As expected, the mayor of San Diego, Jerry Sanders, has already vetoed an ordinance banning big box ordinances:

Sanders said the ban, passed by the City Council earlier this month, limits the options available to consumers who want to save money.

At a news conference Friday afternoon, Sanders said consumers benefit from the savings Wal-Mart offers.

Many shoppers agreed, telling NBC 7/39 they enjoy the competitive prices as well as the convenience the chain offers them.

The mayor said consumers should be allowed to decide where to shop and how much money they want to save.

It’s not every day that you read that a big box store is good for competition.

More on this story from NBC San Diego.

Recently, Kaua’i, Hawaii passed a bill banning big box retailers and now San Diego is the newest city to get the fight against big boxes.

SAN DIEGO — The San Diego City Council Monday passed an ordinance that will prohibit the construction of so-called big-box retail stores within city limits.

The City Council heard from passionate citizens on both side of the issue but voted 5-3 in favor of the ordinance. The measure bans new establishments that are larger than 90,000 square feet and generate more than 10 percent of revenue from non-taxable goods, like groceries.

This particular fight isn’t over, as the San Diego mayor, Jerry Sanders, is expected to veto the resolution. The City Council has a month to override the veto, but it is possible that Wal-Mart, or another large retailer, would be able to secure signatures via petition to get the people to vote on this resolution come the February election.

More from NBC San Diego and the San Fransico Gate.

The remains of the Charlotte Coliseum were imploded this morning, marking an end to an indoor arena with a colorful history and at the center of major redevelopment plans.

The New York Times has a rundown of the arena’s history in today’s edition:

An arena that was host to 364 consecutive N.B.A. sellouts, the 1994 Final Four, numerous concerts and a speech by Mother Teresa will be reduced to rubble, making way for an office park.

“As nice as the building was, it was as someone said, the last of the propeller airplanes before the jets came,” said Max Muhleman of Private Sports Consulting, based in Charlotte, N.C.

Construction of the 24,000-seat arena began in 1986, with Charlotte intent on staying in the Atlantic Coast Conference basketball tournament rotation. Plans included luxury boxes but only eight high-priced suites.

The Palace of Auburn Hills in suburban Detroit opened the same year with 180 luxury suites and expensive club seats, a key difference that became a financial boon for the Pistons.

Meanwhile, today it looked more like this:

(Picture from the Charlotte Observer.)

The former arena site is now owned by Pope and Land Entreprises, who have a large scale mixed-used development slated for the site. With commercial and retail space slated for the site, could a large scale big box retailer be in the future for this corner of southwest Charlotte?

More coverage from the Charlotte Observer and WXII12. I previously mentioned this site when talking about the redevelopment of the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

At today’s shareholder meeting, Wal-Mart has announced that they are scaling back their new store growth, starting with this year:

Thomas M. Schoewe, the chief financial officer of Wal-Mart, said the company is “committed to providing better returns,” and added, “The message you are hearing today is that we have found a real nice balance between appropriate return and the growth of your great company.”

Mr. Schoewe called the reductions a “moderation” and emphasized that Wal-Mart will still add 20 million square feet of new store space this year. But the cutback is significant because each Wal-Mart supercenter can book sales of $100 million a year, and the giant stores have propelled much of Wal-Mart’s growth.

This year, rather than opening 265 to 270 stores, Mr. Schoewe said, Wal-Mart will open 190 to 200. For the foreseeable future, it will open 170 supercenters a year, well below its average last year.

More from the New York Times: Wal-Mart Scales Back Expansion Plans.

The bulk of Wal-Mart’s increase in sales, over the past few years, has been attributed to new store growth. Scaling back their growth is a large turnaround for the retailer, regardless of how they classify it.

What happens when a big box retailer goes out of business and leaves vacant a sizable chunk of commercial real estate? Apparently, you can open a church:

A megachurch — complete with an arcade, a cafe with Starbucks and a bookstore — will open this weekend in an unlikely spot: the former Home Quarters store in a once-struggling strip mall on Van Dyke near 14 Mile.

Grace Christian Church spent $15 million to transform the longtime vacant big-box store into an estimated 1,600-seat main sanctuary with activities geared toward children and a quiet area for people to sit and read.

“We want going to church to be an enjoyable and enriching experience for the whole family,” said Senior Pastor Jerry Weinzierl, 50, of Warren. “Even if someone comes in for the wrong reason, I can maybe make an impact on them for that moment.

“This will be a very peaceful place.”

(More from the Detroit News.)

This is a pretty awesome redevelopment plan. Big box retailers are often cited for taking prime real estate and ignoring the needs of a community. This is a great way to turn a negative (vacant commercial property) and turn it around, serving the community and, I’m sure, anchoring redevelopment in that area.

Kudos to the Grace Christian Church for their (pardon the pun) out of the (big) box thinking in terms of location.

If readers know of other examples of vacant retailers being converted into a church, or anything civic-minded like this, please share it.

One of the reasons I started this site is because of how much I enjoy going through planning and zoning board minutes/agendas to spot new retail development in the area that I live in.

Now there is something interesting brewing in my town, Middletown NJ. On the agenda for the June 6th Planning Board meeting is this proposal:

#2007-200 – Bowen Development Company, Block 807, Lot 1, 1230 Highway 35, located in the
B-3 Zone. Applicant is seeking major site plan and minor subdivision approval for a 14,708 sq.ft.
pharmacy and a 9,600 sq.ft. retail building.

A quick Google search for Bowen Development Company comes up with this SEC filing from Walgreens, showing that Bowen Development Company is one of their subsidaries.

