Walmart begins construction of Supercenter in central Reno

After a yearlong delay, work has begun on the new Super Walmart on Reno-Sparks Indian Colony land at East Second Street.

The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer had planned to break ground on the project in February of 2009 after a lengthy environmental cleanup at the site that once housed a radiator repair shop and a topless bar. More than 6,000 tons of oil-contaminated soil was removed from the 24-acre site.

Much of last year was spent lining up all the required permitting to get the job one of the only large-scale retail projects under construction in Reno-Sparks ready for construction, says Delia Garcia, Walmart spokesperson.

"There are a lot of moving parts to a project like this," Garcia says. "There are a lot of people that had a part of making this project ready."

The new Super Walmart will replace the company's undersized store at Northtowne Plaza. The new store will be about 185,000 square feet 60,000 square feet larger than the Northtowne location and will include groceries, tire and garden centers, and a drive-through pharmacy.

"Those will be areas where we are adding square footage," Garcia says. "The biggest benefit from a community standpoint to having a larger store is to bring the value of food as well as general merchandise."

The 250 Northtowne employees will have the option of transitioning to the new location, and the company will hire 200 additional employees to meet the demands of the larger facility, Garcia says. Hiring will begin this fall. Walmart expects to close the Northtowne location and open the new store within one day of each other during the fourth quarter of this year.

"It will be a very seamless transition," Garcia says.

With the opening of the new store, Walmart will have five Supercenter locations in the Truckee Meadows.

Construction of the new store, which lies just yards away from the banks of the Truckee River, was dependent upon completion of a 2,200-foot-long, $5.8 million floodwall and levee to protect the site, Reno-Sparks Indian Colony properties, and the Northern Nevada Restitution Center. Campbell Construction Company completed the floodwall work, and A&K Earthmovers graded the site. R & O Construction of Las Vegas is the general contractor on the job.