Despite the controversy that usually surrounds the opening of a Wal-Mart, we couldn't help but join city officials in welcoming the big-box giant to the neighborhood of retailers that now adorn our town's landscape.
This is good for local residents' wallets and this is fantastic for the competition we hope it will create among Safeway, Nob Hill Foods, Super Target, Trader Joe's and our endearing Country Store Grocery market on Monterey Road. It will improve grocery and general merchandise services for our 38,000 residents.
The location and size of the proposed new store also couldn't be better. It's opening at the old Target building at Cochrane Plaza, left empty when its namesake set up shop on the other side of the freeway. It will keep Cochrane Plaza viable and add to the existing strong retail environment on the city's northern end. It also fills the need for a grocery store in that part of the city. Morgan Hill residents and city officials wanted a grocery store on Cochrane, even voting last year to remove the zoning restrictions on Cochrane Plaza to permit one.
Wal-Mart is expected to make renovations to the old Target 80,000-square-foot building for an estimated $4- to $8 million and open in the winter of 2008.
In terms of economic advantages, the new store will be a tremendous sales tax generator, a provider of more jobs and an addition of much needed services at low prices.
We commend the center's owner for hiring a broker who found Wal-Mart and helped it buy the land for an undisclosed amount of money.
The new store is expected to have a new concept in merchandising, which no longer will feature a discount alley, but will showcase a full grocery store and garden center.
The city is to be praised for not offering Wal-Mart any financial incentives to move in and for being able to avoid long vacancies in some of these empty premises such as getting Home Depot to come where the
K-Mart once operated and getting Safeway to rebuild and revamp Tennant Station.
Finally, Wal-Mart coming to Morgan Hill speaks to the attractiveness of our city and its demographics. Cochrane Plaza will lend itself well to the conversion from old Target to Wal-Mart. There are enough parking spaces and no traffic gridlock issues surrounding its perimeter.
Retailers are recognizing that Morgan Hill is a great place to work and do business in, and this is another step in making Morgan Hill's economy sustainable. For years, residents have often complained about the limited shopping options in the community. A downtown that will continue its transformation coupled with the new Target Center and the coming of Wal-Mart means that we will no longer be an underserved community.
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