Wal-Mart is proposing to double the size of its Port Orchard store to 209,036 square feet to add a full-service grocery operation, making it the seventh grocer in South Kitsap

Everyone in South Kitsap knew that when Wal-Mart paid $909,000 for the eight acres of land directly adjacent to its Bethel Road store, that something was going to happen.

Speculation focused on a Sam’s Club, the retail giant’s wholesale rival to Costco, being built on the site amid rumors that Costco was eyeing a spot near the Sidney Road and Sedgwick Road intersection adjacent to Highway 16.

The rumor merchants were dead wrong.

Wal-Mart has begun the process of seeking county approval to double the size of its Bethel Road store to add a full-service supermarket. When completed, it will bring the total number of grocery stores in South Kitsap to seven — all within a literal stone’s throw of each other.

The area currently supports two Albertsons — one that was built last year while the other just finished an extensive remodel and addition; a Safeway that’s immediately adjacent to Wal-Mart; a Fred Meyer just up the street at Bethel and Sedgwick; a QFC at South Park Plaza, and the newest grocery store, Saar’s Marketplace Food and Drug in the K-Mart Plaza on Mile Hill Drive.

Owner Greg Saar is a Tacoma-based grocer and the only independent supermarket of the six existing supermarkets. He just opened for business last month, replacing a Thriftway store that had gone under.

Naturally, Wal-Mart, the 800 pound gorilla of marketing, has its potential competition concerned. Ever since the purchase last year, company officials have been extremely tightlipped about plans for the site and have routinely either not returned calls or declined requests for interviews, saying there was nothing to report.
Wal-Mart’s “Supercenter” concept has been used in selected areas of the country as well as in Europe for about 10 years. The company is committed to the concept and hopes to start construction early next year on what will eventually be a 209,036 square foot retail mega-store. It would be the second “Supercenter” in Washington state. The other is in Walla Walla.

The proposal submitted to the county last month by a developer working for the world’s largest retailer, calls for the store to add 105,551 square feet to its existing building. Preliminary plans submitted to the county’s Department of Community Development, show Wal-Mart expanding on all sides of the building, except the north side. It also wants to add 370 parking spots for a total of 993 spaces.

Wal-Mart still has to go through a site plan review, and that could present some problems centering on the proposed access point to the property on Bethel Road. In the first test of the county’s Bethel Road corridor plan, the company wants to add a new entrance to the site that would not be allowed under the plan which was adopted last year.

Also problematic is the fact that a portion of Wal-Mart’s newly acquired land is zoned residential, so the potential impacts to neighbors have to be addressed.

According to the guidelines of the Bethel Corridor Plan, Wal-Mart would need to either buy more land, get an easement to build an access road farther south of the property, or build a road behind the current building connecting with Lund Avenue.