Todd Vanderwerff

Recent rumors of a Super Wal-Mart being built in Brookings may be unconfirmed, but there also appears to be a reasonable basis to them.

The trick is getting the normally tight-lipped Wal-Mart corporation to talk. So far, it’s not doing so.

“I don’t have anything in here that is to be released for the public,” said the Wal-Mart corporation’s assistant realty manager Louise George of her file for the Brookings area.

George said the only information she could release to the public was that the Brookings Wal-Mart opened in 1990, though other information was in the file.

That other information is the subject of speculation in Brookings. The long-burning rumors of the company expanding their current store in Brookings to super status took on added emphasis with the closing of Kmart.

The rumors center around the Wal-Mart company approaching land-owners to buy land near the current store. The Wal-Mart corporation and land owners around the current store refused to speak on the matter and would neither confirm nor deny that a transaction was to take place.

The Brookings county register of deeds reported no land purchased by the Wal-Mart corporation recently.

There may still be hope for Wal-Mart fans.

“Wal-Mart is always considering new expansion opportunities,” George said.

“There are a lot of statistics that go into it. Population growth, population of area, shopping population. There’s a lot of factors that go into whether they’re going to expand and remodel.”