Wally Properties Follows Wal-Mart Store Openings

As a lawyer, John Alford of Wally Properties LLC spent more than 20 years in Fort Smith helping clients with real estate transactions. It wasn’t until five years ago that he decided to get in the game himself.

Since then, Alford and partner Charles Palmer have developed or redeveloped more than 1 million SF of space in former Wal-Mart stores, or in what’s called “shadow” buildings near new Wal-Mart Supercenters.

His buildings typically sprout up next to, or across the street from Wal-Mart stores.

“I think from a legal background I had experience either representing developers or investors in real estate projects, prior to my actual being a developer,” Alford said. “I understand the process I have to go through. You don’t just go buy a piece of land and start building tomorrow.”

Although Alford wouldn’t get specific, he did say the business has brought the company close to “nine-figures” worth of holdings.

That includes White Cap Properties, an entity that has more than 300 multi-family units under development primarily in Florida. The duo has also developed more than seven residential subdivision projects in Northwest Arkansas.

Alford paired up with Palmer, a former client with at least 40 years of real estate experience under his belt.

“He has been in the real estate business all of his life,” Alford said of Palmer. “Charles spends most of his time in Florida, but we work together on everything.”

Palmer moved to Longboat Key, Fla., from Fort Smith three years ago.

Alford said he handles the legal work, but when it comes to finding projects and negotiating deals, it’s a team effort.

“I have tried to go to the areas where I see there is a need for additional retail and residential development,” Palmer said. “That is an awareness that I didn’t have in my real estate career early on,” Palmer said of his early Oklahoma- and Arkansas-centric developments.

Wally Realty, a division of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., relationship with Wal-Mart Realty, a division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., began in 2000, when the firm bought The Quarry, a Rogers Avenue shopping center in Fort Smith. Wal-Mart was leasing a part of the center at the time and the firm bought the center and remodeled it. Wally then worked out a deal to lease back a portion of the space to Wal-Mart for a Neighborhood Market.

Wally has completed about 50 projects across 12 states. It has renovated nine former Wal-Mart stores.

About two-thirds of Wally’s work has been new construction and one-third has been remodeling old buildings, Alford said.

Alford said about 75 percent of the firm’s work is retail/commercial and the rest is residential.

Several projects converted a former Wal-Mart store, called a “dark” building, into a combination of climate-controlled storage units in the back and a strip center in the front. The strip centers house tenants such as Dollar Tree and Payless Shoes.

The firm has at least a dozen projects in the works in different phases. Alford declined to say what the firm pays for former Wal-Mart stores.

Alford said he and his partner buy the land direct from Wal-Mart Realty or they buy it from an independent source. Often, the firm gets tips from brokers or leasing agents on hot properties. Wally transactions usually occur after the construction of a Wal-Mart has started.

“Right now we are going through a redistribution of population in the United States for two reasons: the baby boomers are looking for places to the south to move to,” Palmer said. “Along with that, we have the loss of jobs in what is referred to as the rust belt. So if those people want jobs, they are going to have to move where they are.”

Wally has a 10-acre development called Tuscany Square right across Pleasant Crossing Road from the new Wal-Mart Supercenter in Rogers that will contain a 40,000-SF strip center.

Alford has different firms handle the leasing nationally such as Dallas Real Estate Services Inc. in Fayetteville for Tuscany. Wally has also used Staubach Retail of Dallas.