SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- The first Walmart Neighborhood Market in the city is set to open soon. Its location on Republic Road at Golden Avenue is one of several in the area causing quite a bit of buzz. One church knows about that all too well.
The South Creek Church is right across the street from a new Neighborhood Market. When it was announced the building was officially going to be a Neighborhood Market, Pastor Justin Nelson's phone started ringing.
It turns out that land near a Walmart store is prime property. The church has only been in its location on Republic for three years. It didn't have any plan to leave until a real estate agent told the church that its land that it bought for $640,000 could be worth double that now.
"[The agent] said, 'Well, I think we can make it worth your while.' He said he probably had four or five guys, retailers, that he would petition to sell the property for well over what we had purchased it for," said Nelson.
"This place could be used as a location for many different things. It could be a small shopping center. It could be a restaurant. It could be whatever this zoning allows them. There is a lot of opportunity here for the future," said real estate agent Sebastian Fernandes.
If the church sells the property, it will use the money to buy new land and build a new building. More importantly, Nelson said, it will have more money to use to help the community around it.
