The Westlake City Council approved the site plan for a 188,000-square-foot Walmart Superstore on Tuesday, April 7, despite concerns voiced by a number of residents during the nearly four-hour session.
Located on 24 acres, the Westlake Walmart will include a grocery store, a pharmacy, a garden center, an automotive center, a vision center and a liquor store. In a separate 1,618-square-foot structure will be a convenience store with 10 gas pumps. There will be parking for 768 cars and trucks, plus golf cart parking and charging stations for electric vehicles.
Walmart is the second major national retailer landed by the city’s primary developer and landowner, Minto Communities USA, in the last eight months. In August 2025, the site plan was approved for a Lowe’s Home Improvement store that also will serve as the company’s regional headquarters.
However, resident Marge Perry reflected the sentiment of many in attendance when she spoke during public comment.
“Walmart is not why I moved to Westlake,” she said. “I understand that it’s Minto’s decision to rent or sell to whomever they want. But I think as a city and as a council, we haven’t been proactive enough in talking to Minto about what we want here.”
The city’s authority is limited in what it can do in the situation.
“State law is very strict,” Vice Mayor Greg Langowski said this week. “If it meets the proper codes, we can’t stop a business from coming.”
Langowski said Walmart has addressed two major concerns often voiced by residents.
It will not operate 24 hours a day, he said. Hours will be 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., and there will be no overnight parking, including for recreational vehicles. Signage will be placed in the parking lots to that effect.
Representing Minto was land planner Donaldson Hearing of Cotleur & Hearing.
“I think people will find that the new Walmart is significantly different from the Walmart of 10 years ago. It’s clean, beautiful. It has a great product line,” Hearing said. “It even has a sushi department.”
The Walmart store will be located directly south of the Lowe’s on the west side of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road near 60th Street North. It will feature extensive landscaping along Seminole Pratt with a water feature and a 1,000-foot setback from the road. There also are two outparcels from the main structure that will be available for other businesses.
“It’s going to be a beautiful store with amazing landscaping,” Hearing said. “It’s not your cookie-cutter Walmart.”
To the east, the nearest multi-purpose Walmart is at the intersection of State Road 7 and Belvedere Road in Royal Palm Beach. Going west, the nearest Walmart is in Clewiston or Okeechobee.
Hearing said he expects the store to draw shoppers from Wellington, Arden and Avenir.
“It’s suited for a relatively high-end economic market,” Hearing said, likening it to the store in Jupiter.
Hearing said he believes that Walmart “will create a lot of energy in the Westlake area” and eventually lead to interest by major sit-down restaurant chains.
Councilman Gary Werner, a city planner by profession, agreed.
“It’s an economy of scale,” he said. “Rooftops are increasing by the day… [and Walmart plus Lowe’s] bringing in more people will cause others to look at this area.”
A lack of eat-in dining choices in the 10-year-old community has been an ongoing complaint from residents for years.
I’m out of here. Westlake has totally ruined the country life here. We can’t ride horses on the streets anymore for fear of getting hit by a car.