Photos by Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

Keith Guthrie chats with Janice Beheler at the Kingery Brothers Country Store in Clearbrook. Guthrie and Beheler supported getting a new Wal-Mart in the area.

Jacob Roragen and his grandmother, Debbie Thompson, water the garden at her home across from where Wal-Mart intended to build a store in Roanoke County. Though Thompson knows development will occur, she said she's happy it's not a Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart canceled plans for a 200,000-square-foot Clearbrook supercenter because some landowners apparently wanted more money than the project's developer would pay.

Kelly Hobbs, Wal-Mart spokeswoman, said Wednesday that Holrob Investments "and a few of the sellers couldn't come to a price."

That appears to end a plan for a Wal-Mart in the Clearbrook section of Roanoke County. The Arkansas retail giant had pursued the project since fall 2006, with the blessing of county officials and the required rezoning overcoming a citizen-led court challenge.

Hobbs said she didn't know how much her company had invested in the project so far, but, "I will tell you we were excited about this location."

Nevertheless, she said that because the developer couldn't reach a price agreement with some landowners, Wal-Mart had "a commitment to shareholders, associates and customers" not to proceed with a project that had become economically unfeasible.

The former site is a meadow and woods with a handful of homes east of U.S. 220. The spot is about a mile and a half from an existing, traditional Wal-Mart, which would have closed.

Wal-Mart still wants to build a new supercenter -- a store plus a supermarket -- in the region, Hobbs said, noting that the U.S. 220 store is "overshopped." No specific site is being considered at this time, she said.

The Roanoke Valley has four Wal-Marts, three of them supercenters.

Hobbs acknowledged that the company had slowed its expansion plans in recent months, but that consideration "did not have an impact on this project."

"If they had come to an agreement, we would have moved on with the store.

"Wal-Mart is committed to serving the Roanoke community, and we're continuing to look at options to do so," she said.

For its part, Holrob, a development company in Knoxville, Tenn., referred questions to Wal-Mart.

The loss of the project struck some people as a missed opportunity.

Roanoke County Administrator Elmer Hodge, who first unveiled Wal-Mart's decision on Tuesday afternoon, said the county stood to gain $1.2 million in annual tax revenues from the new store.

Janice Beheler, a cashier at the Kingery Brothers Country Store in Clearbrook owned by her brother, said she would have welcomed a new Wal-Mart.

"I'm for progress," she said.

Those landowners who had agreed to sell Wal-Mart their land and, in some cases, already relocated, were miffed.

"It's just a big mess," said Alice Foutz, one of those who relocated.

She said she and her husband had cooperated with Wal-Mart as best they could for years, only to hear from news reports that the company had pulled out before the sale.

She was waiting Wednesday to see if an expected letter from the developer confirms what the company is telling the media. The letter hadn't arrived.

Clearbrook resident David Hodges said he half-wanted Wal-Mart to come for the possibility to sell his home in a second development wave he expected would follow.

He lives near, but not at, the former store site.

But Hodges said he is also pleased Wal-Mart is not coming because some of his neighbors want to continue to live in Clearbrook as it is.

That may be a long shot. Many area residents expect a different development proposal will eventually surface for the meadow.

"We know something will go in there eventually. We're just glad it's not Wal-Mart," resident Debbie Thompson said.

Thompson had objected to Wal-Mart's plans on grounds it would destroy her view, add traffic and create what she called light and heat pollution. Her home is across Singing Hills Road from the former Wal-Mart site.

Thompson said she would now welcome a properly scaled collection of small stores and offices with sidewalks to create a commercial "village" in keeping with development guidelines for the parcel.

cody.lowe@roanoke.com 981-3425 jeff.sturgeon@roanoke.com 981-3251