Walmart announced plans to build a supercenter on Elm Springs road just on the west side of I-540.
“What we really saw was a greater need for convenience for a full Supercenter assortment on the west side of Springdale, it`s not very convenient for customers on the North and West side of the market to get our Springdale Supercenter,” said Walmart Vice President of Real Estate, Brian Hooper. “It will be the first supercenter we have built in about 7 years in Northwest Arkansas.”
The store will bring in hundreds of jobs to the area.
“300 to 350 jobs is huge for anybody and certainly in the economy we are thankful that more people are going to be able to come to work,” said Springdale Mayor Doug Sprouse. “It will not only be a great boost to our sales tax revenue and future development that follows this but it`s also a boost I think to the attitude to the folks of Springdale.”.
Sprouse says it will have a big economic impact in the area with plans for more development in the area.
“We`re just not talking about a Walmart here, you don`t see very many Walmart’s sitting out by themselves and there will be other developments that will follow, and with the additional infrastructure that the city has planned,” explained Sprouse.
State Representative Charlie Collins says it’s in a location that will benefit all of Northwest Arkansas.
“It will also be set up to be the anchor for a retail shopping area that will continue to help this area grow and I`m just really excited about,” said Collins. “This area being centrally located within Northwest Arkansas draws from all the area, I envision people from my area of Fayetteville being able to apply here for jobs if they are interested.”
At 185,000 square feet, the store is biggest-size supercenter that Walmart builds right now.
The store will also have energy efficient technology.
“Including LED lighting on the exterior parking lot, a lot of different things including daylight harvesting which is the sky lights automatically dimming the lights in the store when its bright outside,” said Hooper.
Construction is expected to start in the spring or summer of next year, with the store expected to open in fall of 2014.