PORT ANGELES — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has filed for a demolition permit of the site on which it hopes to build a larger store and add a supermarket, possibly next year.
The permit on the former Kmart site off U.S. Highway 101 at North Masters Road hasn’t yet been granted, but Clallam County is working with Wal-Mart on the issue, Steve Gray, Clallam County planning manager, said Tuesday.
“We haven’t yet seen the building permit, but they have filed the demolition permit [for the Kmart store],” he said.
“We are working with them on a few conditions of the permits.”
Kmart closed its store in early 1998. Wal-Mart continues to operate a store across the street at 3500 E. U.S. Highway 101 that the company will close when the larger store is built.
Kari Anne Fallow, Wal-Mart spokeswoman, said once all the permits are granted, construction will take between 10 and 12 months.
“We are definitely looking at sometime in 2010,” she said.
The process had slowed since the construction of a sewer project in 2007, following by the recession.
“I think the process ebbs and flows,” Fallow said.
“We have definitely been working for a long time to better serve our customers out there.
“We are very anxious to move forward.”
The city of Port Angeles will extend sewer service to the new construction, said Yvonne Ziomkowski, city director of finance, through the new line installed in 2007 and 2008.
Because the site is not within the city limit, the city and county agreed to split any increase in sales taxes in half once the Wal-Mart Supercenter is up and running.
“We worked out that agreement so we could have the most attractive situation for the city and the county and the business,” she said.
“We, of course, won’t be charging them an extra surcharge but just what those who are in the city limits pay.”
Annexation pact
The city also has agreed not to annex the land along the U.S. 101 corridor between the existing city limit at DelGuzzi Drive and Masters Road until after 2015.
City Manager Kent Myers told the Port Angeles Business Association on Tuesday that he had heard completion of the Wal-Mart project could occur in the middle to end of next year.
“This project has a lot of tax potential for the city and the county,” Myers said.
“The redevelopment of that property will be a great thing. They want it open by the middle of next year.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
