Wal-Mart buys land in Windsor; developers plan to break ground next month

After a divided town board and two resident groups on opposite sides of the fence, Windsor will get a Wal-Mart after all.

Jeff Kaplinski, director of operations for Windsor Land Co., which owns 56 acres of land between 15th and 17th streets west of King Soopers along Colo. 392, confirmed that Wal-Mart closed on some of that land Monday. That purchase includes two lots the big-box retailer has had its eye on for nearly three years.

"We will be putting a Wal-Mart in there," Kaplinski said Monday in a phone interview. "We will probably break ground in January on (street) and other land improvements."

The big boost to commercial tax revenue was long overdue, many in the community said.

"It's a great thing," said Michal Connors with the Windsor Chamber of Commerce. "As we all know, it's instant revenue for the town. But other businesses tend to follow Wal-Mart as well. This is a good step toward keeping our tax dollars in town."

But how long before the company breaks ground on the building is unknown.

Josh Phair, a spokesman for Wal-Mart's Colorado, Wyoming and Montana locations, said by telephone that although he's hopeful it will be months and not years, the company is analyzing each project individually. The company cut back capital construction earlier this year.

"We're going through and recalibrating the timelines right now," Phair said. "There are no hard timelines on any of the stores planned right now."

That includes the announced Timnath location, where "coming soon" signs went up in the past couple of months. Timnath officials have planned on a spring ground breaking.

The land purchase brings closure to a long-fought battle between residents and town politicians.

In fall 2004, the Windsor Town Board rejected rezoning the same parcel of land to accommodate Wal-Mart.

Residents formed the group "Windsor against the Wall," which raised concerns with the location, citing fears about increased traffic near Grandview Elementary School and the impact on locally owned businesses.

But a subsequent election, spearheaded by another group known as the "Windsor Association for Economic Responsibility," passed the rezoning by three votes.

In July 2004, it appeared the debate was over when Wal-Mart announced it would move its site to Timnath.

But Wal-Mart revived its push for Windsor in May when it filed site plans with the Windsor planning department. The effort didn't seem to derail Timnath officials, as Mayor Donna Benson said the plans were still in place to break ground in the summer.

Summer came and went. Now, such plans are pushed into next year.

"Everything is on schedule for breaking ground in early '08," said Becky Davidson, Timnath town manager, adding that it could be in February or March.

Although speculation has been all along that Wal-Mart would not locate in two locations only seven miles apart, Phair confirmed Monday that the company is still looking at Timnath.

"It is still definitely on our list as a site," he said.

Windsor Mayor Pro-tem Mark Weeks said it's been a long process to get the retail giant into town, but now he's curious to see what happens with the two stores so close together.

"This is what the citizens wanted based on the referendum to rezone the area," he said. "I did not want to believe Wal-Mart would continue on this path based on the decisions it made in Timnath, so I'll be curious to see how this all plays out."

Windsor verses Timnath

The race is on.

Will Windsor residents be driving seven miles or seven blocks to the nearest Wal-Mart? With Wal-Mart planned to locate in both Windsor and Timnath, only time will tell which direction cars head in the near future.

The Timnath project has stalled once already with land improvement disagreements between the company and the town.

After Windsor residents voted to rezone the land here, Windsor Land Co. went to work on getting the right site plans passed through the planning commission, which happened earlier this year. Now, it's a use-by right, which allows Wal-Mart to move in without going back to the planning commission or the town board so long as the company doesn't make any major changes to the current site plans.

According to Windsor Town Manager Kelly Arnold, all that's left is to pull a building permit.

"It's a good first step," he said. "A lot of effort went into to getting to this closing. Officially, Wal-Mart will be the owner of that property. Once they file the paperwork, we'll start to work on a timeline to get a building permit (issued). After that, I'm told it's usually nine months to a year before they open."

-- Sherrie Peif