'' he said. Customers will have more options, and the center will create more competition in town, he said.
Julie Idelkope, Wal-Mart's senior manager for public affairs in Minneapolis, said Wal-Mart will sell the present building.
"We usually don't begin marketing a store until we've broken ground on the current site. We're at a point now where we'll begin that process. This is a really good location, so we're very confident that we'll be able to find a good buyer and something that will also benefit the community,'' said Idelkope.
She said Wal-Mart received some offers after the new store received approvals from the city. The City Council approved the site plan in October 2005.
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"We're confident we'll have a good solution,'' she said.
Wal-Mart has 13 Sam's Club stores and 68 discount and Supercenters in Minnesota, including a 150,000-square-foot center under construction in Litchfield, and a 155,000-square-foot Supercenter under construction in Montevideo.
Idelkope was asked if west central Minnesota has sufficient customer base for three Supercenters.
"Absolutely,'' she said. "Obviously, we take a look at the customer base before we make a decision to build and to build it that size. We're very confident that this will help better serve our customers in the community, Willmar and the surrounding area.''
