Walmart plans to nearly double size of Gilford store

GILFORD — Walmart plans to nearly double the size of its store here. The project will be the focal point of reconfiguring the shopping center built on a hill overlooking Lake Shore Road (Rte. 11) following the departure of Hannaford Brothers, which recently opened across the highway at Winnipesaukee Crossing.

While most of the Walmart plaza lies in Gilford, more than half of the space currently occupied by Walmart and all of the space into which it would expand lies in Laconia.

WS Development Associates of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, the owner of the shopping center, has discussed a conceptual plan with the Gilford Planning Department with an eye to presenting a formal proposal to the Planning Board in February or March.

Walmart would expand from 69,474-square-feet to 131,474-square-feet by incorporating the 62,000-square-feet that houses Fashion Bug, Bootleggers and Olympia Sports. The new store would qualify as a "Walmart Supercenter," which range from 98,000-square-feet to 261,000-square-feet. Supercenters include a full-service supermarket and may also house a garden center, pet shop, pharmacy, optical center, photo processing lab, portrait studio, cellular phone store, hair and nail salon, branch bank or fast food outlets.

A half dozen smaller stores — Hair Excitement, Nail Envy, Tapei Osaka, Gamestop, Payless and Dollar Tree — would remain in the plaza, altogether occupying some 7,500-square-feet. The 49,277-square-feet that was formerly home to Hannaford Brothers would be divided into three retail spaces for lease to new tenants.

Access and egress to and from the plaza would not be changed, but there would be some realignment of the parking lot.

WS Development Associates, which owns, manages and leases a portfolio of more than 80 properties with more than 16-million square feet of retail space in six states, is listed among the International Council of Shopping Centers’ Top 50 shopping center owners. The company owns eleven properties in New Hampshire, among them centers with Walmart stores in Tilton, Epping and Rochester.