LIBERTY - The new Wal-Mart on Belmont Avenue is taking shape.
The store in the Liberty Plaza is almost completed on the outside, and contractors are now working on the inside of the store, said township Administrator Pat Ungaro.
''In spite of the terrible (real estate) market, we're lucky to get this project,'' Ungaro said.
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The new Wal-Mart on Belmont Avenue in Liberty, above, is taking shape. Township Administrator Pat Ungaro said bids are being taken to rework the facades of the existing stores at the plaza to bring them in tune with the look of the Wal-Mart.
Ungaro said it is hoped that the store will be open by early summer.
Major work will also be done at the Liberty Plaza, Ungaro said. Bids are being taken to rework the facades of the existing stores at the plaza to bring them in tune with the look of the Wal-Mart.
A vacant building that once housed a bank in the plaza was also torn down recently, Ungaro said.
Work will also begin in April to widen a portion of Goldie Road near Belmont Avenue, which will be a side entrance to the Wal-Mart being built on the site of the former Liberty Plaza.
State grant money is being used to pay for the project, but Wal-Mart is paying the township's portion of the match, which is $108,000. Total cost of the project is $140,000.
An extra lane will be added on the road for drivers to make left and right turns into the store. Ungaro said the store will not be opened until the widening project is completed.
The store is to be a Supercenter, and plans call for design of the store to be leaner - less of a ''Big Box'' and more like a multi-unit shopping center with trees and sitting areas outside and multiple entrances to the different departments.
Super Wal-Marts are a combination of regular Wal-Marts and grocery stores.
The square footage now will be 153,863 square feet. The construction value now is expected to be about $11 million.