LEWISTON – Plans to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter at Exit 80 have been abandoned, victim of corporate gear-shifting and expensive site development costs.

“We’re certainly disappointed,” said Lincoln Jeffers, economic development director for the city who has been working on retail development at that site since 2005. “That seems to be the overriding reaction.”

Plans to build the 190,000-square-foot store were announced in January 2007, the long-awaited anchor tenant for a 75-acre retail zone near the city’s Maine Turnpike exit. The site was split into two parcels, one under development by locals Gendron & Gendron and the other by Massachusetts-based Hecht Co. Hecht was undertaking the Wal-Mart project, which was initially slotted for a 2007 groundbreaking.

“The writing was on the wall, but we kept trying to resurrect the project and move it forward,” said Jeffers, alluding to reports of Wal-Mart nationally pulling back on its expansion plans.

It was a shift in corporate thinking that derailed the project, said Philip Serghini, spokesman for the mega retailer. He said Wal-Mart’s business model now focuses on upgrading and renovating existing stores in the United States and focusing new construction in international markets. He said the decision to abandon the Exit 80 store was made last week, as executives reviewed projects in the pipeline with its new focus.

“This was purely a strategic move,” Serghini said. The decision was made after executives re-evaluated the anticipated budget for the project, determining that the final costs associated with the turnpike site would be too excessive. He declined to detail those costs. City staff have estimated the cost for traffic improvements alone to be in the $2 million range.

Jeffers said the announcement is especially disheartening since the project had all its necessary permits to break ground. He said he began to fear for the project’s future when he spoke to the retailer’s representatives and said the city was good to go; Wal-Mart only needed to submit its plans for a building permit.

“They weren’t as responsive as I’d have liked,” he said. The city had rezoned the parcel, passed a subdivision amendment and discontinued some streets to facilitate the project. The state had already issued environmental permits.

Serghini said the Lewiston decision is one among others that will be announced individually over the next month or two. He was unsure whether any other prospective stores in Maine will be affected.

He also said the demographics and other factors that drew Wal-Mart to Lewiston initially are still attractive and that it was possible the company would consider another store sometime in the future, but likely not at the Exit 80 site.

“Our real estate department (decided) to take a closer look at projects that were not under construction,” said Serghini of the company’s internal review process. “It’s not specific to Lewiston in any way.”

“There’s still an opportunity down the road for other stores, but the overall costs have to be lower and the potential greater to our return on investment,” he said.

Last fall, Wal-Mart reported that it intended to build fewer new stores, eyeing about 200 in 2007 and roughly 170 a year in future years. That compares with a historical standard of around 280 a year. Retail analysts said the company changed direction to trim expenses and increase its cash flow, which could then be used to increase dividends for its shareholders.

Though disappointed, Jeffers said he expects the city will still market the parcel for retail development. The hope had been that once a major anchor store was announced, other retailers would spring up in its shadow.

At least the city is not back at square one, Jeffers said. All of the zoning and municipal prep work has been done. And Wal-Mart has already completed engineering studies, site design evaluations and stormwater management plans, blazing a trail that the next retailer could find helpful.

“It’s already teed up,” Jeffers said of the site. “A couple of years of legwork have been done.”