Walmart To Host Community Meeting For Ringling Store

Walmart is inviting the neighborhood out to talk about its proposed Supercenter in the Ringling Shopping Center.

A community meeting is scheduled for 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 15, at , 2100 E. Laurel St.

Walmart is which is a 97,779-square-foot store with 370 regular parking spaces, and would have to demolish the city's oldest shopping center to make way for the new store. The meeting invitiation also promotes an "energy efficient store with enhanced architectural design features complimentary to downtown Sarasota."

Holding a community meeting isn't new for Walmart in Sarasota. When the company worked on gaining approvals for the Walmart Neighborhood Market on the corner of Myrtle Street and North Tamiami Trail, the featuring a rendering of the proposed store.

The Neighborhood Market received approval, and is set to open in October.

, but so far has not put in an official application for the plan for it to move to the next step, said Courtney Mendez, senior planner for the City of Sarasota.

The community meeting is a voluntary meeting held by Walmart.