Last modified: Wednesday, July 2, 2008 2:29 AM EDT Wrentham officials: Wal-Mart not coming BY STEPHEN PETERSON SUN CHRONICLE STAFF WRENTHAM - Word that has been circulating the past few years that Wal-Mart was going to open a store in town will apparently remain rumor. Town officials say they have recently been told the retail giant isn't coming to Wrentham. "I hear Wal-Mart is not coming to town," Town Planner Paige Duncan said. "I never saw anything official" that the discounter was coming. "Unofficially, I have been told they have abandoned" any plans, Duncan said. The site that had been eyed is the Simeone property off South Street (Route 1A) and Green Street and near Wrentham Village Premium Outlets. Access would have been through the BJs warehouse site off South Street. The Simeone land had been the target of several controversial proposals over the years, including a water park, and now part of the land is being developed into warehouse use. Some had speculated a Wal-Mart store would be built on a large parcel of commercial land across from the outlet mall on South Street that has been targeted for various development proposals over the years. However, buildings are limited to 37,500 square feet, Duncan said. Town meeting voters several years ago opposed increasing the allowable size, which prevented a supermarket from locating there. Wal-Mart stores can run upwards of 200,000 square feet, the town planner said. A half-dozen smaller retail businesses are planned by Ryan Development at the location, but no tenants have been announced. Site work began last year there and is scheduled to continue through this year, Duncan said. There has also been work near Nickerson Lane's intersection with South Street on a drainage system for the development. Another long-talked-about project in the area, a ramp to Interstate 495 to ease traffic near the outlet mall, is creeping along. The state Highway Department is in the preliminary design phase of that $4 million project. Construction isn't scheduled until 2010 at the earliest, and Duncan said she was told by MassHighway there would be a "three to five-year window." The state is working to acquire the Northland Farms nursery land for the ramp, and the nursery is looking to relocate its business. Duncan said a developer's pursuit of the nursery site for affordable housing apparently spurred the state to seriously look into acquiring the land. That developer, Fairfield Associates, recently dropped plans for a controversial 200-unit apartment complex on adjacent land. "They want to do it before it gets developed," Duncan said of the state and ramp. STEPHEN PETERSON can be reached at 508-236-0377 or at speterson@thesunchronicle.com.