Vancouver approves scaled-back development agreement with Wal-Mart, others

The Vancouver City Council on Monday approved a scaled-back development agreement with Orchards property owners including Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart plans to build a 155,000-square-foot supercenter as part of a mixed-use development on the south side of Northeast Fourth Plain Boulevard, east of 143rd Avenue. In addition to the usual variety of merchandise, the store will include groceries and feature a bakery, deli, drive-through pharmacy and a fuel station.

The store will bring approximately 300 jobs, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman said earlier this month.

Construction will start after the city issues permits, likely to be done this fall.

The mixed-use development, first known as Eastgate Plaza, was annexed into the city in 2003. A Wal-Mart “coming soon” sign was placed on the property in 2006, but the project stalled through the recession.

In the meantime, approximately 18 acres of the original 218-acre site were sold to the U.S. Army in 2009 for a reserve training center.

Under the amended agreement for what’s now called the Birtcher Business Center, property owners California-based Birtcher Development Group, Wal-Mart, Portland-based Weston Investment Co. LLC, Vancouver-based Frances Keller Trust and 438 LLC of Vancouver will save millions of dollars, at least up front. The city scrapped a requirement that Northeast 59th Street be extended 15 blocks, from Northeast 147th to 162nd avenues. Instead, developers will have to pay to extend the street as abutting properties are developed.

Early estimates put the Northeast 59th Street extension project at approximately $19 million.