Early in the morning of Jan. 8, Jared Lee Loughner bought ammo at the Super Walmart on Cortaro Road in Marana, according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Office.
Less than three hours later, Loughner allegedly fired off 32 bullets, killing six Tucsonans and wounding 13, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
The Marana store that sold the bullets is one of six local Walmarts that offer ammunition, and one of four that sell guns.
The Walmart corporation is now aggressively pushing to open a seventh big store in Tucson, this one in the center of town, at El Con Mall, against the strenuous objections of some neighbors.
The 24-hour store would be just 250 feet from houses in the El Encanto neighborhood, a nationally recognized historic district, and just across the street from the city’s flagship Reid Park.
The neighbors worry about noise associated with the new store, as well as increased traffic, a drop in property values and a possible uptick in crime. Their Ward 6 councilman, Steve Kozachik, implored Walmart to drop—at a minimum—the volatile product combo of guns, ammo and hard liquor.
“Eliminating these product lines … should alleviate some of the potential for an increase in illegal activity your new store might otherwise draw into the area,” Kozachik wrote in a letter to Delia Garcia, a Walmart manager based in Phoenix.
Garcia penned an ambiguous response, saying, “I can tell you, based on the information available at this time, that the El Con Walmart is not slated to sell firearms.”
At a contentious neighborhood meeting on Thursday, Feb. 3, Garcia went further, saying the store “is not slated at this time for ammunition or firearms.” In a follow-up e-mail, Garcia told the Tucson Weekly more decisively, “This store will not sell firearms or ammunition.”
If Walmart keeps that promise, the El Con store would be the only large local Walmart that does not carry ammo. If Garcia’s pledge was meant as an olive branch to El Con’s neighbors it was the only one she had to offer.
Neither the Home Depot nor the Target at El Con stays open all night, and the Walmart on Wetmore closes at midnight. But the El Con Walmart will always be open.
“Twenty-four hours is our model,” Garcia said. “We want to provide convenience to our customers.”
Nor would Garcia budge on the location of the store entrance, which is projected to be on the west side of the building, facing nearby houses.
“People have asked you to move the entrance to the south side,” to divert traffic to the parking lot along Broadway Boulevard, said neighbor Abby Rosen. “Why not?”
“That entrance is our only option,” Garcia said. Operating under design constraints, Walmart will reserve the north side of the 102,000-square-foot building for deliveries, which means that trucks will rumble past the houses. The cash registers—and the doors—will be along the long western wall, so customers don’t have to walk to the far southern end to check out.
Given that most Walmarts are in retail centers much farther than 250 feet from the nearest houses, I asked Garcia whether Walmart might compromise on this entryway. The answer was no. That standard Walmart design is its first choice for its customers, Garcia said. “We would never settle for second-best.”
The dustup over a Walmart at El Con has its origins in a development-rights agreement the city approved 11 years ago. At a Valentine’s Day council meeting in 2000, Bob Walkup—then the new mayor—Shirley Scott, Carol West and Fred Ronstadt all voted to exempt the aging mall from any limits that might be imposed by the city’s “big box” law, then in limbo. The agreement was to last 20 years.
The deal—neighbors called it a Valentine’s Massacre—allowed El Con to have a Home Depot on the east side of the mall, and an unnamed big box store on the west. In exchange, El Con would ban all nighttime deliveries and construct walls around the parking lot perimeter to mitigate noise.
Home Depot was forbidden to operate all night, but the agreement allowed what was then called “Big Box B” to stay open 24 hours. If Big Box B—even then widely believed to be a Walmart—were to go beyond the footprint of the existing store, that would trigger a review by mayor and council, and a possible veto.
In the intervening years, Macy’s (formerly Robinson’s May) continued to operate a traditional department store on the site. But the agreement exempted the mall from disclosing plans in advance, and once Macy’s jumped ship, Walmart and El Con quickly inked a lease in private.
“There was no warning,” neighbor Jean-Paul Bierny said at the Feb. 3 meeting. “The reason is very clear: the inappropriateness of this kind of development in the middle of all these old neighborhoods.”
Glenn Moyer, a city planning administrator, said Walmart hasn’t yet submitted construction plans. Once it does, “We’re required to review the drawings for compliance.” If the design does comply—and stays within the Macy’s footprint—it can avoid hearings before the City Council.
“El Con and Walmart want to avoid the legislative process,” he said.
The neighbors aren’t buying it. They say El Con and Walmart can’t legally escape the hearings and the scrutiny of the public. The El Encanto Estates Homeowners Association’s attorney, George Krauja, says that state law ARS 9-1203 forbids protected development rights to extend beyond seven years. That would mean the El Con agreement died a natural death in 2007.
“Under state law, the term has expired,” Krauja said.
But City Attorney Michael G. Rankin begs to differ. The law Krauja cited is about “protected development rights,” Rankin said, a different legal animal from a development agreement like the one the city signed with El Con.
In either case, the neighborhood may have still another legal angle to thwart the 24-7 Walmart. Under agreement, any new store has to be in “substantial conformity” with the old one, Krauja said. With groceries and beverages taking up 30 percent of floor space, Walmart in no way approximates the department store that preceded it.
