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Walmart is now aiming for a spring expansion
A major expansion of the Walmart in Kitty Hawk now appears to be on track to start in the spring, a year after a site plan was originally approved by the Town Council.
Planning Director Joe Heard told the Planning Board Thursday that Walmart will need to apply for an extension on the site plan since so much time has lapsed since it was given the go-ahead in April.
That will require another endorsement from the Planning Board and the Town Council.
Heard said a construction team was recently in town. Walmart, he said, still plans the expansion as it was outlined last April with one change that will not effect the shopping areas.
When the site plan came before the Town Council, a Walmart representative was not specific on a timetable for the 28,080-square-foot project.
Plans calls for expanding the building by 29,000 to 127,272 square feet. The outdoor garden center will be enlarged 2,042 square feet to 7,061 square feet.
Tim Manzella of PBT Architecture and Engineering said in April that most of the expansion will be at the rear of the store, and the entire building has already been painted to match Walmart’s new logo and color scheme. It will add a full grocery department, including a deli and a bakery.
Inside, the store will be rearranged significantly, Manzella said. The pharmacy, for example, will be moved to the center of the layout.
The entry will also be a little different. Manzella said the architects looked at the nearby Home Depot and neighboring Harris Teeter and plan to use materials similar to theirs, such as planked siding and brickwork, to create a look consistent with the area.
Photo courtesy of Walmart.
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Chuck says:
This really does sound like a good idea. If the KH Town Council does not approve the site plan, maybe Wal-Mart can move just south of the eventual Lowes location in Kill Devil Hills.
All Wal-Mart would have to do is remove that big concrete structure erected for those two brothers and set up shop there.
I am sure it would get approved 5-0.
Jessica says:
Love it!!! We so…need a Super Walmart!!! Now we just need a “Target”, “Olive Garden” “Marshalls” “Pier One” and Chick Fill A” and the Outer Banks will be set!!!
Allan says:
Right, Jessica–and then everyone can come here for a week away from the suburbs of Richmond, Raleigh, DC, NYC, Philly, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Cinci, and it will be just like home!!
Bob says:
I have one mor to add to your list Jessica. How about a Bass Pro shop too. With all those you mentioned and the bass shop should take care of the unemployment situation here on the outer banks
Olive says:
I’m glad it is only an expansion and not a totally new footprint. I am currently gasping at J’s excitement to add all those other box stores and chains to our beautiful place in the world. To bring all of those to the OBX would be an atrocity.
Margaret says:
I thought Jessica was using sarcasm!
Cynthia says:
Someday, we’ll all move to an island somewhere to get away from it all (the big box stores, traffic and Main Street America), where there are sandy beaches, and little local places to buy fresh seafood and sip tropical cocktails…the only sound is the waves lapping the seashore….
Meaghan says:
According to Walmart employees, it means the end of their fabric department, the only one of its kind left on the beach. And, really, J – why not move to any other homogenized suburb in America? We’re still special and it would be nice to keep it that way for awhile.
Allan says:
I too think Jessica had the ironic acid switched on when she posted.
stacy says:
Meghan, there is a great fabric shop in downtown Manteo
Jennifer says:
The real question is will this new Walmart stay stocked? They can’t keep it stocked as it is now
Nick says:
I just love the way people move here to retire and then expect the OBX to neither change nor grow. Why is it that we should pay extra for everything we consume, not have facilities, year round jobs and realistic salaries? Is it wrong to to have expectations? Look at our schools, where will the younger generation find work. An aging population opposed to progress will lead to a dying community. If you wanted an authentic OBX the time to complain was when the bypass was planned, the bridges widened or even when the hospital was built. I suspect however, these are things you use and did not object to.
Liv says:
I reeeealy hope Jessica was being sarcastic. Nick, do you think Wally-World provides realistic salaries? Expectations are fine,but if the current situation doesn’t meet yours, you are free to move on to greener pastures. I do not consider chains and big box stores to be progress, just tacky change that kills the Mom & Pops.
ekim says:
Cynthia so true it was like that here 30 yrs ago!!
Terry says:
I’m glad that Walmart is not in the home improvement business like Lowes or Home Depot. This will help the local mom and pops who are.
