Wal-Mart Supercenter on Victory Drive opens June 22

The planning, construction and hiring are behind it. Now, the new Wal-Mart Supercenter that has been in the works more than two years is counting down the days until its June 22 grand opening at 3515 Victory Drive in Columbus.

“With major construction complete, we’re in the home stretch for our grand opening,” store manager Quacheryl Pugh said in a statement. “We’re proud of our new store and look forward to offering Columbus residents everyday low prices.”

The 159,357-square-foot supercenter replaces the much smaller Wal-Mart discount store at 4701 Buena Vista Road, with its final day on Tuesday, the day before the new location’s debut. The older store has been open since 1989, but never offered a full line of groceries, which led Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart to construct a Neighborhood Market on Buena Vista Road in April. It is one of four of the full-line grocery stores to open in Columbus and Phenix City in recent months.

The new supercenter, which employs about 150 people and is the fifth such Wal-Mart big-box store in the local market, will include a gas station at the corner of Victory Drive and Benning Drive. The property’s southern end has additional tenant space, with city building permits showing there will be a Hibbett Sports outlet, a T-Mobile store and a BTJ Wings eatery. An existing A-1 Pawn store has been relocated to the end of the small strip center.

A traffic signal also has been added on Victory Drive for traffic into and out of the supercenter, with nearly 40,000 vehicles a day already passing through that portion of the city, which doubles as major routes for U.S. Highways 280 and 27.

The completion of the Wal-Mart supercenter and Neighborhood Markets wraps up a wave of new locations in the Columbus area by the mega-retailer. They add to an already heavy presence by Wal-Mart locally, with it also operating a supercenter and Sam's Club on Whittlesey Boulevard, and supercenters on Airport Thruway and Gateway Road, all in Columbus, along with a supercenter on U.S. Highway 280 in Phenix City.

The new supercenter has been constructed on 18 acres of land that once was home to Baker High School, which opened in 1943 before closing nearly five decades later in 1991. The red-brick structure was torn down in 2011 following a major fire.

This story was originally published June 14, 2016 at 5:48 PM with the headline "Wal-Mart Supercenter on Victory Drive opens June 22."