Wal-Mart to to build in Blair

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:26 pm

Wal-Mart sees Blair location as opportunity

Omaha World Herald wrote:The nation's largest retailer hopes to put a Wal-Mart Supercenter near the Woodhouse auto dealership in this growing city north of Omaha. The proposed Wal-Mart store would probably go north of the Nebraska Highway 133 and U.S. Highway 30 interchange, said Phil Green, assistant city administrator for Blair.

Not everyone in Blair is expected to embrace plans for a Wal-Mart, Green said. During the past week, Green said he's spoken to a few downtown merchants who fear that a Wal-Mart store may cripple their businesses. Doug Cunningham, director of the Hometown Merchants Association in Lincoln, will host a community meeting at 7 p.m. today at the Blair fire hall. He plans to present research indicating that a Wal-Mart hurts small-town businesses in the long run.

In recent years, Wal-Mart stores have opened in other small cities across Nebraska including York, Seward and Nebraska City. In 2006, Plattsmouth approved a project there, but Wal-Mart pulled the plug on the site before construction.

Raraavis · Post by **Raraavis** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 10:05 am

I believe Wal-Mart tried this before and failed. There are powerful business interest (aka Hunt family) that run Blair who don't want this kind of development. I think Wal-Mart would be better off building about 8 miles east in Missouri Valley, Iowa along I-29. They would still get all of Blair's money but it would be a friendlier area for this kind of development.

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 10:36 am

I-29 and Hwy 30 would be a good location for Wal-Mart, but they are looking at the piece of land just North of Woodhouse on the East side of 30. It was originally zoned for mixed use for a project that I think fell through. I don't even know if the Hunts could convince the City Council about this. They think it is inevitable - at least this is what I hear from one Council member.

Raraavis · Post by **Raraavis** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 1:36 pm

I believe the current Mayor is employed at Huntel (by the Hunts), I know the last mayor was employed by them as well. Blair needs it but I don't think it will happen.

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Wed May 30, 2007 11:27 pm

The stakes were laid on the Wal-Mart property in Blair the other day. They will need major dirt moving to level the land. So they bought the farm south of this to move it there. They will need a huge retaining wall to make this happen.

On the other hand Walgreens is also building in Blair.

Hellenistic Kshatriya · Thu May 31, 2007 1:36 am

My dad is the assistant city administrator mentioned in that article.

Last I heard everything was going ahead as planned. I know Olsson Associates is doing the design work and I heard there was some doubt as to if the land was gonna be ready as soon as they were hoping.

From what I've heard Blair has been growing and the future is quite bright. I believe they will be building a 2nd elementary school soon.

a42887 · Post by **a42887** » Thu May 31, 2007 3:24 pm

So you do exist, lol.

Any idea when it is to open?

Hellenistic Kshatriya · Thu May 31, 2007 7:25 pm

I'd say Fall 08... but I haven't heard an update on progress lately other than they had a big meeting a couple days ago.

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 1:38 pm

Gateway head: Wal-Mart done deal

Pilot-Tribune wrote:Gateway Development Corp. executive director, Paula Hazlewood, told both the Washington County Board of Supervisors and the Blair City Council at meetings on Tuesday, June 26, that she expects an official announcement of Wal-Mart's plans to build in Blair very soon. Hazlewood said other businesses, including a dry cleaner, coffee shop and shoe store have all expressed interest in Hayden Place.

Four new manufacturing companies have also expressed interest in Blair, including two wind generation companies, as well as agriculture and pharmaceutical companies. In addition to the business activity, a delegation from Gateway plans to travel to Washington, D.C., in the near future to lobby Congress for funds to complete the proposed highway bypass to divert truck traffic away from downtown Blair.

If this is coming from Gateway it must now be as official as it gets.