Going heavy into the grocery business will be a win win for those of us in Dare County only if they continue the low pricing that their other stores located off the island offer their customers. Perhaps they will help Harris Teeter and Food Lion bring their prices more in-line to their other off-island stores. Paying fair prices for our groceries will be a win for the locals. Now if we only could get the fuel companies to charge fair prices for fuel then we’d be in much better shape.
the sea is rising anyway says:
this little strip of sand has all gone to traffic, not birds, bring back the birds!!!!!!! the fish, don’t worry you won’t need to drive on the beach to go fishing the sea is almost empty as it is, you might catch some trash, it’s okay i can just by farm raised talapia from walmart, i heard the farms in china are real pretty, WAL MART HAS EVERYTHING WE NEED including jobs i heard that walmart employs more people on welfare than any other business in america, now i’m sure the owners are sitting high on the hog and could afford not to let the american tax payer pull the weight of their underpaid staff, TEABAGGERS should form a prostest at walmart’s front door, we will not stand for this blatant RIP-OFF
jerockan says:
what about a hardees, have you had those hand-breaded chicken tenders yet, yummie
KHer says:
Obviously it is hard to project sarcasm on the internet.
ekim says:
This will make Foodlion drop its prices . . .
Bill says:
Simply move south of Oregon Inlet Bridge. Still fairly rural “down south,” and there is only one red light (located in Avon I believe) between O Inlet Bridge and the Hatteras Ferry Docks.
Though in “OBX City” (SS, KH, KDH, Nags Head) suburban sprawl growth, how about a Trader Joes?! Perhaps, if one is located in Chesapeake, we will see expansion down here?
Imagine how an IHop or a Chipolte would do here…?!
Dave says:
I bet every single person whining about the expansion, shops at the current Wal-mart. That simply makes you either hippocrates, or just stupid. That is how our country has gone the past 50 years and a bunch of stupid comments about a Wal Mart in Kitty Hawk sure isn’t going to change it. If you want change, don’t shop there. If you don’t want foreign goods, don’t buy them. I bet most of you drive Japanese cars too.
J James says:
Go Dave!
bubba says:
More people buy groceries on the OBX than they buy fabric. We buy our clothes pre-made.
Can’t stop change. Why our neighborhood changed just last week with the introduction of our quiet street to drive by shootings.
Olive Garden would be nice but I would take a mom and pop italian restaurant over the OG. Problem is the chain/box restaurants and stores can afford the investment of leasing and buying land that is super expensive and mom and pops cannot.
Anna says:
Dave just coined a new word – hippocrate. Is that a child of a hippo and a hypocrite?
Beach Bum says:
Why is it that when Wal-Mart wants to add a grocery department, everyone thinks that this is a good thing because it will force Harris Teeter and Food Lion to lower their prices by bringing competition. However, when Lowe’s proposed to build everyone pitched a fit about the competition! Is there a double standard here?
Dan says:
We live in an area that pays average salaries. Unfortuneatly, real estate prices are not average here. Neither are the prices that the “mom and pop” shops offer. The selection of groceries, clothing, etc. at these mom and pop shops along with high prices leaves us no choice but to travel north to Virginia to find what we need at a reasonable price. Maybe if the salaries paralled the cost of living here, then locals wouldn’t have to work 3 jobs and resort to penny pinching methods to get by.
Dave says:
Well, common Wally World! What is with the delay? Hurry up and get it done so people around here can get some more grocery competition going on. I am sick of paying island prices for regular groceries. And you poor misguided fools complaining, did you notice you already have a Walmart?
ekim says:
BEACH BUM a lot dont mind a lowes coming just the LOCATION!!
Another Thing says:
Let us look at the simple reality of life. Unless you seal off the community from the rest of the world, shut off the tourist flow that is the life blood of the place, then there is no other possibility than growth. With growth comes change, competition, problems, and opportunities.
Whining about the way things used to be doesn’t do anyone any good. The only constant is change, and fortunately for the Outer Banks, change has been about as reasonable as anyone could hope for.
Nobody says you have to shop at Walmart. If you are independently wealthy, you can shop anywhere you want to.
