Posted: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 12:00 am
Wal-Mart is a possibility as the anchor tenant in a proposed Albany shopping center, but so are other retailers, according to a spokesman for the developer.
Flavio Volpe made that comment today. He speaks for SmartCentres, the Canadian company planning to develop a 25-acre shipping center site at the southwest corner of Santiam Highway and Goldfish Farm Road.
A preliminary site plan shows the center with one 190,000-square-foot anchor store and four smaller ones, according to the city planners who met with the applicants last Wednesday.
Volpe said it's too early to speculate which company might occupy the anchor spot. SmartCentres does significant business with Wal-Mart, he said, but also has 55 centers anchored by other retailers.
It's too early to speculate, and the shopping center will sign up a tenant when it has a building to sign one up for, he said.
Wal-Mart tried to get established in Albany in 2004 when it filed land-use applications for a superstore off Pacific Boulevard S.E. The application died, though, when the company was unable to meet the requirements of Oregon's transportation planning rule.
The rule says that changes in comprehensive plans must not degrade the operation of intersections on nearby state highways.
When rezoning the property off Santiam Highway, the city imposed a traffic cap of no more than 800 trips during the peak hour of the day,