Wal-Mart to build store in Monroe

Published 8:35 pm Wednesday, December 22, 2010

MONROE — The financially ailing city that didn’t want a Wal-Mart in town last year when it could have made $9.6 million on the deal is now welcoming the nation’s largest retailer with open arms.

Wal-Mart on Wednesday announced it will be building a store at the North Kelsey street site, land the City Council last year refused to sell to a developer partly because of concerns that Wal-Mart might build there. The announcement comes one week after the city sold the land to the same developer for $7.5 million.

“Wal-Mart not only gives economic opportunity but a chance for consumers to save,” said Tiffany Moffat, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman. The store will create about 300 jobs and provide sales tax revenue for the city, she said.

Despite the City Council putting the kibosh on Wal-Mart last year, rumors that the deal wasn’t yet dead floated around the city of 17,000.

All year long there were people telephoning the Monroe Chamber of Commerce to ask whether jobs would be available at a new Wal-Mart, said Kim Probst, the Chamber’s general manager.

Wal-Mart will attract people from the whole Sky Valley area. She said she doesn’t know how other businesses will be affected, but she hopes the store will help support the chamber and local charities like the Sky Valley Food Bank.

Sabey Corp., the Seattle-based real estate development firm that bought the land, could not be reached for comment.

Wal-Mart will be located on 24 acres at the north side of the intersection of Chain Lake Road and North Kelsey Street. The city needed to sell the property to help pay off the $11.3 million debt it has on another chunk of nearby land that it bought from the county in 2005.

As part of the land sale, Monroe also will pay $600,000 of an estimated $2.1 million in environmental studies on the site.

Monroe recently approved its nearly $10 million 2011 budget. That included cuts in the police department, training in all departments, and the loss of five jobs. Two police officer positions were eliminated from the budget, and the city’s total work force decreased to 107 employees.

Having a big store could help the city’s tax base, Councilman John Stima said.

In addition, “I hope it will help us sell the rest of the property and closer to be a debt-free city,” he said.

Last year, Stima said, he voted against Wal-Mart because he didn’t like the proposed design of the whole North Kelsey area.

Sabey Corp.’s first North Kelsey proposal was rejected by a 4-2 vote in October 2009. Councilman Kurt Goering voted against the proposal at that time, and sought a clause in the paperwork that would prevent Wal-Mart from building on the land.

The council approved the sale Dec. 14 with a 5-2 vote. Stima and Goering on Dec. 14 both voted in favor of selling the land to Sabey Corp., along with Council Members Margie Rodriguez, Tom Williams and Bridgette Tuttle. Council Members Tony Balk and Patsy Cudaback voted against, both saying the city was giving too much away in order to make the deal.

Alejandro Dominguez: 425-339-3422; adominguez@heraldnet.com.