Stan Clough says:
Thanks for a taste of logic, “Another Thing says” This forum gives everyone a place to say what they want about stuf, no matter how wackey. My self, I like to save money where I can.
Emma says:
Stacy, there is no fabric store in Manteo. Dan, if you talk to people who live in other parts of the state, they will tell you that wages here are high and above minimum wage. We have had a Hardee’s and it closed. I do nto think Jessica intended sarcasm: too many people want the very things that many of us thought we were choosing to live without. And the comment about competition being great? Where was that idea when everyone was complaining about Lowe’s coming here?
Not sure? says:
Not sure Lowe’s will cause competition in prices, only competition. Usually Lowe’s and Home Depot have the same prices.
Colleen A says:
We live in a unique, SMALL environment which should have our residents & government thinking long term. There is only so much room here — if I wanted to live on top of a heavily commercialized island, I’d be in New York. Who will have the strength of conviction to say, “Enough is enough?” An expanded Walmart for food? Really? We another commercial grocery store, but we struggle to allow local growers to sell their products? I think we have it all wrong here. We are a RESORT COMMUNITY! No one that rents here says, “Well, I won’t come unles there is a Walmart grocery store or a Lowe’s.” First things first: #1. Identify our product (beach = sand, fishing, golf, weddings…) #2. Work to maintain what makes us special.
BRIAN says:
I like the way you think Coleen! It is the small environment that makes the Outer Banks unique. I am so sad to see the Ritas, Dunkin Donuts, Applebees, etc etc. enter the beach area. I don’t care for Virginia Beach and the hustle and bustle. I agree with your point that it is all about the beach, sand, fishing etc.
Berry Gennari says:
Go ahead and ruin the Banks….most of the locals I know avoid the congested areas like the plague….If you can’t find it at Food-a-rama… then you don’t need it! Sure I like the gourmet products at the Teeter like everyone else-But it is absolutely not worth driving up through all the crap to get it especially in high season! Expanding the big boxes is ruining the quality of life for all residents though they don’t even realize it…Sure people want jobs but look at the quality of those jobs you are bringing in…Walmart is not our salvation……Our special place is NOT so special anymore-just one big nasty strip development like everywhere else.
Rob says:
Hmmm I wonder why so many small shops are closed across the street from Wal Mart? My guess is that they were so overrun by the herds of customers that they sold everything they could get and retired.
Rob says:
Oh yes and I have noticed that during the busy summer months that Wal Mart is deserted as no tourists want to go there and yesterday when I went to Wal Mart the place was also deserted, While I had to wait in line to go to Cosmo’s to get a pizza. The Outer Banks is the way it is because people vote with their money and that’s America, So I am sure some politician should tell everyone how to spend our money and we can achieve hell right here on the OBX.
Kevin says:
Folks, we have the same whining up here in Wyoming County, PA, with the presently under construction newer Wal-Mart building. The complaints not new. I have visited OBX consistently since 1985, and have watched with dismay how that part of the beach area has exploded. Colleen A. has it right, I think, but the genie is waaaay out of the bottle, and no one apparently can put it back. The folks responsible for the situation are in local government, elected or otherwise, and if there was any long term vision of development, it was either lost or not there at all. Thus, the development is apparently based on money for someone. Consequently, when I visit, I have always stayed in Rodanthe and points farther south, and patronize the local businesses. I am there for the beach, not the relentless consumer shopping trip. Yes, there is development there, but thus far it seems to be consistent in supporting the area’s uniqueness.
nickc says:
Kevin, You are exactly right. My family has visited the OBX for more than 20 years and we have been very disappointed with the development. We have strip malls here in Northern Virginia…..we don’t need to drive 300 miles to go shopping. The Southern Banks and Roanoke Island still have uniqueness. The proposed Lowe’s and convention center at Windmill Point will just be two more reasons to keep on driving past the Northern Banks to the places we really want to get away from our hometown routine.
Maggie says:
Vote with your dollar. When you shop at a chain store 28% of the dollars you spend are then spent back in your community. When you shop at a locally owned store, 68% of your dollars go back to your community. Which would you rather have?