Is it a Neiman Marcus? Or is it a Walmart?

For the better part of the last six months there has been an ongoing battle between a Homeowners association, the City of Austin and Walmarts. I previously did a posting concerning it.

http://www.walmart-northcross.com/

The Homeowners Assoc. has complained about what it would look like, How big it was going to be, parking and Traffic.

Well as you can seeWalmarts has designed the most modern looking Walmart store you will find anywhere in the country. It looks more like a High End department store than it does a Walmart. They have also agreed to shrink the original plans of 225,000 square feet to 219,000 square feet. They have aslo come up with a plan to lessen traffic at certain hours by closing between the hours of 1:00AM & 5:00AM. No RV's will be allowed to park there and delivery trucks will be kept out of the neighborhoods.

Personally I think the Homeowners association is crazy! This super store is going to bring over 500 new jobs into the area, and it is becoming the Anchor to a old mall that has had troubles keeping stores and shoppers over the last few years. This is a huge opportunity for Austin and this specific area of town including the homeowners. The new design was introduced yesterday and some of the homeowners complaining have come around and agreed that it will be a nice place to shop. However there are still some die-hards that I don't think no matter what will ever agree. They just plain don't want Walmart there no matter what.

My experience tells me that one new job created in return creates three more new jobs in the chain. So with the addition of 500 new jobs in this store, there should be 1,500 other new jobs created somewhere else to support them. Personally I won't to welcome Walmarts!

http://www.news8austin.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=182940

Here is a previous posting of mine on this subject:

Neighborhood Group Calls for Walmart Boycott

3/6/07 Northcross Wal-Mart lays out plan for compromise 3/5/07 Wal-Mart to hold talk-back with residents 2/21/07 Northcross Wal-Mart players meet behind closed doors 2/16/07 Council approves code change for 'big box' retail 2/15/07 Council approves legal advice fees for Wal-Mart conflict 2/13/07 Wal-Mart, developers, Northcross community to meet 2/10/07 Neighbors join hands to fight Wal-Mart 2/1/07 Neighborhood group calls for Wal-Mart boycott 1/15/07 Neighbors surveyed about Northcross Wal-Mart 1/5/07 Lawsuit will try to stop Northcross Wal-Mart 12/15/06 Council takes no action on Super Wal-Mart 12/13/06 Wal-Mart development delayed for 60 days 12/12/06 Neighbors say Wal-Mart will force them to move out 12/11/06 Neighbors present Wal-Mart petition to City Hall 12/1/06 Austin City Council weighs in on Wal-Mart 11/29/06 Controversy surrounds new Austin Wal-Mart

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/

dsmith93@AvalarAREA.com

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