The Wal-Mart Supercenter in Westerly was the first in Rhode Island; two more are planned, for Warwick and Woonsocket.

The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo

Discount giant Wal-Mart wants to replace its store at Swansea Mall with a supercenter, a mall executive said yesterday, the latest move by the Arkansas company to expand in Southeastern New England.

Wal-Mart is seeking to replace its 100,000-square-foot store at the mall with a larger building that would allow it to sell groceries, in addition to its standard lineup of apparel, home goods and other items, according to Jason Huer, the mall’s general manager. The new building would be 161,000 square feet.

Swansea’s Zoning Board was scheduled to meet last night to take up an expansion request by mall owner Carlyle Development Group, according to a clerk in the Swansea town offices.

A company spokesman, in an e-mail to The Journal, did not confirm Wal-Mart’s involvement.

“Wal-Mart has no publicly announced plans for Swansea at this time,” wrote Christopher N. Buchanan, a senior manager for public affairs at the company.

According to Buchanan’s e-mail, Wal-Mart wants to build supercenters in North Attleboro, on South Washington Street; in Woonsocket, on Diamond Hill Road; and in Warwick, on Airport Road. The three are relocations from existing stores.

Plans for the stores in North Attleboro and Woonsocket are under review in those communities. Plans for the Warwick store are under review by the state Department of Transportation.

The company operates two supercenters in Rhode Island, in Coventry and Westerly. Wal-Mart operates a total of 10 stores in Rhode Island.

The company opened a store in Providence this year. By late spring, Wal-Mart employed 2,500 people in Rhode Island, according to the company spokesman.

In January, Wal-Mart operated about 1,100 discount stores and nearly 2,300 supercenters in the United States. The company also had nearly 600 Sam’s Club stores and more than 110 Neighborhood Markets in this country.

Supercenters combine a grocery store with the company’s traditional discount center. The food-laden formats draw customers from a smaller travel area than the company’s traditional stores. On average, customers travel about 6 to 12 miles to a supercenter, but more than 15 miles to a standard Wal-Mart store.

Retail Forward, an Ohio-based management consultant and research company, said it expected Wal-Mart to operate 3,500 supercenters by the end of next year.

Wal-Mart’s plans for a supercenter at Swansea Mall are “very preliminary,” Huer said.

The mall is owned by White Plains, N.Y.-based Carlyle, which owns and operates residential and commercial properties in the United States on behalf of foreign investors.

Carlyle bought 686,000-square-foot Swansea mall in August 2001 from the Equitable Life Insurance Co. and the New York State Pension Fund.

At the time, two of the mall’s four anchor spots and one-quarter of its smaller retail spaces were vacant. The Wal-Mart store opened after the purchase and the company is starting a $70-million redevelopment project at the mall, according to the Carlyle Web site. Old Navy, a clothing retailer, will open an outlet there next month and the mall has added other stores as well. Besides Wal-Mart, Macy’s and Sears department stores are the mall’s anchors.

In addition to Swansea Mall, Carlyle also owns malls and retail properties in Missouri, New York and Tennessee.

pgrimald@projo.com