Newport: No to Wal-Mart

Newport: No to Wal-Mart
But Target, Kroger might be part of development
BY MIKE RUTLEDGE ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER





NEWPORT - A Wal-Mart Supercenter will not be part of the proposed Newport Pavilion retail development, pleased city officials said Wednesday.

Target and Kroger Co. appear to remain at the center of developer Bear Creek Capital's major-tenant negotiations, but city officials - who hope to make an announcement in coming weeks - declined to comment on the likelihood.

But they would like that to happen.


At least some city commissioners opposed Wal-Mart, saying the store could not anchor the kind of upscale development they had envisioned.

"Wal-Mart was never on the radar screen for the Board of Commissioners to begin with," Mayor Tom Guidugli said.

Although the city's development agreement with Bear Creek did not give Newport power to veto specific stores, "Do you know how difficult we can be to work with if the project isn't what we want?" he asked.

"We do own the property," Guidugli said. "But it's difficult to negotiate that stuff in the press. Then you're (angering) the people you've got to negotiate with.

"We didn't agree on some of the same things on the tenant mix, and we told them up front what we wanted," Guidugli said about Bear Creek. "And they looked like they were moving in a different direction, and the board wasn't very happy about it."

Bear Creek has said there were always two proposed versions of the project.

"I don't think it was an anti-Wal-Mart thing," said Commissioner Beth Fennell. "I just think we had a different vision than that.

"We started out with a Rookwood-type vision, and then they all of a sudden put more like a Wal-Mart type vision," Fennell said.

Rookwood Commons is an upscale shopping center in Norwood

"Now, we're maybe somewhere in the middle," she said.

"Originally, before 2001, we envisioned sort of an upscale-type shopping center, but for various reasons, that didn't get out of the ground as quickly as we hoped," Fennell said. "And in the meantime, Crestview Hills (Town Center) was built.

"Originally, in my mind, that would have been the type of mix we would have had - the Dillard's, and that Main Street-look to it," Fennell said. "That was my vision, and I think at one time that was what we thought we were going to get, but that was with the previous developer (Neyer Properties) and then a lot of things changed - marketing decisions, economic conditions changed, and then we changed developers."

Guidugli said he likes Target.

"I talk to the young people that have kids and do a lot of shopping, and their families always dress well, and most of them shop at Target," he said. "So I think it's a good fit. And there's none in Campbell County."

E-mail mrutledge@nky.com






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