Progress continues on new stores
By Bonnie Edwards
Published in News on January 29, 2007 1:47 PM
Wal-Mart officials expect to open a new store in Mount Olive this spring, with the new Goldsboro location following in early 2008.
Crews are getting ready to pave the parking lot at the store in Mount Olive, and Mount Olive Town Manager Charles Brown said some road-widening should be going on this week.
Progress on the building on N.C. 55 has been rapid ever since land preparation began last summer.
Brown said April 23 is the projected completion date at the Mount Olive store.
"I expect it will take another 30 days to get stocked and open," he said. "There's not much left to be done to the building."
Melissa O'Brien, a spokesperson in the Wal-Mart Corporate Communications office in Bentonville, Ark., said the 153,000- square-foot store in Mount Olive store should open in May or June.
She described the Mount Olive store as one of the company's new-style super centers, "with some new looks and designs."
Tara Stewart, the company's senior public affairs manager for North and South Carolina, said the architect's rendering of the front of the Goldsboro store has been released. She also has requested a rendering for the Mount Olive store.
Preliminary work is proceeding at the site of the Wal-Mart at Rosewood, west of Goldsboro. That store is expected to include more than 200,000 square feet of floor space.
City of Goldsboro officials approved the stormwater plan last week for the store, and assistant planning director James Rowe said he expects the company to have a building permit sometime in the next week or so.
"They're in the process of getting the detailed plans approved so they can get a building permit," he said. "The site plan is being revised to make sure everything is OK."