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 1:42 pm

Well - it looks like the inevitable will finally happen:

Wal-Mart will likely come to Blair with planning commission vote

JOHN FERAK WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER wrote:This summer, the Hayden Place development may finally take off. If so, expect a formal announcement of a Wal-Mart Supercenter and the names of other retail businesses to follow, local officials say. The City Planning Commission will vote Tuesday on whether to increase the number of commercial-zoned lots at Hayden Place from eight to 10.

In 2007, the nation's largest retailer delayed plans to build numerous new stores across the country, including in Blair, because of the nation's economic slowdown, Horn said. However, he thinks Wal-Mart is ready to move ahead with several new retail stores. "I think Blair is looking pretty good," Horn said. "It's just a great town, and I think it's pretty optimistic right now that it's a site that we would like to go forward (with) fairly quickly."

Last week, Novozymes, a biotech company based in Denmark, announced that it would build an $80 million to $100 million processing plant just south of Blair and hire about 100 people to run it. In November, Northstar Wind Towers announced plans to build a $25 million plant and corporate office in Blair. That company plans to start production in 2009 with up to 100 manufacturing jobs.

Besides bringing a Wal-Mart, Berg said, the other retail space at Hayden Place would include a restaurant, a coffeehouse, a specialty foods store, banks, a dry cleaner, salons and health care businesses. Berg said she's also planning to construct a 150-lot subdivision of single-family homes and apartments on land directly south of Hayden Place. She also wants to put a hotel at Hayden Place, but so far no contract has been reached with any of the national chains.

The OWH's map is incorrect in this article. The Ridgeview Center is on the east side of 133 not the west and the Northstar Wind Towers isn't even close - it is east of 75 along the railroad tracks north of Cargill - and Walgreens does not block 75 to the north - in fact they just paved 75 to go to Front St. and for that matter - Novozymes is not along the river it will be west of the Cargill campus.

Post by **Brad** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:40 pm

If you want to talk about Walmart's business practices, continue that over here:

http://eomahaforums.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=7950

Post by **Brad** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 7:45 pm

From another Wal-Mart article

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1 ... d=10554679

STEVE JORDON WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER wrote:The company is following what he called a moderate growth rate. A planned Wal-Mart store along Highway 30 in Blair also would open in 2011, he said.

Allan_Love_Jr · Post by **Allan_Love_Jr** » Tue Mar 30, 2010 6:31 pm

It's official: Wal-Mart buys land in Blair.
http://www.enterprisepub.com/main.asp?S ... leID=17181

Post by **Brad** » Mon Aug 15, 2011 2:55 pm

It looked like1/2 the walls up yesterday when I went by.

cp jay 07 · Post by **cp jay 07** » Tue Aug 16, 2011 11:05 am

The students at Dana are going to LOVE this!

Post by **Brad** » Tue Aug 16, 2011 11:06 am

cp jay 07 wrote:The students at Dana are going to LOVE this!

Sarcasm or did you miss that news?

OmahaJaysCU · Post by **OmahaJaysCU** » Tue Aug 16, 2011 5:24 pm

Brad wrote:
cp jay 07 wrote:The students at Dana are going to LOVE this!
Sarcasm or did you miss that news?

Especially Dana baseball players.

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Tue Aug 16, 2011 5:26 pm

You do realize that Dana closed down a while back.

OmahaJaysCU · Post by **OmahaJaysCU** » Tue Aug 16, 2011 5:28 pm

Coyote wrote:You do realize that Dana closed down a while back.

CP Jay went to Dana and was actually enrolled in a summer session class when it closed... :lol:

cp jay 07 · Post by **cp jay 07** » Tue Aug 16, 2011 11:47 pm

OmahaJaysCU wrote:
Brad wrote:
cp jay 07 wrote:The students at Dana are going to LOVE this!
Sarcasm or did you miss that news?
Especially Dana baseball players.

No more late night team trips to the one on Irvington.

And you can make Dana jokes if they screwed you out of your senior year of college and sent you to a college, cough, Midland, cough, that is as poorly run as Dana was.