Site plans for Walmart on Lower Greenville in Dallas reveal interesting details

by Avi Adelman of Barking Dogs

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Expect lots of improvements to the old Whole Foods and Blockbuster building.

Photo by Avi Adelman

After yesterday's surprise announcement about the (pending) redevelopment of Whole Foods Lowest Greenville into Walmart Lowest Greenville, some intrepid neighbors went to the City's Building Inspection Department and pulled a whole bunch of site plans. In addition to paying big bucks for big copies, one neighbor got a parking ticket because he was in the Municipal Building so long -- when was the last time you saw anyone from Parking Enforcement write a parking ticket? Me neither (we are starting a fundraiser to pay the ticket off).

We're not sure what documents the Dallas Observer was quoting from for their story, because the city staffer told us we were the first ones to ask for these site plans.

BD and others have done a cursory review of nearly 15 site plan pages, out of more than 130 pages. We'll have a final review sometime next week and post all the information.

The documents were filed (in November) by the property address (2218 Greenville) and not by the name of the business. That's how it was kept off the radar of neighborhood folks watching the parking lot.

Way down around page 120, you find a site plan for the building facade, and over in the bottom corner, oops, there it is: the infamous Walmart logo (pictured above).

Some other interesting items we found. BD will post more information later.

• The plans are stamped APPROVED BY THE CITY, but the city staff person we spoke said, No, they were not approved.

• Walmart paid $40,000 (that is not a typo) for the city to review these documents. Based on the 1% Rule - the cost of the review is equal to 1% of the work being done - that means Walmart will invest nearly $4 million into a property that is nearly 35 years old, instead of building new. And they are keeping the old Whole Foods facade!

• The plans are labeled TENANT IMPROVEMENTS, not RENOVATIONS. That is a trick used to circumvent required upgrades like lighting, fencing, and landscaping.

• During the "improvements," the entire parking lot will be scraped to the dirt level and repaved. The sidewalk in front of the store will be completely gutted to make way for lots of handicapped parking.

• The Blockbuster space is included in the leasing deal and renovations. It will be used for manager offices, training areas, staff rooms, and food prep rooms. In addition to deliveries being made to the back of the store, there's a back hallway from the loading dock to the Blockbuster. The Walmart and Blockbuster will be connected by lots of stairways. All the Blockbuster windows will be bricked up.

• The driveway ramps will be completely rebuilt. So will the service driveway behind the store. It's hard to tell at first glance if any new light poles or signs are in these plans, or on papers we did not copy.

• This store is gonna be friggen stuffed - every piece of nearly 38,000 square feet of space in the store will be maximized for selling something.

Pegasus News Content partner - Barking Dogs