That’s the first thing that popped into my head upon seeing that Wal-Mart is looking to sell its 26-acre Marvin lot for $8 million. Folks out there pitched a fit about a Wal-Mart going in at Rea and Tom Short, got local officials to block it, and Wal-Mart does not want to waste money on a court battle to overturn that ruling.
Longtime Charlotte residents will recall how Raintree residents had their opposition to the Arboretum blow up in their faces in the late 80s. Too often neighboring subdivisions say they oppose a certain development at a site when in reality they opposed all development. But short of buying the land in question, that is not an option. Recall from 1989:
Wal-Mart is putting its second vendor store in a new shopping center, The Arboretum, being built next to a posh residential and golf complex here called Raintree Village.
Developers originally were negotiating to put in a Lord & Taylor store to anchor the 600,000-square-foot mall located in the most affluent section of south Charlotte on Highway 51. When the attempt fell through, the developers turned to Wal-Mart, much to the consternation of some residents who had been counting on a tony department store for their district, rather than discount city.
If an Everything $1 and a Rent-A-Center land at a strip center on the corner of Rea and Tom Short, that’s karma working big time.
