Nanaimo Store To Expand

  Nanaimo Walmart To Sell Groceries

The local Daily reports Walmart at Woodgrove Mall is wanting to expand their store to include a 27,000 sq. ft. grocery department and a 2200 sq. ft. garden centre. The expansion would mean the loss of 60 parking spaces and the automotive centre.

Apparently Walmart has been in discussions with the Nanaimo planning department since Sept. 23. The design panel had some issues with the 'reticulation of the building face' which looked too much like a box, and they want more architectural features added.

Walmart can present another proposal at the Nov. 25 meeting, and if approved, the building permit would take another six to eight weeks. The planning department is quoted as saying that February would be realistic.

Comment: Nanaimo has a reputation for not being too business friendly, and in order to combat that image, they recently reduced the cost of a trade show license from $165 to $41.25. Now along the theme of being business friendly, if the permit is issued by Feb. it would mean that Walmart got their permit to expand their store in only 5 months. And just to put the cherry on top, our planning department thought their original design looked a little too 'box like' from the street. I presume they're concerned it might not blend in with all of the other architecturally grand buildings in the Woodgrove area, like Costco, Home Depot, Super Store and Canadian Tire for example.

I asked a spokesman for Walmart to tell me what he thought about dealing with the planning department in the City of Nanaimo and he said: