Plans to move ahead and make a supercenter are one step closer after Avon’s approved the site development plan to add 32,400-sq.-ft. to the building.
When complete, expected by spring 2013, the store will begin selling groceries in what will be a 183,000-sq.-ft. store.
“There will be a new vestibule leading to the grocery section,” Justin Dietz of KS Associates, who represented Walmart at the June Planning Commission meeting, said at the June planning commission meeting.
Planning Coordinator Jim Piazza said the company can now move forward with plans and expects they will apply for permits soon.
The store will now sell produce, meat, dairy and include a bakery, in addition to its current items.
Dietz presented artists renderings of the building, noting the new section will blend in with the present exterior.
Much of the expansion will be south of the building towards Interstate 90, Dietz said. There would also be some expasion out the front of the building, facing south.
Dietz said at an earlier meeting if plans were approved , construction will begin on Oct. 1. Part of the land to be cleared is a warm-weather habitat for the Indiana Fruit Bat, an endangered species, he explained, and the land cannot be cleared between April 1 and Sept. 30. Indiana Fruit Bats hibernate in caves or abandoned mines in fall and winter.
