Wal-Mart Closes Escrow on 1st O.C. Site, in Foothill Ranch

National discount retailer Wal-Mart has closed escrow on a site for its first Orange County retail center, which will be included in the $163-million Foothill Ranch Towne Centre project, developers said.

Monday’s announcement cements a 14-acre deal that Foothill developers originally announced in early August. In addition to Wal-Mart, Fullerton-based HomeBase has completed the purchase of an 11-acre site in Foothill Ranch where it will build a 125,000-square-foot store.

“Wal-Mart is one of a number of users who are an important part of our project,” said Chris A. Downey, a spokesman for the Foothill project, which is located in an incorporated area of the county less than five miles northeast of the El Toro Y interchange.

Wal-Mart will build a 125,000-square-foot store on its 14 acres. Several other Orange County locations are being considered by the Arkansas-based retailer. In June, Laguna Niguel officials said the retailer is close to signing an agreement to locate in that city’s Marketplace shopping center. And in July, the city of Anaheim announced that Wal-Mart will open next year in the revamped Anaheim Plaza.

When completed by its two developers, the Foothill Ranch Co. and Newport Beach-based Pacific Development Group, the Foothill Ranch Towne Centre is expected to be the second biggest retail complex in Orange County, next in size to Costa Mesa’s South Coast Plaza.