A Fresno engineering firm has filed plans with the city of Visalia for 27-acre shopping center at the southwest corner of Mooney and Visalia Parkway at the southern end of town.
Lars Andersen & Associates submitted the new site plan to the city for a hearing this week. The shopping center’s main tenant would be one of largest retail stores in Visalia at 171,000 square feet. Next to the store is a 12-pump gas station, a car wash and several restaurants. The proposed big shopping center has 922 parking spaces.
The location of the project could serve both Tulare and Visalia.
The scale of the project has Visalians talking. The revised plan for the shopping center, called Visalia Commons, is the same regional shopping center where the Visalia City Council turned down a proposed CarMax dealership a few years ago – but the center does have some new existing restaurants and stores along the frontage including Texas Roadhouse, Les Schwab, Panda Express and Dutch Brothers – already in business.
City Planner Josh Dan says the engineer’s filing does not include an operational statement for the big tenant but the city will require that – so it may be clearer in the next few weeks. A preliminary hearing will be held Wednesday. Sources say the mystery retailer is likely a Sam’s Club store although no one will go on the record.
A warehouse competitor to Costco, the company is owned by Walmart. Visalia has several Walmarts but no Sam’s Club that, like rival Costco, requires membership to shop. There are Sam’s Club stores in Bakersfield and Fresno. Both have company gas stations next to the stores like the Visalia site plan. Besides general merchandise, Sam’s Club stores sell groceries and have an automotive service center. The average Sam’s Club store employs about 200 people.
The company recently announced they would add more stores, and the stores would be larger.For the fiscal year ending January 31, 2023, Sam’s Club’s revenue was $84.3 billion. There are almost 600…
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