Wal-Mart store to open in Remington 
Posted: 5:44 pm Wed, February 24, 2010
By Robbie Whelan
Daily Record Business Writer
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to open a 93,000-square-foot big box retail location, complete with a supermarket and produce section, at 25th Street Station, a development planned for the 11-acre site of the former Anderson Automotive complex in central Baltimore.
Rhoda Washington, a Wal-Mart regional senior manager and Washington-based lobbyist for the world’s largest retailer, confirmed Wednesday that the company had committed to the site. The Walmart would be located directly on top of a 100,000-square-foot Lowe’s Home Center planned for 25th Street Station, and would be its second location in Baltimore—a Walmart opened in the waterfront industrial area of Port Covington in 2002.
“The site will do so many things, and it’s so consistent with where Baltimore is headed as far as the green movement, and trying to generate jobs,” Washington said. “This area has informed us that they want a Walmart.”
The structure will feature a 1-acre “green roof” planted with vegetation that filters storm water runoff, and according to Washington will generate 200 jobs. The developers of 25th Street Station said the whole project is expected to cost about $65 million and generate 700 to 750 permanent jobs.
Rick Walker, the Montreal-based lead developer of the project, has styled himself as a risk-taker who builds large-scale retail in depressed urban areas. Most recently, he built Rhode Island Square Shopping Center, a retail project in Northeast Washington, D.C., that includes a Giant Food supermarket, a Home Depot and an outlet of department store A.J. Wright.
“There’s certainly a trend of these larger retailers identifying something that we who live in the city have known, that there’s a need for retail services,” he said. “Their challenge is urban, and they’re rising to the challenge … Isn’t it wonderful that the people who live in Baltimore no longer have to go to suburbs for basic needs?”
Walker said Wal-Mart approached him in December, after a company-conducted survey found that 39 percent of Baltimore retail shoppers leave the city to do their shopping. The study also found that of a sample size of 500 city residents, 70 percent of them would approve of a second Walmart store within the city limits.
But community groups have criticized the plans for Walker’s development, which they say does not address the traffic that big box retail draws, does not provide adequate entrances and exits to the shopping center and presents bare, unused walls to the pedestrians walking the streets near the site, which consists of large blocks bounded by Maryland Avenue, 24th Street, 25th Street and an irregularly-shaped western edge made up of Sisson Street and a CSX rail line.
Joan Floyd, a community activist and head of the Remington Neighborhood Alliance, a nearby civic association, said she had seen plans at a presentation by the developer to the community, and that there are still unresolved issues of ingress and egress at the center, and it isn’t clear that what is planned will work. She said that the community group did not have a stance on the tenant itself, or Wal-Mart as a company.
“We’re not going to be focused on who the tenants are. We’re going to be focused on the physical details of the project, and the impact on the neighborhood,” she said. “I know for a fact that a lot of people from this neighborhood shop at Wal-Mart. They go down to Port Covington or they go up to Hunt Valley.”
Another concern, she said, was the addition of more retail space to the project than originally presented. The revised plan includes 25,000 square feet more retail space, with 13,000 square feet inside the Walmart, 10,000 square feet in a new building along Huntingdon Avenue and 2,000 square feet added to the east side of an existing Honda dealership building.
Jon M. Laria, a partner at Ballard Spahr LLC and a consultant on the project, responded Wednesday to these concerns, saying that the addition of the Walmart had allowed the developers to “take the existing site and push it up against Huntingdon [Ave.], so now you have the store right up against the street edge.” The new plan also adds 76 parking spots to the existing three-story parking garage, in order to meet zoning requirements.
The plan, which was designed by local architecture firm Kann Partners, also calls for about 160,000 square feet, or 50-60 units of housing along Maryland Avenue, in a style that reflect the neighborhood’s typical, turreted, three-story row homes, and about 16 small retail stores one the first floors of the rear of these houses.
Walker announced the project, which he is developing in conjunction with Baltimore-based developer Lawrence Cager under the name WV Urban Developments LLC, in November.
The site was for 54 years the home of Anderson GM and Honda dealerships, which are being sold by Anderson owner Bruce Mortimer. Mortimer is consolidating his operations at shops on Howard Street in Baltimore and in Hunt Valley after receiving a letter following the bankruptcy of General Motors Corp. informing him that the company would no longer be selling cars at the city location.
The 25th Street Station still needs Planned Unit Development approval from the city to go forward, and a draft of the developer’s architectural plans is set to come before a city review panel Thursday.
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Comments
I know writers rarely control their headlines, but the WalMart store is proposed for this location, but I don’t think that there’s any guarantee that it will open.
The revised plans unveiled this week falls far short of hopes for better integration with the surrounding neighborhood, better circulation, and a more urban design. Additionally, it includes a retailer that many of us have misgivings about and whose name was not mentioned previously despite very direct questions about whether they were being considered for the site.
I’m curious how UDARP will respond to the revised design, but I expect they’ll still find fault with many aspects of the plan.
As someone who lives in the area that the store is proposed, I can tell you that we do not need to “go to suburbs for basic needs” -they are all right here. The manager is kidding herself if she thinks that Baltimorians are going to buy into the idea that this development can somehow be a part of Baltimore’s green movement. A green roof will not change what is sold inside. Walmart, you are not wanted in Baltimore City. If you thought you were, then why have you been so quiet about it until now?
There’s a Target at Mondawmin Mall that is brand new and one of the better Targets I have been in, period. It’s maybe a five minute drive. Can we consider other options besides a Wal-Mart? I LOVE the Lowe’s idea though.
