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BROWNSVILLE, TX-Ground will break soon on a 204,000-sf Wal-Mart Supercenter beside Strawberry Square Center.

The exact date of the ground-breaking has not been announced, but "Wal-Mart expects to have the new store operating within the next year," says Chuck Siegel, president of NAI-Rhode, Ottmers Realty Services of San Antonio. He and partner Tom Rhode represented Strawberry Square Ltd., the center's owner, in a land sale for the corner of Boca Chica Boulevard and Old Port Isabel Road. The shopping center owner was instrumental in encouraging Wal-Mart to tear down the existing structure and replace it with a large-format store, according to Sigel.

Siegel tells GlobeSt.com that the land sale, which was three years in the making, came about when Strawberry Square Ltd. approached Wal-Mart, offering 25 acres of extra land adjacent to the 110,000-sf, 80%-leased shopping center. "The (Strawberry Square) owner had figured that many of the regular Wal-Marts were being converted to the Wal-Mart Supercenters," Sigel says. "He knew that a super Wal-Mart would be beneficial to his particular property."