Wal-Mart Plans First Three-story Store

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced on Feb. 11 that it will open its first three-story store early in 2001.

The store will also be the first Wal-Mart in central Los Angeles. It will open after renovations to the 150,000-SF building that previously housed a Macy’s department store.

Wal-Mart opened its first two-story store in the United States in Panorama City, a section of Los Angeles. That Wal-Mart is in a building that previously housed a Broadway department store.

The new store will be in the 831,455-SF Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, a 12-year-old mall owned and managed by Center Trust Inc., a West Coast retail real estate investment trust.

Cynthia Lin, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman, says the new store is expected to employ 250 to 300 people, 70 percent of whom will be full-time.

Lin says Wal-Mart is committed to hiring locally so that its stores reflect the diversity of the communities they serve.

Not only is Wal-Mart the nation’s leading employer with more than 885,000 associates, Lin says, the company is also the country’s leading employer of both Hispanics and African-Americans.