WARRENTON, Ore. – A Walmart Supercenter is coming to Warrenton.

City Manager Bob Maxfield confirmed the identity of the mystery retail development Monday morning.

Martin Nygaard has long been rumored to be working on a Walmart retail store on the land he owns west of the Les Schwab Tire Center. But the city of Warrenton was not able to confirm the name of the store until after a pre-application meeting last week.

Nygaard was able to secure most of the necessary permits for developing his 17-acre site on U.S. Highway 101 without revealing the identity of his future tenant.

And elected officials, including Mayor Gil Gramson, have continued to maintain they didn’t know who it would be.

Maxfield said a pre-application meeting for the project was held Wednesday, attended by an attorney for Walmart, an engineer, a representative from the Oregon Department of Transportation and some city staff members. Maxfield, who was away on vacation last week, said he just found out that the meeting had been held and Walmart was the applicant.

The pre-application meeting is a way for developers to find out from the city ahead of time about what they will need to complete their application. He said the next step will be for the developers to come back to the city with the completed application and a site design, which must be approved before building permits will be issued.

Josh Phair, spokesman for Walmart, said his company is in the process of buying the land. The store will take nine to 12 months to build once ground is broken. The store will contain general merchandise, a full-size grocery and a garden center.

“We certainly don’t anticipate any problems with this particular store, although we also recognize these projects are very complex,” said Phair. “I know many in the city are excited. Residents of Warrenton are excited. We expect support from the city and residents.”

Phair said the store will employ 300 people, but he doesn’t know yet how many will be full-time associates. There will also be “quite a few” local construction jobs created in building the store, he said, but he doesn’t have a number yet.

Gramson could not be reached for comment.

The development would consist of 153,239 square feet of retail space and would have 656 parking spaces.