06/06/2007

Wal-Mart decision set for next week

Officials to vote whether to sell city property

By PATRICK SULLIVAN

psullivan@record-eagle.com

MANISTEE — Last October, residents who packed a public hearing over a proposed sale of land to Wal-Mart split in roughly equal camps of those for and against.

Next week, after months of negotiations, city officials will finally decide whether to sell 19.5 acres of city-owned property in Filer Township to the Wal-Mart Real Estate Trust for $1,948,000.

Mayor Cyndy Fuller said she expects the city will make a decision at the meeting on June 12 at 7 p.m.

Officials last year said they were in negotiations with Wal-Mart over who would pay for environmental cleanup of the site, which once was a city dump.

Lynn Kooyers, zoning administrator for Filer Township, said "no application whatsoever” has been submitted for the property.

Last year, when the city held a public hearing about the proposed sale, around 15 of the people who spoke were in favor of Wal-Mart and roughly the same number were opposed, according to the minutes from that meeting.

Some believe the store would strip downtown shops of business and offer only low-paying jobs in return.

Others said they believed the downtown shops offer unique goods that would not be in competition with the large retailer, which would provide jobs and offer better prices for household goods.

"Manistee has got nothing downtown I want to shop for,” said Manistee resident Paul Masty, who hopes to see Wal-Mart come to Manistee. "It's all for tourists and I'm not a tourist.”

Don Wahr, owner of Wahr Hardware, said he worries about what Wal-Mart could mean for his store, a business that's been in his family for 93 years.

But he said he's more concerned that Wal-Mart might hurt downtown and tourism.

"They've spent years and years and years trying to keep some kind of vibrancy downtown going,” Wahr said.

Wal-Mart spokesman Nick Infante said the company is looking at Manistee but a decision over whether to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter is on hold during negotiations over the real estate deal.