Celina Daily Standard’s “Former Wal-Mart Still Awaiting Tenants” hits home in Delaware, Ohio.
Delaware City Council recently rejected a bid by Wal-Mart to build another megacenter on the city’s south side - at the intersection of U.S. 23 and Cheshire Road - only about one mile from the current Wal-Mart store. According to the Daily Standard, Ohio ranks second in the nation in the number of abandoned - or soon to be abandoned - Wal-Mart stores. Texas has 32, Ohio 20, and North Carolina is third with 19.
“I know people see empty buildings and it looks bad but you have to remember it’s in our own best interest to fill them, to get traffic in the area. We’re open to do any deal that makes sense, whether it’s with a competitor, a local company, whomever,” company spokesman Kevin Thornton said.
Marysville, only 15 minutes to Delaware’s west, is experiencing a similar problem. They have a beautiful new Wal-Mart located just off U.S. 33 and with a large Home Depot. It is less than a mile from the old Wal-Mart in large retail development. And the view couldn’t be anymore different. While the area around the new Wal-Mart is booming, the strip mall that Wal-Mart used to call home sits nearly vacant.
And while Thornton says that Wal-Mart is looking for anyone to take over the property, a 2004 Wall Street Journal article painted a different picture.
“Wal-Mart clearly says up front, ‘We don’t want anyone in the buildings with a competing use,” says Suzanne Chen of Retail Realty Group of Tampa, Fla., which specializes in big-boxes. “Sometimes they would rather sit with a vacant building than budge on letting a competitor in it.”
So with a Kroger already located on the south-side, what other retail store would be interested in going into the current location on the city’s south side? The options are very limited.
Especially if the east-side secures Delaware’s support for retail development and suddenly our lovely Ohio city becomes victim of “retail-sprawl” and watches as real estate prices fall.
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