BREWER – Though some remain skeptical, a Wal-Mart spokesman took steps Thursday to allay concerns that the company’s plans to build a Supercenter in Brewer could adversely affect a larger one planned for Bangor.

While in Brewer to announce the company’s plans to build a $10 million Wal-Mart Supercenter on outer Wilson Street, community affairs manager Keith Morris said the traditional Wal-Mart store in Bangor no longer can handle the volume of shoppers it is drawing from Greater Bangor, surrounding areas and Canada.

“We’ve outgrown the store,” Morris said. According to the Arkansas-based corporation, Maine shoppers are willing to travel farther than their counterparts in other states to shop and attend events. He said the company’s market research indicates that the region’s retail market easily can support two Supercenters, even if they are in adjacent cities.

For that reason, Morris said, the company is moving ahead with plans for Supercenters in both Brewer and Bangor.

According to Morris, the company is gearing up to build a 155,083-square-foot Supercenter on outer Wilson Street. Wal-Mart is in the process of buying a parcel of more than 40 acres on outer Wilson Street, about 16 acres of which it will develop. The company plans to submit formal plans to the city within the next two or three weeks and hopes to break ground this fall or next spring.

The proposed Bangor facility, larger at 224,000 square feet, currently is tied up in court. The Bangor proposal’s New York-based developer, The Widewaters Group, has asked a Penobscot County Superior Court justice to reverse the Bangor planning board’s April denial of the project. In its decision, the planning board cited the project’s potential effect on the nearby Penjajawoc Marsh. A decision is expected by June 2.

“We still plan to proceed with our plans in Bangor,” Morris said Thursday.

Though other companies that tried it have failed, Morris also said the Brewer Supercenter will be open 24 hours a day barring compelling changes in the market, such as a major plant closing.

“Brewer is an area that has tremendous potential,” he said.

Wal-Mart’s plans for Brewer were the cause of celebration at City Hall Thursday. Among those on hand for the official announcement were the entire City Council, several city staffers and most of the 18 members of the Brewer Economic Development Corp., who along with Economic Development Director Drew Sachs were credited with landing the city’s first major department store.

According to Sachs, the project is expected to generate an estimated $250,000 in new property taxes each year.

He added that the project will not require a tax-increment financing package, but rather will be funded entirely by the Arkansas-based corporation.

The project also will bring new jobs to Brewer. According to Morris, the Brewer store, which could open in the next year to year and a half, would employ about 350 people. About 70 percent of those positions would be full time.

The parcel on outer Wilson Street that Wal-Mart is in the process of acquiring wraps around the site now occupied by Stonington’s Furniture and Carquest Auto Parts and is almost directly across Wilson Street from Downeast Toyota.

City officials say that though the site includes some low-value wetland, there are no apparent major environmental hurdles in that area, which is predominantly commercial in nature.

On Thursday, project manager William Bloemen of Sain Associates in Bangor, which is serving as project manager for the Brewer Supercenter, said the site has received a preliminary green light from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. The project, however, also is subject to permits from the state Department of Transportation, the state Department of Environmental Protection and the Brewer planning board.

The project might rank among the city’s best-kept secrets. According to BEDC President Michael Legasse, efforts to bring Wal-Mart to Brewer began 18 months ago when a real estate agent working on Wal-Mart’s behalf came to Sachs with an inquiry about available land.

For several months, Sachs and Legasse were the only persons in Brewer with knowledge of the proposal. City councilors and key city staffers were not brought on board until only recently. The project did not become a sure bet until Jan. 22, when the BEDC and Wal-Mart signed a purchase agreement.

Though the Wal-Mart project has been public for only a few days, Legasse said reaction in the community has been “unbelievably positive” in both the business and residential sectors.

Supercenters differ from traditional stores in that they carry a full-service grocery department that generally includes produce, meat, dairy, frozen-food, bakery and deli sections, along with the usual general merchandise departments.

Wal-Mart currently operates Supercenters in Augusta, Oxford and Windham, Morris said. Seven others are under construction in Maine locations as far north as Presque Isle.