“Let me ask you,” he said, “is Walmart substantially the same as Robinson’s May?”
The legal wrangling could happen soon. If Moyer finds the drawings in compliance, Walmart could move forward rapidly with a planned demolition in early summer.
“A demolition permit,” Moyer said, “doesn’t take long.”
This article appears in Feb 17-23, 2011.
What is there about accommodating the wishes of the rest of the population of central Tucson that the El Con Neighborhood Elites don’t understand? How about a study to determine just how many of those folks purchased their homes AFTER El Con hotel/resort was replaced with a thriving shopping center? I say, let them eat cake and open up the north entrances to save a bit of the environment. This is a city, not a rural town. Enjoy it, NIMBYs.
What happened to Sam Walton’s motto that Wal-Mart will not move into any community where they are not wanted?! This is all about greed and the love of money at any cost. Wal-Mart does not care if their presence will increase crime, noise, traffic and painfully lower property values. Neither do they care if they have created a massive trade imbalance for our nation. Wake up, America, and look at the big picture. Wal-mart creasts jobs but at the same time kills small businesses and etc. Clotilde R.
wall mart already has 6 other locations in Tucson, there is already another 1.5 miles away, the whole layout and short sighted attitude of wall mart and the owner’s of el con have made this once thriving mall into the New “south gate” shopping center.
This whole project if you think this through is just dumb and wall mart just wants to cram this through!
Of course they do not want to go through the scrutiny of this ridiculous site or plan.
The front entrance directly facing and only 250 feet from a historical neighborhood???
Open 24hrs??
Are the architects really that incompetent that they cannot design for better community relations?
Given the HUGE people activity at Reid Park, 10 p.m. curfew, that even N & Out Burger closes at midnight – it is so sad for this midtown area to be subject to the overnight noise & crime that Walmart historically attracts (just google crime & Walmart).
Is the City so anxious to please because Walmart is in the Rio Nuevo tax collection corridor. How sad that the city can’t negotiate business opportunities with ElCon Mall owners so they would be bringing in more customer friendly businesses. If this was a Petsmart, Michaels or Sunflower it would be a healthier option for Tucson. Sadly I had to do quite a bit of shopping at Walmarts – they are positioned next to every rural Army post (Ft Polk). Never saw a bigger wall of cheap pastries. Is the WalMart food plan what we want for a healthier Tucson. Please Tucson, Say NO to junk groceries – NO to guns & ammo sales across from the park & BASIS school – NO to Midnight to 7 am traffic & sales. THANKS for caring
Wal-Mart is new to the urban scene. Their rigid business model won’t work at El Con. They weren’t smart in not giving in on the 24/7 openings. Costco is opening on the Southside and people can easily shop at nearby Target.
With the Tucson killings on January 8th and the shooter buying some of his ammo at Wal-Mart, they would have been smart to give in on a couple points and save their image. I have a feeling that this store will never do as well as some of their other store.
No to Walmart, and El Con needs to be taken away from it’s current owners… How is it even possible to fail in that location. It’s just ridiculous how bad at business the owners of that property are.
I live just west of Reid Park. Why doesn’t anybody care or do anything about all the noise from Reid Park that my neighborhood has to put up with? Loud amplified music blaring out over the neighborhood – BOOM BOOM BOOM all day Saturday and Sunday until 10:30 at night. I wish the city cared as much about that as they do about protecting upscale neighborhoods.
I find it appalling that the small number of citizens living in El Encanto can create so many problems for El Con and the businesses looking to build there. The owners of El Con have been attempting to revive the mall for years and the neighborhood association has fought them every step of the way. The food court was remodeled and revamped to create a vibrant gathering place for mall shoppers and movie goers. Thanks to the neighborhood association complaining about “smells” that might drift over to them; the vision of the food court was never realized. The neighbors also complained about traffic and roads were redirected, they complained about noise from delivery trucks for Home Depot and Target and rules were instituted to prevent deliveries during night time hours. Now they are complaining about Walmart. Walmart will generate foot traffic, they will add jobs to the community, they will contribute to the community with the Walmart Foundation, and they will provide a much needed grocery store for that area of town. There are no small mom and pop shops left in El Con so stop beating that horse. Quit complaining about the “low wage” paid by Walmart because it is higher than the wage paid by Target, Home Depot, Ross, Burlington, In and Out, and all the other retail locations at the mall. Not to mention those retail stores not at the mall, such as Michael’s JoAnn’s, Sports Authority and many others. Before you complain about Walmart employees being overworked and underpaid look at the 9.1% unemployment rate in Tucson and be thankful the company wants to build. Remove the driving force of the UFCW opposition and there would be no battle against Walmart. And those who are supporting the UFCW be clear that they really don’t care about you, your family or your ability to support your family with a “livable wage.” The UFCW is only interested in Walmart because they have a nonunionized labor force of 1.4 million American workers. Do the math. If the UFCW and other unions are able to tap into that work force they have the potential to gain between $336-$672 million dollars a year in annual dues. For the Unions it’s about money, not people. For the neighbors in the area around El Con is these neighbors are over privileged, pampered, spoiled little brats who fail to realize they live in the center of the 31st largest city in the country. There are many, many Tucsonans who would be thrilled with Walmart at El Con.