WAL-MART BUYS EX-LEEDMARK SITE

GLEN BURNIE, Md. -- Wal-Mart Stores, Bentonville, Ark., has acquired the former Leedmark hypermarket here and will use two-thirds of the space for a Wal-Mart discount store.

in a 65,000-square-foot section of the building. Wal-Mart will use about 150,000 square feet. The two stores are expected to open in the fall.

Angelo N. D'Anna, president of Mars, said the company wanted the opportunity to operate a large store. "We feel it's a feather in our cap to have Wal-Mart next door," he said.

The Leedmark hypermarket opened in May 1991 and closed this past Jan. 15 because of insufficient business. Local sources say the supermarket portion of the store was successful, with weekly sales of $500,000.

Wal-Mart chose not to convert the former Leedmark to a supercenter "because it does not have a local distribution center and because it prefers not to operate supercenters in highly competitive areas," a local observer told SN.

Mars was selected by Wal-Mart to lease the space over Valu Food Supermarkets, a Baltimore-based operator of 17 superstores.