Nov. 3--Earthmoving equipment is at work near the southwest end of Cerrillos Road for the first phase of a planned Wal-Mart Supercenter and a new home for Beaver Toyota.

Last month, Ledcor Construction of San Diego began contouring vacant land on the north side of the Arroyo de los Chamisos and laying pipes for sewer and other utilities.

"We haven't yet finalized the timeline for an actual groundbreaking and beginning of construction," Wal-Mart spokesman Delia Garcia said.

A lawsuit brought by local small-business owners and other opponents of the Wal-Mart Supercenter hit a dead-end Sept. 16 when the state Supreme Court declined to review a New Mexico Court of Appeals decision.

In June, a three-judge panel of the appellate court upheld the Santa Fe City Council's August 2005 approval of the development plan for the 265,000-square-foot Entrada Contenta commercial complex, anchored by the nearly 150,000-square-foot Wal-Mart.

A group calling itself the Coalition Against Big Box Stores had sued to overturn the ruling.

But the Supreme Court's action meant "we do have that green light to move forward," Garcia said last week.

The first physical work began a year ago with the grading of a dirt road into the 33 acres.

In a separate project, John G. Rehders General Contractors of Santa Fe has begun earthwork for a new site for Beaver Toyota just south of the arroyo. Michael Beaver, who grew up in Santa Fe before running automobile dealerships in Texas, bought Santa Fe's only Toyota dealership in 2002 from Bill Sauter, who had started a Lincoln/Mercury dealership there in 1965.

Matt Calavan, general manager of Beaver Toyota, said Monday that Beaver bought the 19 acres several years ago, but only recently began doing earthwork there. "We have recently been awarded our grading permit from the city, and they did that early for us because we're going to have to haul in quite a bit of fill," he said.

Calavan said he hopes to satisfy all city requirements for beginning construction by next summer, but "as far as when we'll actually break ground, it really depends on this economy." He said the company doesn't know yet what it will do with the dealership's existing property at 1500 St. Michael's Drive.

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