Cliff Buchan
News Editor

As a big box retailer, they don’t get much bigger than Forest Lake’s Wal-Mart. But the store in Forest Lake is about to get bigger — much bigger.

City of Forest Lake planning officials have approved the first round of documents that will pave the way for the addition of nearly 50,000 square feet at Wal-Mart, 200 SW 12th St., that will transform the current store to a Wal-Mart SuperCenter.

When the expansion project is completed by September of 2008, the retailer will span 179,373 square feet and make the store a full fledged grocery retailer. The existing Wal-Mart covers 129,760 square feet of space.

Duane Nelson, store manager, said if the next planning steps fall in place as expected, construction could be underway by late-summer. Along with the new space, a major update of the existing store is also part of the plan, Nelson said.

The Forest Lake City Planning Commission gave its blessing to the site expansion plan and preliminary plat at its meeting on Wednesday, March 28. Those approvals are to go to the Forest Lake City Council next Monday.

Doug Borglund, community development director for the city, said the final step before the issuance of a building permit is approval of the final plat. He said that approval is expected to follow in short order.

“It’s pretty straight forward,” Borglund said of the expansion plan. “It meets zoning regulations.”

The plan

Nelson said the expansion has been in the review process for some time. “We’ve been looking at sites for two to three years,” Nelson said.

The site search included land west of Menards on the west side of Forest Lake, land owned by the city near the community center on the south side of town and land near Gander Mountain in Columbus.

“The most difficult thing was finding a piece (of land) big enough to do it,” Nelson said. In the end, he said, the existing store site with its “prime location right off the freeway” was the preferred site of choice, he added.

A key step, he said, was Wal-Mart’s ability to buy the Gold Dusters property to the west of the store. The building will be demolished to provide space for employee parking, Nelson said. The Gold Dusters purchase agreement is contingent upon approval of Wal-Mart’s replat and site plan review.

The expansion for the SuperCenter will come on the north and northwest corners of the building.

Under the plan concept, the new square footage will be used to accommodate the grocery store. The SuperCenter will offer a full range of groceries including produce, a meat department, dairy, produce and a deli, Nelson said.

The Wal-Mart goal, Nelson said, is to provide more convenience and competitive pricing to shoppers.

When the project is completed, three main store entrances will be offered. The grocery store on the north end will have one. The main Wal-Mart entrance will shift south from its current location and the expanded Garden Center will have an entrance that faces the main parking area to the east.

A new and straightened drive will connect the parking lot to SW 12th Street. Major improvements to the parking lot are planned with space for nearly 900 vehicles to be offered.

The interior and exterior of the existing store, Nelson said, will also see major improvements. Major interior remodeling is planned with wider aisles and new department locations.

“The entire interior will be redone,” Nelson said. “It will be dressed up pretty good.”

The move is the first major improvement project since Wal-Mart opened in Forest Lake in 1995.

Nelson said the current work force of 320 full and part-time associates will grow to about 420 when the SuperCenter project is completed.

Improvement and expansion costs were not released.

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