Wal-Mart is opening its first-ever Wal-Mart Express next week in a small city in Arkansas, part of a new format of small stores that could ultimately help the retailer break into the New York City market. According to the New York Times, Wal-Mart is aiming its Express chain — whose branches will contain around 15,000 square feet — at rural and urban areas where grocery stores are relatively scarce. After opening the prototype in Gentry, two more Express stores will open in Chicago this summer, followed by another dozen nationwide by the end of the year. If the Chicago market proves to be a success, New York City could be next, a Wal-Mart spokesperson said. [more]

In his first video interview since being hired away last week from Winick Realty Group, veteran retail broker Benjamin Fox, executive vice president at Massey Knakal Realty Services, says discount giant Wal-Mart Stores might look for locations in Herald Square, near Bloomingdales in Midtown, or in Queens, among other places. Fox was speculating, and is not working with Wal-Mart in the search. In addition, Fox and Robert Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal, told Insights from The Real Deal that property values often rise after a major chain retailer moves in.

But any opening is far off, Fox said, citing a high-level, internal Wal-Mart memo he had seen. “Everyone is getting way ahead of themselves,” he said. The Bentonville, Ark., global chain began a publicity push this month in New York City, as it tries to open its first store, after abandoning efforts twice before due to community opposition.
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Wal-Mart is scouting out New York City locations as part of a push to open small locations in urban markets, the Associated Press reported. The superstore has been “on an aggressive roll” and has been talking to landlords and brokers about locations in Queens and Lower Manhattan, said Prudential Douglas Elliman retail chairman Faith Hope Consolo. The ideal size for the company is 20,000 square feet — larger than a drugstore but smaller than a supermarket, real estate executives said. A detailed explanation of Wal-Mart’s urban expansion strategy is expect next month at a meeting with analysts at the company’s headquarters. Competitor Target, meanwhile, is also making moves on the urban landscape, but is mostly looking for stores in the 60,000- to 100,000-square-foot range. Target opened its first Manhattan store in East Harlem this summer and is slated to open its doors in Queens’ new Sky View Center in 2011. [AP via Crain's]

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Three non-profit organizations have signed full-floor leases at 147 West 24th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues, according to landlord the Moinian Group. Meanwhile, the city began a $266 million remediation project on a Staten Island landfill today, and a Riverdale, N.J. shopping center welcomed Best Buy as a new tenant. Click here for more. TRD [more]

If you are a national or international retailer, it is your objective to operate a retail store in New York City, with Manhattan remaining the prize location. And in the down market, more national chains are capitalizing on lower rents. On July 31, Texas-based J.C. Penney opened its first Manhattan location at the Manhattan Mall. Later this year, residents of Manhattan will no longer have to travel to Astoria or Brooklyn to shop at Costco Warehouse Club. Costco is scheduled to open its long-awaited store in East Harlem at 116th Street at East River Plaza. [more]

Wal-Mart is searching for potential New York City locations,
particularly in the outer boroughs. The company’s executives say the
recession has created an opportunity for Wal-Mart to enter the New York
City market. The company is likely to look at neighborhoods where there
is a high demand for jobs and supermarkets, according to Crain’s.
Wal-Mart tried to open stores in Queens and on Staten Island several
years ago, but labor unions blocked the move, worried that the store
would hurt unionized and small retailers. Union leaders and elected
officials said that, despite recently created Wal-Mart policies
designed to improve employee health care and green initiatives in
stores, they were unlikely to support any move into the city. [more]

Ellen Dunham-Jones, an
architecture professor at Georgia Tech and author of the book
“Retrofitting Suburbia,” said the U.S. is “overretailed.” In her
book, written with June Williamson, it says that in 1986, the U.S. had
about 15 square feet of retail space per person in shopping centers.
That was already a world-leading figure, but by 2003, that increased to
20 square feet per person. The fact that the country is “overretailed”
might seem more obvious in a down economy as chains close up shop, but
the spread of newer and bigger stores and malls caused retail vacancy
in boom years as well. In Julia Christensen’s book “Big Box Reuse,”
published last year, the author documented former Wal-Mart and Kmart
locations that became vacant because the chains were expanding into
larger locations nearby, leaving the smaller stores abandoned.