Wal-Mart gets OK for Cayce supermarket

Cayce officials gave retailing giant Wal-Mart the go-ahead Monday to open its first neighborhood market in the Midlands.

The Lexington County community’s planning commission signed off on a plan for a 42,000-square-foot grocery flanked by a service station and a 6,300-square-foot annex that would house other stores.

Approval from the panel is all that was needed from City Hall for the project to proceed since it redevelops a longtime commercial site.

The project will be on an 8.3-acre site in the 1200 block of Knox Abbott Drive that once was an auto dealership.

Work is scheduled to start in late summer, with the stores ready to open by the summer of 2016.

Besides food, the new supermarket will sell selected merchandise like prescription medicine and beauty products commonly available in other groceries, company officials have said.

The project meets all city development standards, Assistant City Manager Shaun Greenwood told commission members.

There was no opposition to the plan.

Officials of the Atlanta development firm Bright-Meyers agreed to meet with nearby merchants concerned about the realignment of traffic associated with a new traffic signal at Knox Abbott and Charleston Highway. The signal is designed to avert problems with entry and departure from the project.

Those retailers want “to make sure they won’t be hurt” by the change, said Marshall Hoefer, property manager for the group.

Tim Mitch, a Bright-Meyers executive, said the project is a “joint development” between his company and Wal-Mart. He declined to describe its specifics.

Mitch also declined to say if more Wal-Mart neighborhood markets are coming to the area, saying “it’s up in the air.”

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