Charlie asked:
"Does anyone know whether Walmart was given any taxpayer supported incentives to move into the KMart space? Did it come in based only on its judgement that it would be a good place to do business or was it enticed in by tax breaks or other city giveaways? "
To the best of my knowledge, there were no tax incentives at all. I imagine that when KMart announced its restructuring/store closings, Walmart simply went around the country saying, "We'll take this one and this one and this one ..." at pennies on the dollar. Despite our philosophical differences, I think we can all agree that Walmart knows a bargain when it sees one! As most of you probably know, big box retailers have commercial real estate agents on the lookout for prime locations everywhere across the country (world?).
And yes, I agree with Charlie that the entire auto-centric Midway Center/Marketplace is an abomination.
Don Ludemann
Snelling Hamline
