It is up to $6,000,000 in Arvada government tax subsidies to put Walmart into the Arvada Plaza.
Of course, this comes as no surprise, Walmart is notorious for being a king of corporate welfare. Sadly, the Arvada city council and the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority have been only too happy to abet Walmart's sponging off the taxpayer.
Sadly, in Arvada, for the past several years the city government never required the owner of the Arvada Square property, IRG and Stuart Lichter, to maintain, repair, meet code, etc. on the property. The fix was in to insure that so-called "blight" stayed "blighted". The many locally-owned, taxpaying business in Arvada Square were contributors to the economy here. Now they are gone ... and unceremoniously brushed-off (you can still visit Mama Sannino's in Wheat Ridge).
We are about to see the city government and Arvada Urban Renewal try and to the same thing across the street in the Arvada Square: shove out productive, long-time businesses in favor of high density housing and urbanized retail.
And we are not going to be fooled by Urban Renewal and government propaganda -- Walmart still pays low wages. The Lakeside Walmart, for instance, is advertising hiring starting at $10.50 an hour; pay like that isn't going to come close to making the rent at PPOT (Park Place Olde Town -- the urban renewal project at Wadsworth and Ralston).
Walmart and Arvada Urban Renewal are not reflective of the genuine values and character of Arvada: we believe in free enterprise and competition and the entrepreneurial spirit; we believe in respecting local history and tradition; we believe in what is best about our city and uplifting it -- not trying to turn it into a clone of every other suburb that surrounds every other city in the country.
But Walmart and Arvada Urban Renewal beware -- the Supercenter will sink here in Arvada -- because We Won't Shop Arvada Walmart!
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. owns more than $76 billion of assets through a web of units in offshore tax havens around the world, though you wouldn’t know it from reading the giant retailer’s annual report.
A new study has found Wal-Mart has at least 78 offshore subsidiaries and branches, more than 30 created since 2009 and none mentioned in U.S. securities filings. Overseas operations have helped the company cut more than $3.5 billion off its income tax bills in the past six years, its annual reports show. ...