Wal-Mart to Anchor Mixed-Use Project Near Mall

The City Council is expected to vote on the site plan for the Wal-Mart discount and grocery store at its Wednesday meeting. The Raleigh Planning Commission and city planners have recommended approving the plan.

The 210,142-square-foot store is proposed for a 27-acre site at the northeast corner of Old Wake Forest Road and Triangle Town Boulevard. It would be directly north of Poyner Place, a shopping center that includes Super Target, and would be across the intersection from the Triangle Town Center mall.

"It's a significant retail contribution for jobs and for our concept plan," Raleigh Planning Director Mitchell Silver said.

Medium-density residential development is planned next to the Wal-Mart site to give the project a mixed-use feel similar to Brier Creek in northwest Raleigh, Silver said. But he noted that more emphasis would be placed on allowing residents to walk to nearby stores.

"What we hear, comparing it to Brier Creek, is that there is residential, but it's not exactly walkable. You still have to drive from the residential to the commercial," he said. "Our desire, moving into the future, is to have the residential close by the retail, but have it more walkable."

An existing neighborhood is located off Old Wake Forest and Fox roads, behind Poyner Place, and some residents there said they would welcome having a Wal-Mart nearby.

"Sure it can work," resident Terry Thayer said. "People want to live around shopping (and) conveniences."

"A lot of our residents walk (to nearby shopping)," resident Patti Montana-Bella said. "They push their baby carriages or they pull their shopping carts. They walk over there – bad weather, good weather."