What is interesting to me is that the address in the proposal is actually the exact address of a longstanding Friendly’s restaurant. What is happening to that eatery? Is it being closed, moved, or redeveloped?

Walgreens, via Bowen Development Company, also has an application in Franklin Township, NJ for a proposed location. Public comment was in March with the application on the agenda for their meeting next week.

Walgreens is currently working on redevelopment of a former restaurant in Washington DC to create their first location within that city. It appears that they have been working closely with local officials and historic groups to create a design that satisfies the local community. Good to see a retailer who is that involved with the community.

(More coverage of the Washington DC development from examiner.com.)

What is to come of the Friendly’s location and the Walgreens proposal? We’ll find out more next week.

Last week, the City Council of Kaua’i, Hawaii, passed an ordinance restricting retail construction to under 75,000 square feet:

A 75,000-square-foot floor-area limit on retail or wholesale operations. Business square footage would be added together if establishments are within 800 feet of each other and sell similar goods under common management, share check-out counters, or are under common ownership — meaning, for example, that a single retailer could not build two 75,000-square-foot stores around a single parking lot.

While the island already has Costco, Wal-Mart, and K-Mart, this bill seems to be aimed squarely at Wal-Mart’s plans to increase the size of the location there from 119,000 square feet to almost 200,000 square feet. The City Council wants to preserve the character of the small island community and preserve the local, mom and pop stores, that make up the community.

I recently commented on the plans by several retailers to build smaller concept stores. Anti-big box bills like this are just another reason why retailers need to have several construction ideas in their portfolio. One size does not fit every community.

More coverage of the bill from the Honolulu Advertiser. The quote above is from their coverage.

The IKEA in Draper, UT is opening on Wednesday, May 23 and, like other IKEA openings, this grand opening will be big:

Starting May 21, two days before the Swedish home furnishings giant’s grand opening in Draper, customers can start pitching their tents outside the new blue and yellow building at 67 W. IKEA Way.

Upwards of several thousand visitors are expected to throng the store’s official opening at 9 a.m. Wednesday, which will feature a traditional Swedish log-sawing ceremony and the raising of U.S., Swedish and Utah flags by various dignitaries, said Joseph Roth, director of public affairs for IKEA North America.

Gift certificates of between $10 and $250 will be given to the first 2,500 visitors on May 23, while free armchairs and heart-shaped cushions will be given to the first 100 adults and 100 children respectively.

(From the Daily Herald, IKEA gears up for grand opening: Thousands expected on opening day. The Daily Herald article also has a link to a Youtube video showing a tour of new store.)

Just how big of an impact does the IKEA opening have on a local community? Maybe this is one indication:

With such keen interest in the new store, Draper has spent much of the past year preparing for IKEA’s opening day. Neither IKEA nor Draper would provide an estimate of how many people the company is anticipating will show up the first day. Draper said only that it is excepting a crowd in the “high thousands.”

Draper officials, including its economic development director, the city’s traffic engineer and representatives from police, fire and highway patrol departments, traveled in June of last year to Canton, Mich., to experience an IKEA grand opening firsthand.

From opening day through Memorial Day, there will be no less than 35 police officers at the store to make sure things run smoothly, said David Baird, Draper City economic development director.

While the first six days are expected be very busy, Baird of Draper said he is expecting a high level of customers for weeks - even months - after that.

“We’ll have some pretty intense traffic in the area for at least six weeks,” he said. “And on weekends for quite a while.”

(From the Salt Lake Tribute, IKEA defines big.)

The opening of this store a long time coming, but has been met with opposition from several groups in the local community. As another story from the Daily Herald adds:

“IKEA definitely means do-it-yourself. They’re the biggest peddler of junk besides Wal-Mart,” said I.M. Home founder Craig Knott, who hosted a “The Bachelor” casting call on Friday to boost foot traffic to his store.

“My wife and I shopped at IKEA when we lived in Chicago. We got some furniture like dressers, beds. Not one piece survived the move back to Utah.

“Once people realize they have to put everything together, and the furniture doesn’t last, the allure will pass.”

(More from the Daily Herald, IKEA to open in Draper May 23.)

If anyone attends the grand opening and takes photos, please share them with us!

If you live in remote parts of Alaska, your shopping options are limited: either you are shopping at the local village store, which may have limited selection and high prices, or you are ordering from a Wal-Mart or Fred Meyer 400 miles away:

Local prices are so high and inventory so sparse that Seitz, like many Alaskans living far from the road system, buys nearly all her food and household staples from big-box chain stores in cities hundreds of miles away.

At least once a month, she sends her shopping list to Safeway in Fairbanks and pays a small airline to fly her groceries across 300 roadless miles to the Athabascan Indian village of 100 people on the banks of the Yukon River.

The business generated by such customers is impossible to quantify, but it’s big enough that several stores, including Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Best Buy, devote whole mail-order departments to more than 200,000 rural residents spread over an area twice the size of Texas.

This is a very interesting way for these large retailers to provide a solution for a unique situation.

More from CNN: Bush mail brings big-box stores to Alaska’s hinterlands

Christian Trejbal has an editorial in yesterday’s Roanoke Times where he offers his opinion on the big box battle in Blacksburg, VA.

Opponents’ strategy right now — aside from hosting a bake sale fundraiser outside Gillies yesterday and today — is a proposed ordinance that would require large retailers to get council approval before building. It would not ban a big-box, but it is hard to imagine the current council signing off on one.

Unfortunately for the opponents, Virginia courts frown on retroactive standards. They must be kicking themselves that they did not think to pass a law years ago.

He talks about what kind of community Blacksburg is and what big boxes mean to the community.

More from Roanoke.com.