Announcement Tuesday; land clearing under way
John French
Chief Staff Writer
Squamish will know more about Wal-Mart's future in this community early next week.
Mayor Ian Sutherland has confirmed that council will make an announcement on Tuesday concerning the Wal-Mart store proposed for the Squamish Business Park.
Sutherland isn't offering any further details except to confirm that Wal-Mart's future in Squamish will be made clearer at the regular meeting of council set for Tuesday (Mar. 16) at 7 p.m.
Machinery is working on the parcel of land Wal-Mart expressed an interest in buying.
The 3.04 hectare (7.5 acre) piece of undeveloped and unserviced property in question is located west of Hwy. 99 and north of Discovery Way.
The District of Squamish confirmed on Jan. 21, 2003 that purchase negotiations were under way between Wal-Mart and the district. The negotiations also included discussions around the future zoning of the property.
The district indicated last year that Wal-Mart wanted to build a 7,897 square metre (85,000 square feet) retail outlet along with a separate 465 square metre (5,000 square feet) restaurant.
Eventual development of the property in question was solidified when the district announced last June that Parallax Investment Corp. of Toronto had signed a conditional sale agreement to buy 4.05 hectares (10 acres) directly north of the land Wal-Mart was negotiating to buy to build a factory outlet mall.
Mayor Sutherland confirmed at the time of the announcement that if the district and Wal-Mart did not reach an agreement, then Parallax's factory outlet plans would move to the property Wal-Mart was interested in buying.