I’d much rather see a commercial development in that site that would bring in more businesses; preferably smaller and local. There could be a variety of businesses there that would accomplish the goal of getting retail needs into the community and Baltimore City. Wal-Mart is a cheap corporate exploitative sweatshop that cares nothing about its employees, their health, or our community; they’re just interested in profit. Most of our money that would be spent there will leave the community and Baltimore City. For the huge amount of business that would go into this store, the city and residents need to be concerned with maximizing our economy so that we can really reap the benefits. With some work, we can attract local businesses. While products might be more expensive, the benefits of our money circulating within our community, city, and state is significant, and outweighs the price of paying a little more. Further, Wal-mart sells junk; cheap appliances, sweatshop clothing, and crap food.
I can’t agree more with Baltikmore indie, it would not only destroy the neighborhood but all the local business around it, i bet the safeway would go out of business for low demand or get both out by them, i’m really scare this could happen, lots of local businesses are gonna die and everything will be a wall-mart, we need to stop this from happening, its really scary to have this giant establishment in the middle of the city, is there any meetings happening that are againts the wall-mart ? i hope so, if so can anyone tell me where that happens ?
I boycott Walmarts and shop at Giant near me and don’t see why another supermarket is needed a couple blocks from the Safeway at N. Charles and 25th Streets. As for Lowes, I love going to Waverly Ace Hardware which is a fun place to shop because not only do they always have such cool things, but I always run into folks to visit with there!
Also, ACE has been super-supportive of communities.
Putting ACE and other neighborhood hardware stores out of business does not make good business sense to me and I hope city leaders defeat these bad plans. What would I like to see in place of Lowes and Walmart? How about IKEA and Trader Joe’s, which would complement other community businesses rather than compete with them. If we are good enough to attrract national chains, let’s go for quality and diversity! How about a green car sales center and an MVA concierge service center…
I live in Hampden and I fully support putting a Walmart in Remington for several reasons: 1. the city needs the tax revenue 2. the city needs the jobs 3. this area is in drastic need of redevelopment – if we don’t put something on this spot, we’ll just have another empty lot for the next 10 years. The city and state make it very difficult for businesses to succeed and if other retailers (both small businesses and national chains) see Walmart being accepted here they may be more likely to open locations within the city. If you really want a Trader Joes or an Ikea, lobby their leadership to invest in Baltimore City. I don’t think we should demonize Walmart for wanting to invest in our community.
The Hampden Resident is correct that we need tax revenues and jobs….study after study has proven wall mart inot only creates a net loss from communities in jobs and taxes but destroys what communitieslike Hamden have spent two decades building.
Then there’s the international labor and environmental disaster Wallmart brings to developing nations.
Walmart doesn’t want to invest in our community, it wants take its wealth. ………Dennis
see: http://www.walmartsubsidywatch.org/
Hey Hampden resident, post much? You’ve posted now on City Paper, here, and the Examiner. Shill for the developer?
HampdenResident, the city only gets tax revenue if they don’t do any TIF to entice Walmart to come. The city only gets more jobs if they bring more people into the city to shop rather than build a Walmart which helps to put out of business other local stores. If you get 100 jobs and Walmart but you put locally owned shops out of business you’re not exactly helping the economy. I see what a Lowes adds to the business mix (ACE is great, but not if you need some things…) but Walmart would just duplicate Safeway, Target, and many local stores in the area. I’m not particularly anti-Walmart. Just don’t subsidize them (either with tax money or land use changes). God forbid this resembles anything close to Walker’s horrendous DC project.
A Petition has been published:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/4/no-wal-mart-in-remington
I agree with the overall sentiment here. I would be greatly saddened to see a Walmart go up here. Almost anything would be better. Walmart destroys communities and local business by transferring the true costs of goods and services to the environment and public health for which we all suffer.
In the current economic climate it’s going to be hard to get local business to invest. I will agree with Hamden Resient on this: We SHOULD lobby Trader Joes and IKEA to invest.
Is it a coincidence my little captcha to post this is “it abhorred” ???
They are talking bad about Walmart Corp, but look at all the rest. Walmart is not the only sweat-shop-it-here! I don’t excuse their bad behaviors; they are getting better with “practices”. This development will compensate for: one less cracked sidewalk/lot; a few sturdy cranes; another occupied tax paying space; a s…lew of dilapidated housing-that are no more, and another place to buy cereal for $2.98. Losing customers is not new to Safeway (a safe way to stay choked). This development may just create jobs, first and foremost…all others’ we will need to work on as the world turns. Maybe the crime rate will fall just a bit more. Don’t hate, participate in a better Baltimore. Somebody’s always crying one way or the other. I would think-not-Anderson was giving back to the community. Walmart is going to pay taxes, and create jobs. That is what the Baltimore stimulus is for….stim-u-late!!!!
The development sounds like a great idea for the community. Baltimore City residents need more choices accessible to them. And competition keeps prices down- isn’t that a good thing in this economy? People need to watch every penny they spend. Residents will benefit from affordable goods, jobs, tax revenue, the list goes on.
and what is the alternative? another vacant lot?
Get rid of the blank walls, make the entrances face the street where they belong, and get those rear-facing basement shops out on the street as well. Our streets can’t be safe and vibrant as long as they’re being designed as dead space.
The city had better consider carefully what effect a Wal-Mart will have on the neighborhood before it approves this. Saying that “it’s so consistent with where Baltimore is headed as far as the green movement” just because of a minor detail like a “green roof” is all spin…but oh, it’s a lobbyist talking! Why didn’t they quote you this time, Alex Hoffman?
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