Planning Commission approves Walmart expansion

STERLING HEIGHTS — The Walmart at Mound Road and M-59 is leveling up.

The Sterling Heights Planning Commission last month approved a proposal to upgrade the store to what the company calls a “Supercenter” — boosting its existing footprint by more than 40,000 square feet and adding a gas station.

“This has been in the making for a little over 10 years,” said Frank Gatlin, CEO of Gatlin Development Co. and the driving force behind the Forum at Gateways Shopping Center, where Walmart is located.

Speaking from Florida by phone at the Jan. 14 Planning Commission meeting, Gatlin thanked officials for their support and said the expanded Walmart means stability and vibrancy for the entire shopping center.

“When this is done, it's going to look like a brand new development when it opens,” Gatlin said. “It's going to increase the traffic and the viability of this development.”

Walmart, he said, will renew its lease for 20 years. Other shopping center tenants include LA Fitness, Dollar Tree, an AMC movie theater and a number of bars and restaurants. Gatlin said occupancy is 100%.

Plans call for Walmart to increase in size to 172,816 square feet. The expansion includes:

– A new grocery addition and second entry vestibule.

– New dedicated space for online pickup delivery.

– An additional truck dock.

– A recycling center.

Parking lot repairs are planned as part of the project, along with landscape additions totaling 103 trees and 535 shrubs. There also will be a new walkway from the front of the Walmart store through the parking lot, which, according to the city’s planning office, “will greatly increase pedestrian access, allow for better walkability throughout the entire site, and beautify the existing parking lot.”

The fuel center, meanwhile, will feature 10 gas pumps and 16 new charging stations for electric vehicles.

Planning Commissioner Nathan Inks said he expects the EV chargers will be a popular addition to the shopping center. Although developers said the chargers would be used primarily by customers, Inks predicted a much broader appeal.

“I think you’re going to see those chargers utilized heavily,” he said, drawing on his own experience seeking places to power up an electric vehicle.

“I think what you're going to see is people are going to come here and they're either going to go into Walmart and shop, or they're going to patronize those other restaurants,” he said. “It's important that we try to incentivize smart EV charging placement. This is very smart EV charging placement.” 

Planning Commission Chairman Geoffrey Gariepy agreed that the shopping center is an ideal place for EV charging.

“I think that this is going to have a bigger draw in terms of EV charging than even Walmart is calculating,” he said. “I don't see too many places where you can go and get an EV charged, and the ones that I've seen … have been in these barren parking lots that don’t look like the kind of place that I’d want to hang out, much less sit there in my car for 45 minutes or an hour in the middle of the night. So this is a very nice looking property and the plans for it are solid. I think that this is going to be a good thing, and I think it’s going to be a net benefit for Walmart, too, because I think they’re going to get a lot more business out of this than they figure on.”

At the finale of the Jan. 14 planning meeting, Gariepy announced that he was stepping down from the commission. Inks was subsequently elected as the board’s new chairman.

Jake Parcell, Sterling Heights’ city planner and development manager, said he appreciated Gariepy’s contributions.

“A heartfelt thank you from the city of Sterling Heights,” Parcell said. “A decade of community service as a volunteer — late nights, long hours — is very difficult. You’ve done a wonderful job.”

Gariepy called his tenure on the Planning Commission “the dream that I didn’t know I had.”

“I think that I grew personally in an enormous way,” he said. “It’s been an experience I will never forget.”

Call Staff Writer Gary Winkelman at 586-498-1070.