Bluffton’s Walmart Neighborhood Market is behind schedule, but what about the Lady’s Island Walmart?

The new and controversial Walmart Supercenter planned for Lady’s Island might be opening sooner than residents expected.

Kevin Rogers, development officer for WRS Inc. Real Estate Investments, said the project currently being built on Sea Island Parkway should be completed sometime in March or April 2017.

“I’d say it’s reasonably fast paced,” he said. “I mean, we always try to get things done just as quickly as possible. A lot of site work needed to be conducted there and is still ongoing, even though Walmart has now started building their store.”

The news of this rapidly developing Supercenter comes just as another Walmart initiative seems to be experiencing another delay.

Plans for a Walmart Neighborhood Market at the intersection of Bluffton Parkway and S.C. 170, south of the Broad River, seem to have been delayed for a third time since the announcement of its opening.

Kevin Icard, planning and community development manager with the Town of Bluffton, said Thursday that building permits necessary to begin construction had not been granted for the marketplace nor had the developers applied for them.

A partner with the project’s developer said construction would begin in August when interviewed by The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette in July.

There has yet to be any sign of construction at the site since the Beaufort County Engineering Division completed construction on the entrances to the future store and a sign that was posted to the land nearly two years ago announcing the Walmart Neighborhood Market’s arrival has been removed.

Despite apparent delays with the Bluffton Walmart Neighborhood Walmart, the Walmart Supercenter and Sam’s Club at Bluffton Gateway are set to open in early 2017, according to corporate representatives.

This story was originally published December 9, 2016 at 11:03 AM with the headline "Bluffton’s Walmart Neighborhood Market is behind schedule, but what about the Lady’s Island Walmart?."