Thursday, April 9, 2015

Wal-Mart opening new location in Rockland Key (4 miles East of Key West)

Anthony Cave at the Florida Keys Keynoter reports on a Wal-Mart opening in Monroe County. [It's not mentioned in the article but the real challenge will be finding the 250 to 300 people to work there who can pass a drug test.] Here is an excerpt from the article by Anthony Cave:
     The Wal-Mart plan is part of the larger proposed 33-acre shopping center on Rockland that would need 1,258 parking spaces. The developers say the shopping center would need around 600 workers.
     Key West land-use consultant Owen Trepanier, who represents developer Rockland Investment Corp., said Wal-Mart will be the "anchor tenant" for the shopping center, which will include about 18 other stores.
     Rockland Investment Corp., which represents several property owners on the Lower Keys island, filed its first site plan with Monroe County in November. Belaire confirmed at the luncheon that Wal-Mart signed a letter of intent with lead developer David Garfunkel of Savannah, Ga.
     During Wednesday's talk, she touted the proposed store as being a "smaller-sized footprint supercenter" estimated at about 123,000 square feet with a completion date of 2017. She said store would employ between 250 and 300 people.
In the image below from Google Maps you can see where Rockland Key is, due east from Stock Island and Key West: