Albertsons, Wendy’s Lovington construction on track
Denise Marquez/News-Sun
LOVINGTON — Commercial construction in northern Lovington is booming, and on schedule, Evelyn Holguin, Lovington Economic Development Corporation executive director, said recently.
The walls are up for the new Albertsons Market on the southwest corner of Highway 82 and North Main Street, and the site preparations between the Family Dollar and the new Albertsons is almost complete for a Wendy’s restaurant to be constructed, according to Holguin who updated city commissioners during a regularly scheduled meeting Monday.
“We wanted to let you know the Wendy’s site is almost complete,” she said. “I know the utilities are currently being installed now. We’re hoping to have it complete in September. Then once it’s done, it will be fully transferred over to the Wendy’s Corporation and then they will begin the building. We’re hoping to do a groundbreaking for the Wendy’s prior to getting started with the construction.”
“The plan (for Albertsons) as of right now, everything’s on target,” Holguin added. “They’re working on the interior. We’re hoping to hopefully be open by the holidays. But they (Albertsons) do have till March of 2026 to be completely open.”
Holguin said construction on the new Albertsons Market has gone smoothly, with only a few hiccups along the way so far.
“We’ve run into about two or three snags but they weren’t bad,” she said. “It was stuff that was fixable. We did have (an) issue where the engineers for the Albertsons and the engineers for the Wendy’s – (they) are actually two different people – their plans actually didn’t align correctly but we were able to figure it out. We were able to cut just a small piece off of the retention pond to make it work.”
Holguin said construction on a 10,000-square-foot shopping center is planned to begin construction in the summer 2026. The new shopping center is planned for the land behind the new Wendy’s.
“We’re currently working with the owner now to try to find and fill those spots,” Holguin said. “We could potentially have five tenants out there. We could have three. It just really depends what size tenants are looking for. We could have 10 if they’re looking for 1,000 square foot shops. It just really depends.”
