Like the average retail employee, the rumor mill's been working overtime: Wal-Mart may be coming to Wawarsing any day now.

On Tuesday morning, two surveyors working out of an unmarked grey van with New Jersey license plates were spotted in the parking lot of the Napanoch Valley Mall, the site of the abandoned Ames and Grand Union buildings. The two workers said that they were measuring the boundaries of the property, and when asked for which firm the two surveyors worked, they said that they were from a company called Control Point, based out of Warren, NJ. When asked if Wal-Mart had hired the firm, the surveyors said yes, though they declined to be identified or photographed for this article.

News of the surveyors themselves reached the Ellenville Journal through business owners who rent out the retail space on the southern end of the property, on the left side of the now-vacant Ames (which still houses a flea market each weekend).

While there has been talk of Wal-Mart's arrival to the property — a 20-acre property which is managed by Joe Tso — for about a year and a half, the aforementioned surveyors; confirmation as to who hired their firm seems to make Wal-Mart's arrival that much more of an impending reality.

In an interview on Monday, Jeff Kaplan, the attorney representing Tso and Mayor of Ellenville, would not officially confirm that Wal-Mart is indeed the company looking to locate at the Napanoch Valley Mall property, but did confirm that a site-plan would hopefully be submitted to the town planning board in June or July to move the process forward.

When asked how this would affect the businesses that currently rent in the mall, Kaplan said that all such stores would be relocated to newly built locations once all deals were made and finalized. After this, the current structure would be demolished and a new building would house what many believe to be the big box giant. Inquiries made to Wal-Mart's media relations department were not answered as of press time.

Relocation Obfuscation
When asked if they'd heard of a deal which would require them to relocate, several proprietors of businesses within the Napanoch Valley Mall said that they had not been told of any such plans that would take effect in the near future. However, two business owners did confirm that they had been told of tentative relocation plans when they began to rent their spaces.

Out of the seven businesses operating in the space, four have leases, while the other three rent from Tso on a month-to-month basis. These two categories of businesses would, according to one business-owner, would be relegated to two separate, new strip malls that would be constructed before the demolition of the current space took place. The Napanoch Post Office, the two properties owned by Tony and Bella Volchik (Napanoch Valley Wines and Liquors and Katherine's Korner), and the Number 1 Chinese Food restaurant, who all have leases, would be relocated to a new structure still on the property. The Tool Box, L.R. Cards, and Brother John's Pizza, on the other hand, would potentially be relocated to a new strip mall close to Peter's Market in an empty lot also owned by Tso, the former site of a restaurant called Beefeater Charlie's.

The prospect of being forced to relocate has drawn some mixed reactions from the business owners.

Bella Volchik, who has often stated her support of Wal-Mart's possible arrival to the area, said on Monday that she would be uncomfortable having her wine business moved to a new store that she has never seen before.

"As a retailer, I'm not moving into a building if I don't know how it looks," said Volchik. "We're not ready to move, so I don't know how they're planning this, but there weren't any meetings with the tenants."

She further added that, due to the state's liquor license requirements, the process to maintain her store's license from one location to the other may prove to be difficult and time-consuming — a process which could take from six to seven months — and may cause her to lose business because of forced closure while waiting for a renewed and approved license.

Phil Diamond, owner of the Toolbox, is pleased about the idea of having a location that could draw more customers — the supposed relocation area would be directly on Route 209 — since he reports that despite people's frequent use of the mall's post office, many don't realize that his business has been in that location for two years. He is concerned, however, about the process of relocation, as well as the costs, which he estimates at $5,000, and about a month's worth of closure. "It's a big lump of money, and a big lump of time," said Diamond of the relocation's costs on Tuesday.

Larry Rosselli of L.R. Cards next door is somewhat ambivalent about a potential move to a new location. On Tuesday, he said that 95% of his business's income is derived from mail-order sales, and that he keeps a storefront because of distribution issues, and as such, he isn't as adversely affected by his location's relative lack of foot traffic. However, he said he would certainly appreciate more customers coming into his store, and that the benefit of being able to provide local kids with a place to participate in game-tournaments (which his store currently offers on weekends) could only be strengthened with a more visible location.

Rosselli added that the relocation plan was described to him three years ago, when he began renting the space from Tso. He said that Tso assured him that the monthly-renters without leases would be given spots in the tentative space by Peter's Market, and Rosselli spoke about Tso's good business sense concerning his commitments.

"The last thing he [Tso] would want to do is make a promise and then not deliver on it," said Rosselli.

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