WAL-MART COMING TO TOWN BUILDING TO ANCHOR NEW SHOPPING CENTER.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Construction is expected to begin this fall on a shopping center that will be anchored by a Wal-Mart superstore.

Called ``Destination O-4,'' the shopping center will add more than 340,000 square feet of retail space to the bustling 10th Street West retail corridor.

Besides the giant Wal-Mart in a building covering 224,000 square feet - more than five acres - the shopping center will have two stores roughly 51,000 square feet each plus six spaces for smaller stores totaling 26,000 square feet.

The super Wal-Mart is the only store that has been identified for the center. The project's developer, Stan Rothbart, did not return phone calls.

Palmdale officials said Rothbart has all the required city approvals and that they expect work to begin this fall.

Rothbart is the same developer who established the Palmdale Promenade shopping center on Rancho Vista Boulevard, about a mile from the super Wal-Mart site. The Palmdale Promenade includes a Wal-Mart store, which city officials said they expect will close when the new store opens.

``We want a very, very aggressive program to bring in a tenant to backfill that building,'' said Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford.

While super Wal-Marts have been fought by labor unions and politicians elsewhere in Los Angeles County, no opposition has surfaced in Palmdale. In 2000, Palmdale citizens voted 65 percent to 35 percent in a referendum on a zone change for a shopping center on 47th Street East including a Wal-Mart, which supermarket employee union members fought as a threat to their jobs.

Ledford said he expects the Rancho Vista Boulevard Wal-Mart building will end up split between several businesses rather than occupied by one big-box tenant.

The shopping center is the companion to another center which has a Sam's Club store and a Kohl's department store. The two centers together will cover more than 750,000 square feet of shopping place.

The Wal-Mart will be built on the northeast section of the 35-acre site, separated from the stores along 10th Street by a large parking lot. The two large tenant pads would be built south of the Wal-Mart.

The project will involve the widening of 10th Street West and the installation of a traffic signal at Avenue O-4.

The super Wal-Mart will include the typical general merchandise items found at a regular Wal-Mart along with groceries and liquor. The store would also have a pharmacy, tire and lube service, and a garden shop.

The shopping center's development will be part of an anticipated boom in retail growth along the 10th Street West corridor, said Danny Roberts, assistant executive director of Palmdale's redevelopment agency.

That growth will include the expansion of the Antelope Valley Mall, which will include a hotel project, a movie theater with stadium-style seating, and at least two restaurants; and the reuse of the former Big Kmart building, which has been vacant since 2002.

Roberts said the city hopes to be able to make announcements of additional stores coming to the corridor later this fall.

Wal-Mart has nearly 1,500 discount stores and nearly 1,400 superstores in the United States, plus more than 1,300 stores in other countries, mainly Mexico, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com