Nearly two years after Walmart Stores Inc. announced plans to bring four stores in two years to the District along with at least 1,200 jobs, and then upping the ante a year ago by adding two more stores to the mix, D.C. is still waiting on those stores, .
Just one of those six sites has begun construction, another has been reduced to a gaping hole in the middle of a retail corridor, and the remaining four are only in the permitting process.
“They have very limited experience going into big cities,” said Dan Malouff, a planner and contributor to the development blog Greater Greater Washington. Walmart’s undertaking in D.C., which includes incorporating stores into mixed-use developments, is still a new practice for a company that got its start in suburban mega-stores. “I just don’t think they knew how long things take here,” Malouff said.
