Developers unveil Walmart details
By DIANA SROKA - dsroka@nwherald.com
JOHNSBURG – About 180 jobs will be created if a proposed Walmart store is built in Johnsburg.
That’s just one of the perks of closing the McHenry Walmart and building a new, expanded Wal-Mart Supercenter about a mile north in Johnsburg, developers said at a village meeting Tuesday night.
“The McHenry facility is too small for us to add a grocery facility,” said Steve Patterson, a zoning attorney working on the project. “This is intended as a replacement for the McHenry store.”
The new store, to be on the southwest side of the intersection of Route 31 and Running Brook Farm Boulevard, would offer a full selection of groceries, two lanes of drive-thru pharmacy, the usual general merchandise, and an auto store. While customers will be able to buy car parts such as batteries, there won’t be a Tire and Lube Express auto repair center.
Developers want to buy 63 acres, and will build the Walmart on 22 of those acres. The other space will accommodate an 861-car parking lot and space for other retail development.
The store itself will be 182,000 square-feet and be modeled off Walmart’s new, rounder architectural look.
“This is anything but a basic Walmart,” said Richard Hayes, an architect working on the project. “This is not a gray and blue box.”
Developers unveiled details of their plan to build the retail king at a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting Tuesday night.
Commission member Scott Letzter asked about the number of jobs that would be added.
The developers responded that about 300 will be transferred from the McHenry store, in addition to the 180 that would be created by adding a grocery facility to the store.
Other residents asked about increased traffic from expanding Route 31 to five lanes, and whether the lights from the 24-hour store would be on during the night.
The store could be open as early as 2010.
