Retail development in the valley: signs of growth in Palmer, Wasilla, and Big Lake.

• Author: White, Rindi
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Building Alaska

As the retail hub of Alaska, Southcentral is generally humming with new commercial construction. In the past few years, whole retail complexes have been added in Anchorage and Mat-Su. While things are a little slower this year, particularly in Anchorage, retail construction is still happening in the Valley.

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The City of Palmer is home to one of the largest new retail construction projects underway this season. Fred Meyer is building a new store there, after having outgrown the 66,000-square-foot store currently in Palmers downtown district. At 137,000 square feet, the new store is nearly double the size of the existing store, though it won't be as large as the neighboring nearly 169,000-square-foot Wasilla Fred Meyer. But it will carry most of the same items available at that store: clothing, home furnishings, an expanded grocery and organic foods space, and other general merchandise, Fred Meyer Spokeswoman Melinda Merrill says. It's expected to be open in March 2017 and is expected to employ between 240 and 250 employees, 60 to 70 more than work at the existing store, Merrill says.

It will be located across the Glenn Highway from its current location, on the site that was once the Carrs Mall, a long-defunct mall that used to house the Carrs/Safeway store. Merrill says Fred Meyer is investing $35 million in the new store, which is being built by Idaho-based ESI Construction.

Retail in Wasilla Is Creeping Westward

Wasilla is seeing a spate of growth near its western boundary, on Rupee Circle near Burchell High School.

A new Mudbusters Car Wash is nearly finished on that street, and Alaska USA Federal Credit Union is building a new, 3,200-square-foot branch, also on Rupee Circle.

Miller Construction Equipment recently built a 2,766 square-foot heavy equipment sales/equipment maintenance facility on Rupee Circle, says Wasilla City Planner Tina Crawford. NC Machinery operates a Caterpillar heavy equipment dealership at the end of Rupee Circle.

Just up the Parks Highway on Lamont Way, near Jacobsen Lake, a 7,814-square-foot daycare has been permitted, she says. It's a significant amount of growth in a part of the city that has not previously attracted a lot of new development. City Administrator Lyn Carden says the city has long hoped for growth toward the west end of town, but it hasn't offered any specific incentives to make it happen--aside from the incentives available to any commercial entity seeking to do business in...