JARRELL, Texas (KXAN) — Walmart plans to build a store in Jarrell, a city that has recently attracted significant investment interest.
The location of the potential Walmart would be on southeast corner of the Hugh Smith Lane and FB Schwertner Road intersection, and it would become the first major grocery store in the city.
In a Oct. 14 Jarrell City Council meeting, a Walmart representative said the project would be a $70,000,000 investment, and at the opening of the store they would have more than 300 associates.
“When we see these big types of retailers come into a community like this, it often spurs additional growth,” said Matt Patton, Executive Vice President of Angelou Economics. “Retailer operators understand that they’re going to drive traffic to these spaces so they can open up their own, retail operations with a certain degree of confidence that it’s going to, positively benefit them as well.”
Patton drew comparisons to how Walmart built a store in Castroville, a suburban city to San Antonio.
“That has spurred growth where we’re starting to see [stores] like Ulta and Burlington following suit,” Patton said. “It’s very plausible for us to see that entire I-35 corridor from Waco to Austin filling in.”
How the community feels
“I’m not a fanatic about Walmart — I’m more neutral. What I do is I go all the way to HEB in Georgetown and get my food, ” said Sandra Gutierrez, who lives in Jarrell. “If I want to invest in Jarrell, I do try to visit local shops, local groceries.”
“It’s already a traffic nightmare, and to add Walmart in there with the heavy trucks and the everyday traffic is not conducive to our city, said Rusty Bryson, another resident in Jarrell. “One of the things we strive to do in Jarrell is to keep the hometown feel.”
“I am pro for Walmart to come in because of the just the mass jobs that they’ll have. And speaking to them, they’ve been very open to child pedestrian traffic and they’ve been open to all the ideas,” said Jarrell Place Five Alderman Daniel Islas.
“When you get a big project like Walmart, it’s going to attract a lot of other businesses in the area, so we’re expecting that growth to happen pretty quickly,” said Jarrell Mayor Patrick Sherek. “On the city side, we just want to make sure that we have the resources, to allow that growth to happen when it comes to water and wastewater.”
In a statement to KXAN, Walmart said:
We are grateful for the positive progress at [October 14th’s] Jarrell City Council meeting, and we look forward to continuing conversations as we look to bring a Walmart Supercenter of the future to Jarrell and help local residents save time and money and live better.
Ivan Jaime, Walmart Director of Government Affairs
In the council meeting, an agenda item passed to voluntarily annex a 0.548-acre tract of land that the Walmart would be built on into Jarrell, officially bringing it under city jurisdiction. Other items on the agenda related to the Walmart, such as zoning changes, development agreements and release of right-of-way were tabled for a future meeting.
Credit: Source link
