Wal-Mart Stores Inc. finally is set to open its Burbank supercenter this June following a three-year delay caused by resident pushback and issues with the city. The world’s largest retailer originally planned to open the outlet in Burbank’s Empire Center in late 2013, but was derailed due to pending street improvements that the city had yet to complete. After a few hurdles – such as the rescission of building permits by the city and a legal battle with a few residents – the store will soon open its doors in the former 143,000-square-foot Great Indoors store space. Walmart purchased the building in 2011 from Sears Holdings Corp. – operator of the now defunct Great Indoors chain – as part of a strategy to expand in Los Angeles County. There are about a dozen Walmarts in the greater Valley area, with the closest locations to Burbank nearly 10 miles away in Panorama City and Altadena. “I believe us being the only supercenter on this side of town is going to be pretty great for the community,” said Panthi Patel, the store’s general manager. “We have a full assortment of groceries and gym merchandise. We will also be offering same-day pickup, which is very convenient for the customers who order something online and within the store level.” Tenant mix Walmart has already started hiring for the Burbank store, and is looking to employ 300 people to run it. The big box retailer will have plenty of competition as the Burbank Empire Center is home to several stores selling similar goods including T.J. Maxx, Target, Best Buy and Lowe’s. Plus, there’s also a Costco down the street. Though the proposed discount store received a lot of push back from residents when initially proposed to the city in 2011, Westlake Village broker Michael Schiff with NAI Capital Inc. said much of the fear and resentment directed at Walmart is blown out of proportion. “People always say that Walmart is bad for an area because it puts so many mom-and-pop retailers out of business … but few smaller mom-and-pop retailers sell the same merchandise as Walmart these days since there is just no way to compete,” Schiff said in an email to the Business Journal. “In fact, all the brick-and-mortar retailers have to compete with online sales, so they have adapted by offering either products or services that the big box retailers and online retailers don’t offer.” Schiff also said Walmart has a track record of increasing traffic flows that benefit nearby retailers. Scott Unger, a broker at Charles Dunn Co.’s tri-cities office, said the center appears to be fully leased with very little vacancies. The broker said he had been attempting to get a finance client into that center for some time now, but to no avail. “Tenants are historically very stable there, and there has not been a lot of vacancy,” he said. “The center has a pretty decent mix, and I would expect that to continue with the addition of the Walmart.” Walmart proposed the new center in 2011 and was due to open in 2013 after receiving approval and permits from the city the year prior – but a lawsuit soon emerged. Three residents claimed the city had not made promised street improvements around the power center before approving the supercenter – noting that these improvements were required before completion of the Empire Center back in 2001. Los Angeles Superior Court sided with residents in 2013, stating that the city was required to do traffic mitigations before Walmart could take up residence at the center, and the retailer’s permits were revoked. But a state appeals court reversed the ruling last April, stating that the lack of street improvements should not halt the project. The Second District Court of Appeals released a 40-page decision stating that the lack of traffic mitigation was the city’s error, and that fact alone was no reason to rescind the building permits. “At the time the city was reviewing the Empire Center development project – which was plainly envisioned as a broad-based retail destination – everyone from public officials to the general public recognized that retailers such as Walmart might operate in the overall retail area,” the appellate court decision read. Changing traffic mitigation Following the appeals court ruling last year, the city was required to either implement the traffic improvements outlined in the original environmental report, or to conduct another report determining whether the improvements were still needed. Drew Sugars, city public information officer, said at that time that Burbank would follow through with the improvements before the Walmart opened. “We’re definitely complying with the judges’ order and reviewing environmental documents to make sure we’re in compliance,” Sugars told the Business Journal last year. “We’re not thumping out there next week with jackhammers or anything, but we would hope in the next few months or certainly this calendar year that construction will begin.” But after conducting a Supplemental Environmental Impact Report, the city has made alternate plans. The original report finalized in 2000 called for the addition of turn lanes at two key intersections in particular – Buena Vista Street at Victory Boulevard, and Buena Vista Street at Empire Avenue. But the new report finalized last month focuses on a traffic mitigation project the city has had in the works for nearly two decades that will make another access point to the center from the Golden State 5 freeway. David Kriske, assistant community development director with the city, said Burbank officials have decided that the improvements outlined before the Empire Center was completed are neither feasible nor necessary – especially since they require the acquisition and demolition of a lot of private property. “The improvements that were deferred were nowhere near where the Walmart is going, which is why they didn’t make sense,” Kriske said. “The bigger improvement is that Caltrans is in the process of constructing a new interchange at Empire Avenue that’s been in the making for two decades and is under construction now. It will improve access greatly to the Empire Center.” According to the report, completely throwing out plans to add turn lanes to the two key intersections may have some impacts to the traffic intersections at Buena Vista Street, but it would be even more detrimental and costly to acquire and dislocate several businesses in order to complete them. “It is possible that when considering all the future traffic generated by the Empire Center, there is a reasonable possibility (that) cumulative traffic conditions in 2035 at this location could be significant even with implementation of the operational mitigation measure,” the new report states. As outlined in the final report, the city will instead focus its efforts on the Empire Avenue Interchange, a 10-year-old project led by California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) that will bring a series of enhancements to the freeway including adding an interchange at Empire Avenue, providing new access to the congested Empire Center and Burbank Bob Hope Airport. Kriske said the interchange should be complete by mid-2018. “One of the biggest intersections in the city next to the Costco maps out traffic from the I-5 and routes it to the center,” Kriske added. “Now all the traffic funnels through that I-5, but when the Empire Interchange opens you’ll have two points of access from the freeway.”