Deal signed despite lack of incentives

By Matt Williams, Staff Writer
Greensboro News & Record

GREENSBORO -- Earlier this month, the developers of the former Carolina Circle Mall insisted that unless taxpayers gave them $300,000, northeast Greensboro's first Wal-Mart Supercenter would not be built.

Two weeks later -- without that help -- the deal was completed anyway.

Wal-Mart's real estate holding arm bought the land along U.S. 29 near East Cone Boulevard from the development company of local anesthesiologist and entrepreneur Don Linder. The price: $3.3 million according to property records. The sale was signed June 21 and recorded by the Register of Deeds on Tuesday.

Linder and a representative for Wal-Mart could not be reached for comment on the sale.

In May, Linder, Wal-Mart and Councilman Robbie Perkins began lobbying the City Council for the incentives, saying that the deal was "dead" unless the city could help the developer overcome unexpected problems. The council agreed to hold a public hearing on the proposal, but when details became public, council members started to sour on the deal.

With support eroding, Linder withdrew his request June 7 but said he might return later for assistance.

At the time, Perkins insisted that Wal-Mart would not locate at the abandoned mall site unless the city provided the money. He raised the specter that without the incentives, the land could sit abandoned for decades. The mall's last major tenant, Montgomery Ward, shut its doors in 2001

"Either the city comes to the table or this deal falls apart," Perkins said June 2.

The plan was also pitched as a way to bring Wal-Mart to an area of the city that many feel is underserved by retailers.

Others council members said they were told by Wal-Mart officials that the deal wouldn't go through without incentives. Don Vaughan, who opposed the incentives, said he grilled two company representatives about their plans and was assured that city aid was a requirement.

"They told me unequivocally that it wouldn't happen without incentives," he said. "I assume they re-evaluated their decision after they talked with me."

Vaughan said cities are often left with the promises of incentive-seekers and little more.

"I don't know whether to believe them or not," Vaughan said. "I have to assume they're telling the truth."

Another incentive opponent on the council, Tom Phillips, said Wal-Mart's move illustrates that the city is often asked to pay for a project that would have located here without any help.

"They make their decision about what they want to do and they see what they can get from us," Phillips said.

Perkins said he is glad that Linder could make the deal work even without the $300,000 aid package. He said the request wasn't a bargaining position and that the deal wouldn't have gone through if not for the attention city staffers gave to the project.

"I'm pleased that the deal went through," he said.

Under Linder's plans, the abandoned mall would be demolished and replaced with a Wal-Mart, a home improvement center and other smaller shops.