A plan to build a new Wal-Mart store on Highway 160 between Irene and Adkisson streets won't mean the existing store at 300 S. Highway 160 will be turned into a Sam's Club.

When asked about that rumor, Wal-Mart spokesperson Karianne Fallow said, "The existing one, I believe we're aggressively looking for a tenant or purchaser for that, and I think that is well under way."

Sam's Club won't locate a store in Pahrump at this time "unless we change our business strategy," she said.

The new Wal-Mart store site will measure 175,000 square feet as part of a shopping center containing 300,000 square feet of retail space, under the tentative subdivision map approved by the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission last week. It will be located on 57 acres.

The current store is 155,000 square feet and is located on 13.6 acres.

"Our existing store is really, really popular. We just need to accommodate our customers," Fallow said in a telephone interview from Boise, Idaho. She said she has visited the Pahrump store before.

"Our new store not only will be an updated, fresh new look, it will be energy efficient," she said. "We'll probably expand on the areas like electronics, which is a popular department. We'll probably take the popular departments and expand on them."

It typically takes 10 to 12 months to build a Wal-Mart from the ground up, Fallow said. The last three months of that year the company starts the hiring process, begins training employees and stocks the merchandise, she said.

Current employees, called associates, will be invited to move to the new location, Fallow said there could also be additional associates hired for the larger store.

Fallow said Wal-Mart has a good track record finding new tenants for its abandoned stores. Some have even been partitioned into doctor's offices or churches, she said.

"I've been told that we are better at that process than any of our retail competitors. We definitely have a lot of experts working in that area," Fallow said.