Walmart Proposes 'Small Supercenter' At Ringling Shopping Center

Walmart wants to build a "small Supercenter" store by demolishing the rundown Ringling Shopping Center.

Walmart submitted a pre-application to the Sarasota Planning Department May 30 calling for a 97,779-square-foot store with 370 regular parking spaces, 13 handicap spaces and 10 cart corrals at the shopping center off of Ringling Boulevard.

“We’ve been fortunate to have a great relationship with the City of Sarasota and the shoppers,” Walmart spokesman Bill Wertz told Patch. The store would be the second Walmart in city limits, as a on the North Trail in October.

The Ringling store would be a “small Supercenter” format, Wertz said, offering general merchandise, pharmacy, deli, produce, groceries and more. A typical Supercenter would be about 150,000 square feet, Wertz said.

“I think both [stores] are examples of how Walmart is being more flexible than ever in terms of formats,” Wertz said. “It’s not one size fits all. We try to tailor our stores to the community’s needs and our shoppers.”

A pre-application phase entitles the company to meet with city staff to discuss its application and plan before a formal submission is completed that would prompt public review and comment, said the city’s senior planner Courtney Mendez.

From the moment a formal application is submitted, a series of public meetings with the Development Review Committee and eventually the Planning Board would be scheduled, signaling a potential three-to-four month process for approval, according to city staff. It appears that Walmart intends to move forward based on Wertz’s comments.

If the store would receive approval, it would open a year after that approval is received, putting it on a early estimated track for an October 2013 opening.

About 250 associates, as Walmart calls its employees, would be hired at the new store, Wertz said. A hiring center for the North Trail Neighborhood Market should open any day now, he added.

According to the plans, Walmart would demolish the city's oldest shopping center and reposition itself toward the south end of the propety and have the entrance of the store face north toward Ringling Boulevard. The rear of the store would be close to several homes in the Ringling Boulevard Association neighorhood.

Publix closed in October 2011 and in the same month moved to its modern store at 2031 Bay St.

Among the store and restaurants that have closed or relocated at the shopping center includes Waffle Shop Restaurant, China King Buffet, The UPS Store, Tai Ping Chinese Restaurant — and several of those closed before Publix moved.

There are few stores remaining, which would be gone as a result of Walmart.

Tom Ritchie owns three of the five businesses left in the center —  & and  Costume Center. Ritchie said he figured something was up at the center as he couldn’t renew his lease and will close by Nov. 30. The new Party Store would open in September at the Sarasota Crossing Shopping Center on Fruitville Road, he said, and he hopes his Ringling location will stay open through Halloween.

“Ringling Shopping Center was the first shopping center in town, and it’s sad to see it go by the wayside, but it already has,” Ritchie said. “This is just the announcement.”

Ritchie operated LTM there for 21 years and Glass Slipper for five years and was looking forward to leave. 

“Not only is it a dead plaza, but it’s a high theft plaza,” Ritchie said, adding that Walmart would have a better go of security and theft deterrents given their own sophisticated inventory and loss prevention systems and dedicated security staff. 

A new location has not yet been selected for The Glass Slipper, he added.

has sold tools at its Ringling Shopping Center location for seven years after moving from Lime Avenue where is now.

Store Manager Angel Colon doesn’t like the prospects of the Ringling store having to close for Walmart to open up shop.

“I hate Walmart,” Colon told Patch. “They’re a bully.”

Ace stores are independtly owned, and any decision to relocate or close the store would be up to the Schaefer family, which owns several D.G. Hardware stores, he explained. 

Colon touts that his store offers services and convenience you can’t get elsewhere.

“We’re have better service than they do,” Colon said. “We’re much better and more knowledgeable.”

Owners John and Linda Megge at said the store's lease ends June 30 and will continue month to month after that to sell the remaining inventory.

“We’re going into a retirement sale,” Linda Megge said.

The Megges marked items 40 to 90 percent off for the retirement sale.

John Megge said rent and other costs have increased and that, coupled with dwindled foot traffic, made it a good time to retire.

The landlord also didn’t allow the store to re-establish its lease, prompting speculation that redevelopment of the shopping center would soon come, Linda Megge said.

The emporium has operated at Ringling Shopping Center for eight years after being on Main Street for 24 years, John Megge said.

This article corrects the neighborhood bordered by the shopping center.