NORTH KINGSTOWN — Big retailers like Wal-Mart or Home Depot should be barred from a proposed retail, hotel and office complex at Quonset, say two lawmakers.

Senators James C. Sheehan, D-36, and J. Michael Lenihan, D-35, say “big box” retailers should not be included in the Gateway Project, a 500,000-square-foot complex at the western entrance to Quonset Business Park.

Under a recent plan by New Boston Development Partners, the area will include stores, offices, a hotel, restaurants and a visitor’s center.

While the Gateway will help showcase future development at Quonset, having big-box stores would not “enhance the character or value of the park,” Sheehan said.

“Indeed, it appears to be an easy way to fill space. That’s a bad long-term strategy if the Quonset Development Corporation’s mission is to “lure quality, good-paying jobs to the park,” he said.

The QDC, a subsidiary of the quasi-public Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, runs the port and the 3,000-acre Quonset Business Park, built on the former Navy base.

According to David Preston, a spokesman for the Boston-based developer, only one store in excess of 100,000 square feet will open in the complex. A Wal-Mart superstore is around 200,000 square feet, he said.

The developer initially tried to lure “boutique” high-end grocers to the site, but most stores want a big anchor as a draw, he said. A large retailer is also needed to help generate thousands of new jobs for the project, he said. “Quonset needs the Gateway and the Gateway needs retail.”

The Gateway plan has also drawn fire from a competing bidder.

Carpionato Properties, one of the developers that submitted plans for the project, has asked the QDC to put the project out to bid again.

The firm says the current proposal is not consistent with a 2003 master plan for the area, and will not attract high-quality jobs to the park.

Sheehan and Lenihan share Carpionato’s concerns.

“When requests for proposals were being considered for the Gateway Project, big-box stores were not part of the mix,” Lenihan said. “While I still think they are not a good fit for the project, if they are to be allowed” other bidders should have been allowed to submit big-box plans, he said. “To do otherwise is unfair.”

But Preston said Carpionato, one of three bidders for the project, also proposed a large-scale development, a proposal that “was basically a Providence Place mall” on the corner of Post and Newcomb roads, he said.

The first part of the development, called The Shops at Quonset Point, includes a grocery store, drug store, coffee shops, a bank, restaurants and anchor stores. A hotel, which may be named this week, is planned for later. To reflect the area’s military history, one building may even resemble an airplane hangar.

The entire project could boost nearby property values and spark a “Newberry Street kind of revival” on Post Road, said Preston, referring to the surge in business sparked by Copley Place and other development on streets in Boston’s Back Bay.

The early work will create 750 permanent jobs and 450 temporary construction jobs, state officials said. The developer, along with the QDC and Governor Carcieri earlier unveiled preliminary plans for the $80-million project, which was first announced in May 2005. The Gateway is part of aplan to develop the former military base, a move expected to create 14,000 to 18,000 jobs.