Market construction underway in Mandeville

By Chad Ruiz
St. Tammany News
Published on Wednesday, February 4, 2009 8:47 AM CST

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Construction is revving up at the Northshore’s first Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market grocery store.

Last April, Mandeville officials approved retail giant Wal-Mart’s plans to renovate the abandoned Sav-A-Center building at 3061 E. Causeway Approach into Louisiana’s fifth Neighborhood Market grocery.

The building was vacated by Sav-A-Center several years ago when it relocated to another area of Mandeville.

Since then, Mayor Eddie Price and local retail workers in the shopping strip said business declined dramatically with some forced to close.

Residents, local workers and city officials are excited to see the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market moving in.

“I think it’s more economic development for the city and provides residents more shopping opportunities. It’ll be a big help to the tenants in the surrounding shopping center to have increased shopping traffic in that area,” Mayor Pro Tem Trilby Lenfant said.

Initial plans called for the Neighborhood Market to only demolish a section of the vacant Sav-A-Center building, but earlier this week crews demolished the entire building, likely after it was deemed more cost-efficient to start from scratch, Lenfant said.

The Neighborhood Market will span about 44,000 square feet, about a quarter of the size of the typical Wal-Mart superstore.

Neighborhood Markets are a chain of grocery stores launched by Wal-Mart in 1998 as a scaled down version of their more prevalent superstores by offering only those commodities typically found in grocery stores.

There are more than 130 Neighborhood Markets nationwide today.

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Comments

2 comment(s)

Kim wrote on Jul 3, 2009 6:00 PM:

" I'm with ya MizzB. I am so excited about that Wal-Mart and can't wait for it to open. Anybody know the projected opening time?? "

MizzB wrote on May 29, 2009 9:14 PM:

" Not everyone in Mandeville is rich! The other two major supermarkets are too expensive. I can't wait until the
Walmart Neighborhood Market in Mandeville is open and I won't have to drive way up to Covington to buy a two week supply of groceries "

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