Orchards-area Walmart moves closer to construction

Five years after Walmart placed a “coming soon” sign at the corner of Northeast 143rd Avenue and Fourth Plain Boulevard, the words now appear to be true.

Changes to road plans for the site were approved Monday by the Vancouver City Council. That will allow city planners to better negotiate with three developers of the 250-acre Birtcher Business Center. The development is to include the $80 million Walmart-anchored Eastgate Plaza as part of its mix of office and industrial space. The U.S. Army also is building a $28 million training center on 18.5 acres that are part of the site, south of Northeast Fourth Plain Boulevard between 137th and 157th avenues.

Until now, road development was the sticking point that kept Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. from moving forward, said Thayer Rorabaugh, the city’s transportation planning director.

Other companies involved in the development include Eastgate Plaza LLC and Birtcher Development Investments.

“We expect them to agree with the new conditions within a month,” Rorabaugh said, adding that Walmart expects to begin construction this year.

“They’d like to start by this summer,” he said.

Walmart could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. However, in an e-mail earlier this month, a company spokeswoman said Walmart had not yet scheduled the store’s construction or grand-opening dates.

“We’re continuing to work with the city and look forward to bringing a new store to Vancouver,” Tiffany Moffatt, Walmart spokeswoman, said.

The road revisions would allow project developers to hold off on constructing the eastern portion of the planned 1.25-mile stretch of Northeast 59th Street. Instead, the connection would be built from 137th to 147th, and the retail developers would be required to extend 147th Avenue south from 63rd Street to meet up with the extension of 59th.

Rorabaugh said the slumping economy drove the changes to a development agreement that would have originally constructed the full leg of 59th Street as a relief valve for busy Fourth Plain. In 2008, developers won approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build the section of 59th Street through a wetlands on the edge of Burnt Bridge Creek.