Duarte : Wal-Mart Talks Proceed

City officials are negotiating with Wal-Mart in hopes that the mega-retailer will build a store near Mountain Avenue at the Foothill Freeway.

The city stands to gain an estimated $400,000 in annual sales tax revenue.

Arkansas-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is drawing plans to build a 126,000-square-foot store on a 13-acre parcel just south of the 210 Freeway at Mountain and Evergreen avenues.

At its regular meeting last week, the City Council voted to postpone until its April 13 meeting a decision on whether to approve a development agreement involving the city, the Redevelopment Agency and Wal-Mart.

That agreement will govern how much each party will contribute toward buying the land and how the store will be constructed. Several points must be negotiated, city officials said.

The lot is the former headquarters of an electronics company called Conrac Corp. The real estate broker overseeing the deal could not be reached for comment, and city officials declined to divulge the amount the owner is asking for the land.

Wal-Mart is expecting to begin building this summer and open for business sometime in 1994.