Wal-Mart will add 22,000 square feet to a recently closed store in Lakewood and operate it as the state’s first “mini-supercenter.”
The plan, announced Monday, ends speculation on the fate of the recently shuttered store at West Fourth Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard.
The $4 million expansion will bring the store to 150,000 square feet. Typical Wal-Mart supercenters range from 200,000 to 250,000 square feet.
“We wouldn’t do a store of this size in a metro area if it were the sole store for the market, but we see this store as catching extra business from the other supercenter,” said Wal-Mart spokesman Keith Morris. He expects the larger store to open next spring.
Wal-Mart closed the Fourth Avenue store in March when it opened a 226,000-square-foot supercenter at West Colfax Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard.
Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart has been criticized for its strategy of closing older, smaller stores to build larger supercenters.
“One of the things people are always concerned about with big boxes (stores) is what happens to the old ones,” said Frank Gray, Lakewood’s director of community planning and development. “It was important to us that there be another use for that site.”
Wal-Mart is continuing its efforts to find tenants for other shuttered stores, including one in Thornton and another in La Junta, Morris said.
Staff writer Kristi Arellano can be reached at 303-820-1902 or karellano@denverpost.com.
