Hadley: Wal-Mart drops big plans

By Nick Grabbe
Staff Writer

Published on March 14, 2008

HADLEY - Wal-Mart has decided it will not proceed with plans for 212,000-square-foot Supercenter to replace a smaller existing store in Hadley, local officials say.

Town Administrator David Nixon said he has advised the Board of Selectmen the company is dropping the project.

And some of those involved in the three-year battle over the expansion said they are not convinced that Wal-Mart is abandoning its plans to create a new outlet on land to the east of Hampshire Mall, south of Route 9.

Nixon said he based his information on the company's plans on a report from Building Inspector Tim Neyhart, who talked to a lawyer involved in the project.

"That seems to be the way it's proceeding, though Pyramid could build something else up to the same square footage," Neyhart said.

A Pyramid project

Christopher Buchanan, Wal-Mart's senior public affairs manager, did not return phone calls requesting comment. In an e-mail response to the recent developments, Buchanan deferred all inquiries regarding the project's future to Pyramid management.

"Wal-Mart has no new publicly announced plans to report regarding our Hadley project," Buchanan said.

Alexandra Dawson, who chairs the Hadley Conservation Commission, said she got a letter from Pyramid withdrawing its notice of intent for wetlands on the site. The commission plans to discuss the issue at a meeting tonight.

"I am absolutely sure Wal-Mart is pulling out of Hadley," Dawson said. "I think they have given up. There's no question they are gone."

She said she received confirmation from Peter MacConnell, an Amherst attorney representing Pyramid. MacConnell could not be reached for comment Monday.

MacConnell contacted members of the Planning Board to say he'd been told that Pyramid and Wal-Mart had terminated their relationship, said member William Dwyer.

But the board has received nothing in writing and still has a hearing scheduled for mid-April on Pyramid's application for site plan approval and a definitive subdivision plan, Dwyer said.

"I'm not convinced this isn't a negotiating tactic on their part," he said. "I don't know whether this reflects the whole story or not. Pyramid has a reputation as a hard-nosed property owner."

In May 2006, the town's Compatible Building Size Bylaw imposed a cap of 75,000 square feet on all retail businesses. But the Wal-Mart Supercenter site was exempt, or "grandfathered," for eight years, so long as the subdivisions are approved.

A group called Hadley Neighbors for Sensible Development has been following the Wal-Mart plans closely. They were contacted 10 days ago by a Pyramid lawyer in Boston, who said Wal-Mart was no longer a tenant for this site, said David Elvin, a member of the group. But Elvin said that he isn't sure this is the end of the game, and it could instead be halftime or a time out.

"They've invested a lot of time and money over three years and it's hard to believe it would all go down the drain," he said.

Pyramid could, for example, hold on to the plans for three years and wait for the economy, or the state wetlands laws, to change, he said.

"For three years, they have been trying to railroad through non-conforming plans," Elvin said. "The store and the parking lot are obviously too big for the site. If this pullout is real, at least it's good we can look at developing the site consistent with the master plan and the cap."

Andrew Morris-Friedman, another group member, was more certain.

"This is a great victory for sustainable development and everyone who treasures quality of life in Hadley," he wrote in an e-mail message.

In 2007, Wal-Mart announced it was reducing by a third its plans for 270 new supercenter openings, according to the neighbors group. Pyramid representatives said the economic downturn was a factor and that Hadley had become a "difficult" site, the group said in a press release.

Wal-Mart and Pyramid first filed plans in March 2005. The new store would have drawn more than 6,500 new vehicle trips per day, adding to the 22,000 trips already made on Route 9, according to the neighbors group.