Mega-retailer coming to brownfield site?

A national retailer and grocery chain has applied to use state incentives to develop a brownfield property in southwest Miami-Dade County for a massive store location.

The undisclosed company, which some are speculating may be Wal-Mart Stores, would invest $9.5 million to build an 112,534-square-foot store in Kendall, Westchester or Fontainbleau, if its proposal is approved by the county commission.

The brownfield redevelopment bonus the company applied for would add $360,000 of state funds to that total, according to the South Florida Business Journal.

So far, the company spent $125,000 vetting the site and discovered the soil and groundwater there are contaminated from herbicide and pesticide use. The application for state funds stated the money would offset the costs of redeveloping the contaminated site.

If the company is Wal-Mart, the chain may see some pushback from the community for the low salaries it would pay to the future store’s roughly 180 employees. In an unrelated deal that put Midtown Miami residents in an uproar, Wal-Mart recently acquired a store site at 3055 North Miami Avenue for $8.2 million. [South Florida Business Journal] — Angela Hunt