Wal-Mart Near Deal to Set Up Shop in O.C. : Retailing: Laguna Niguel officials say nation’s largest chain could bring first store in county to proposed Marketplace center.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is close to signing an agreement that would clear the way for the retailer’s first location in Orange County, city officials said Wednesday.

The Wal-Mart store would be in the Marketplace at Laguna Niguel, a proposed 425,000-square-foot shopping center near Pacific Park Drive and Alicia Parkway. The center, which is now in the municipal permitting process, also will house a Mervyn’s department store and a Vons supermarket.

Officials of Wal-Mart, which is the nation’s largest retailer, would not comment on the company’s expansion plans. But the shopping center’s Beverly Hills developer recently told Laguna Niguel officials that Wal-Mart is close to signing a “purchase and sale agreement” for a tract at the Marketplace.

Though city officials are not involved in those negotiations, “our understanding is that some agreement has been reached on a price for the land . . . and that (developers are) expecting execution of the purchase and sale agreement,” said Tim Casey, city manager.

Officials at Shappell Industries, which is developing the center on 44 acres, also would not comment on discussions with Wal-Mart. However, the developer has submitted a revised site plan for the shopping center that incorporates plans for a Wal-Mart.

Laguna Niguel isn’t the only municipality hoping to attract the owner of about 1,900 Wal-Marts and 250 Sam’s Club membership stores nationwide. City officials across Southern California are wooing the retailer, said Linda Crowley, president of Linda Crowley & Associates, an Irvine consulting firm.

“Everyone is trying to get Wal-Mart to commit,” Crowley said. “But until you have something signed, it’s not definite.”

That was the case in Burbank earlier this year when Wal-Mart dropped plans for a store on an 89-acre tract vacated by Lockheed Corp. Burbank officials said that Wal-Mart had offered $71 million for the land but subsequently withdrew the offer and instead began looking at lease options elsewhere in the area. Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., told Burbank city officials that it preferred to allow someone else to develop the shopping center and that it would then consider leasing space.

In Orange County, Wal-Mart reportedly has an interest in other locations beside Laguna Niguel. Officials at Anaheim Plaza, which is being knocked down to make way for a new retail complex, are “currently in discussions with Wal-Mart and several other retailers,” said Jan Wohlwend, general manager.

Work crews are scheduled to begin tearing down most of Anaheim Plaza in August, with a reconstructed mall to open for business on the site in late 1994. The shopping center, which will incorporate the existing Mervyn’s department store and the Marie Callender’s and Chili’s restaurants, will have about 600,000 square feet of leasable space, Wohlwend said.