Nearly two years after Walmart Stores Inc. announced plans to bring four stores in two years to the District along with at least 1,200 jobs, and then upping the ante a year ago by adding two more stores to the mix, D.C. is still waiting on those stores, the Washington Examiner reported.
Just one of those six sites has begun construction, another has been reduced to a gaping hole in the middle of a retail corridor, and the remaining four are only in the permitting process.
“They have very limited experience going into big cities,” said Dan Malouff, a planner and contributor to the development blog Greater Greater Washington. Walmart’s undertaking in D.C., which includes incorporating stores into mixed-use developments, is still a new practice for a company that got its start in suburban mega-stores. “I just don’t think they knew how long things take here,” Malouff said.
