By Dave Schroeder

The former Wal-mart retail store property in south Lexington will be sold to the City of Lexington. The City Council has approved the purchase of the building and parking lot for the price of $600,000 from a group of local businessmen. City Manager Joe Pepplitsch explains that the purpose of the purchase is to have some space available for future "economic and community development activities". While there are no immediate plans for the building Pepplitsch says they are looking for community input on potential uses. He believes that its a project that "can benefit the community in the long term".

The building is a little more than 64,000 square feet in size and has a parking lot that would accommodate about 350 vehicles. The building has been vacant since 2004 when Wal-mart moved into a new Wal-mart Supercenter building at the Lexington Interstate 80 interchange.

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