Wal-Mart grocery first for Water Tower Commons
Neighborhood Market is first business named for former Holley site.
LANTANA — The developers of the incoming Water Tower Commons project attended the Lantana Town Council meeting Monday to request changes to already approved plans, some of which have to do with signage, specifically for a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market.
The market, which will also have a pharmacy, is the first business to be publicly named for the site on Lantana Road, where the A.G. Holley State Hospital sat for decades. The Commons project has been in the works since 2014, when Lantana Development, a partnership between Southeast Legacy, headed by Kenco Communities’ Ken Endelson, and Wexford Capital, bought the land. The group paid the state $15.6 million for more than 70 acres.
Wal-Mart’s market already has locations in Palm Beach County, including on Lantana Road at Jog Road, in Greenacres and west of Boynton Beach.
Residents and the council members have known a grocery store would be built, but have long wondered what it would be, with some hoping for a Trader Joe’s.
The council members, who approved all requests made by the developer, do not have any control over what businesses will go into the development. Still, some showed their concern regarding the developer’s choice.
“When I saw this I’m going, just like everybody else, ‘Wal-Mart? I don’t want a Wal-Mart,’” said Council Member Lynn Moorhouse.
Ken Tuma, on behalf of the d e ve l o p e r, i n s i s t e d t h a t t h e 44,000-square-foot store, which will serve some amount of organic food, is not a “180,000-square-foot mega-box.” He said it’s a “great alternative to Publix.”