Wal-Mart planning store in Carver

By Mark W. Olson

In a few years, the city of Carver will join the ranks of Chaska, Chanhassen, Eden Prairie and Shakopee, with its own big box retail corridor.

As new Highway 212 pushes west, plans are solidifying for a large commercial district at the County Road 147 and Highway 212 intersection.

Wal-Mart and Mark Lano recently entered into a purchase agreement for his 26.5 acres of farmland near the intersection.

The property is adjacent to a 96.72-acre site, purchased late last year by Mills Fleet Farm. Fleet plans to place a store on the southern portion of the property, according to Carver City Planner Cindy Olness.

The purchases speak to recent and projected growth in Carver County, as well as the commercial access new Highway 212 will provide.

“It will be great access from all directions. It’s a centrally located spot with a lot of new housing and residential all around there,” said Julie Idelkope, Wal-Mart senior manager of public affairs for Minnesota. “I think that being at that intersection of what will be two major highways is a great location,” she added.

The size of the store is yet to be determined, Idelkope said. “It would be safe to say it’s a (Wal-Mart) Super Center, meaning it would be a full grocery/general merchandise (store).”

Carver County residents have expressed interest in a Wal-Mart, Idelkope said. “We’re very interested in a location in Carver County,” she said. “We think that land Mark Lano has is a great site.”

When Lano first purchased his rolling farmland in 1976, he used it to raise corn, soy beans and Hereford cattle. The crops supplemented what he earned farming his grandfather’s land just west of Chaska.

Later, Lano began working in another family business, Lano Equipment, Inc., founded by the Lano brothers in Chaska. He moved to another company before semi-retiring a few years ago. Meanwhile, he rented out his farmland.

Now he stays busy keeping abreast of various county, township and city plans for his land. He is also involved in MnDOT’s eminent domain proceedings, (MnDOT took about 13.5 acres of his land for the nearby highway.)

He declined to discuss the financial arrangement with Wal-Mart. According to county documents, the adjacent 96.72 acres of land was purchased by Mills Properties Inc. for about $9.5 million.

The purchase would necessitate the Lanos moving from their home (a planned road goes directly through his house), but Mark said that he and his wife, Sam, intend to stay in the community.

People have assumed he has already sold the land, Lano said, joking that if he did, people would hear that he and Sam had taken off for extended vacation to an “exotic” locale.

The big retail stores are at least two and one-half years away. And the land they will sit on isn’t even in Carver yet. Currently, the property is in Dahlgren Township.

The township board recently allowed Carver to conduct an environmental assessment, called an AUAR (Alternative Urban Area Review), of the Fleet Farm and Wal-Mart property, according to Dahlgren Township Clerk Janice Buckentine.

“We plan to enter into discussion regarding an orderly annexation sometime next year,” said Olness.

Besides annexation, there are a few other issues to work out – notably expansion of water and sewer to the property.

Water should be expanded to the land by summer 2009, Olness said. (A new water tower is planned at the site.) Meanwhile, the city is working with the Metropolitan Council to expand sewer lines to Carver, expected by December 2009. That means that it would be early 2010 before any of the big box retail opened on the property, Olness said.

“At this point, it’s premature to discuss timelines,” said Idelkope, who stressed that Wal-Mart is “just starting to have initial discussions with Dahlgren Township and the city of Carver. … I just don’t want to give the impression that this is further along,” Idelkope said, adding, “We’re committed to working with the city and township.”

“It’s a slow process, but it’s a process,” said Lano, who praised the government and Wal-Mart officials he has worked with.

During the past four or five years, Lano said many developers approached him about his land. “I was so concerned about this large company. I’m just this little guy who owns a few acres of land. They have been the ultimate of professionals,” he said.