Huntsville-area residents will have a new reason to stay closer to home for shopping with a new Wal-Mart Supercenter opening next week.
“It’s going to certainly be a big benefit,” Huntsville resident Marion Snyder said. “More of our local people will have the opportunity to shop at a supercenter where they’ve had to leave the area to go to Fayetteville or Berryville. They’ll do more of their overall shopping locally.”
The new supercenter is set to open Wednesday on U.S. 412 on the north end of Huntsville, spokesman Erica Jones said. The retailer will close its Discount Store at 121 Lee St. near downtown Huntsville and move all operations to the new store.
The new store will employ about 200 full-time and parttime workers, with more than half of them coming from the old store.
The new store also has made about 85 new hires, she said.
More businesses are expected to open on U.S. 412, including two bank branches.
City, community and business leaders have long anticipated a new supercenter would open on the city’s north side. At the same time, they have worked to spruce up downtown and organize events that draw traffic into the center of the city.
Snyder drives 70 miles round trip about once a week to visit supercenters in Fayetteville and Berryville to purchase certain foods she isn’t able to buy in Huntsville, she said. While Snyder said she prefers to spend her money in Madison County, she said the trips to supercenters sometimes include visits to other nearby stores.
“It will help me a lot personally,” she said of the new store. “It’s a blessing to our area.”
Mayor Kevin Hatfield anticipates the new store will generate more sales-tax revenue for the city, though he doesn’t know how much to expect, he said.
“It’s going to have a major impact,” Hatfield said. “There’s going to be a lot of traffic out there.”
Store officials plan an event from noon to 3 p.m. Oct. 18 to celebrate the opening.
The retail development has followed a 5-mile expansion of U.S. 412. The roadway was widened from two lanes to four lanes between Hindsville and Huntsville, a $23.3 million project that began in November 2010 and wrapped up Sept. 29.
With the widening, vacant stretches of land along U.S. 412 seemed ripe for potential growth, Hatfield has said. City leaders spent more than a year encouraging landowners along the highway to annex voluntarily into the city so that the future development would be within the city limits.
Voters last year approved increasing the city sales tax from 1 percent to 2 percent to pay for more than $7 million in city projects, the largest of which was to extend water and sewer lines to property along U.S. 412 to encourage economic development.
City officials also are working to draw traffic downtown. Efforts include designating the city’s downtown as Polk Square and the addition of new sidewalks, lighting and landscaping. A new Main Street Memorial Park features a fountain.
“The downtown needs to become a destination,” Hatfield said. “We needed to make downtown a more attractive place to come.”
Events organized by the community, including Huntsville C.A.R.E.S ( culture, arts, recreation, entertainment and society) promote the downtown area, said David Pemberton, president of the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce.
The culture and arts group plans monthly events from May through September, including movie nights on the square, said Derek Hughes, the group’s president, who lives near Clifty and operates Crossroads Computer Services. The movie nights bring about 100 to 120 people downtown.
Pemberton said business development will continue on U.S. 412. Arvest Bank and Cornerstone Bank in Eureka Springs have announced plans to build there, he said.
The new supercenter will offer more shopping options for Madison County residents, will help with salestax revenue and provide more jobs, Pemberton said.
“They had enough confidence in our community and growth in our community that they felt like it deserved the investment,” Pemberton said. “It should spur some more interest out there as far as retail growth.”