EVERETT – Wal-Mart hopes to begin building its first discount store in Everett by spring after purchasing more than 22 acres of land along Highway 99.
The city of Everett has received applications for building permits from the retail chain, which wants to build a 149,000-square-foot store, planner Allan Giffen confirmed Thursday.
That’s the size of a standard Wal-Mart, not a supercenter that also sells groceries such as the one on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. A Wal-Mart spokesman could not be reached for more details about the new store.
Nathan Chapman of Marysville’s Towne or Country Real Estate, which represented two of the four property owners who sold to Wal-Mart, said the new store will face south and will be accessible from 112th Street SW and Highway 99.
Two smaller retail structures also are proposed for the site.
Chapman and Giffen added that, as a condition of the land-use permit, Wal-Mart plans to uncover and redirect a stream on the property that has flowed through a covered culvert since at least the 1960s.
Speculation about Wal-Mart’s interest in south Everett began in 2003 after someone put down earnest money on the acreage along Highway 99, which includes land occupied by Home Place Mobile Home Park, Chuck’s Chevron &Service Center and a Pull A Part auto yard. The Chevron station will remain.
The mobile home park won’t, however. Last spring, several residents of the park, which was home to many retirees and a large number of immigrant families, complained that buyouts offered to them for moving were not adequate. Many of their homes were single-wide trailers, which aren’t readily accepted at more modern mobile home parks.
Since then, many residents have come to individual settlements with the developer’s representatives, said Anne Byrd, one of the last residents in the park.
She said just three trailers remain occupied on the property. Her family has to move out by Monday afternoon, though they don’t have a permanent place to stay yet.
She said at least one of the remaining residents is trying to hold out against the new owners.
“It’s really sad,” Byrd said of the park’s closure.
The price paid by Wal-Mart for the 22 acres was not revealed. Chapman said the land held by the sellers his firm represented had an assessed value of $6.5 million.
In addition to the Tulalip store, Wal-Mart has store on 164th Street SW between Lynnwood and Mill Creek. The company reportedly has been looking at other potential development sites in the south half of Snohomish County.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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