Sure to ignite a great deal of debate, Wal-Mart Stores said Thursday it wants to build a Supercenter in the Sugar House area of Salt Lake City.

The world's largest retailer said it would like to demolish the aging Kmart building it acquired in 2003 at 2705 E. Parleys Way and construct a 113,000-square-foot Supercenter in its place. It plans to do so right after Kmart's lease expires in October 2008.

The store would be among the company's smaller Supercenters, a concept that sells a mix of general merchandise and groceries and typically averages about 185,000 square feet. It would fit on the existing Kmart footprint.

Because it expects to face neighborhood opposition to that plan, Wal-Mart has a backup, spokeswoman Karianne Fallow said. If its plan for a Supercenter were not approved by the city, it would put in a standard Wal-Mart discount store in the existing decades-old building with only a limited number of grocery items, Fallow said.

"We think the entire community loses in that case, though. We're prepared to invest a lot of money in this area."

Fallow said shoppers greatly prefer Supercenters over standard Wal-Mart stores. Because of that, Wal-Mart is trying to phase out its traditional Wal-Mart discount stores, which had been built for years nationwide. Those stores, which average about 100,000 square feet, are either being expanded into Supercenters or closed altogether, Fallow said.

The trend has left Utah with 28 Supercenters and only two standard Wal-Mart discount stores.

The Sugar House Wal-Mart would be only the second in Salt Lake City. The other is at 350 W. Hope Ave., just off 300 West near 1300 South.

Alison McFarland, Salt Lake City's economic development director, said Wal-Mart can move into the existing Kmart building without much debate or input from the community.

But if the company wants to demolish the building and construct a new Supercenter, it would have to ask that the property be rezoned.

Any rezoning effort would require meetings with Salt Lake City's Planning Commission and ultimately the Salt Lake City Council, which would subject Wal-Mart to public debate from area residents.

A number of people who live along the eastern edge of Sugar House have told Salt Lake City officials that they do not support the idea of granting Wal-Mart a zoning change to accommodate the construction of a new building.

Some in the area are against the idea of a Supercenter because of what they perceive to be its mammoth size, traffic headaches and parking problems. Others are against the expansion of big-box retailers in general. Still others oppose the idea of Wal-Mart trying to get the area rezoned.

"I want them to have to stick with the rules we have in place as a community," said Philip Carlson, chairman of the Sugar House Community Council, which has yet to officially vote on Wal-Mart's plan. "I don't want to make any changes just for a particular company. We need to hold Wal-Mart to the same rules as everybody else."

Art Haddow, vice chair of the community council, likes the fact that Wal-Mart has said the Supercenter it wants to build would be the same size as the existing Kmart, instead of creating a larger footprint.

But he's waiting to see Wal-Mart's plan before he makes a final decision.

"I think you're going to find a lot of debate both ways. But there are going to be a number of people opposing this just because they are Wal-Mart."

lesley@sltrib.com