Wal-Mart given green light for east Springfield store

The city of Springfield gave Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) the green light to begin work on a Neighborhood Market store in east Springfield.

Chris Straw, director of the city's department of building development services, said Wal-Mart has been granted a land disturbance permit, which gives the Bentonville, Ark.-based company permission to prepare the site - including moving dirt - before starting construction on a building at 3720 E. Sunshine St.

First reported by the Springfield News-Leader, plans filed with the city call for a 42,000-square-foot Neighborhood Market store on the roughly 14-acre, Wal-Mart-owned property. The Sunshine Street and Blackman Road acreage appraised at $1.3 million this year, according to the Greene County assessors site. Wal-Mart spokeswoman Erica Jones said the company is projecting an early 2015 opening for the store, with construction likely to begin in the next couple months.

The land sits immediately adjacent to one of Wal-Mart's two Sam's Club locations in the Queen City.

Straw said the only property restriction is that a business on the site cannot close after 10 p.m. or open before 6 a.m. Jones said she wasn't aware of any plans to contest that restriction.

According to Springfield Business Journal archives, neighbors of the property have opposed plans for a Wal-Mart store at the location for about 20 years.

In recent years, Wal-Mart has grown its roughly 40,000-square-foot Neighborhood Market concept. The retailer opened four stores in Springfield since 2012, with plans for a fifth at Grand Street and Campbell Avenue on hold due to a zoning lawsuit.[[In-content Ad]]