Jonathan O’Connell reports this morning that Wal-Mart is in negotiations with brothers Andrew, Gerald, and David Schaeffer to set up shop on their parcel of land bounded by New York Avenue, Bladensburg Road, and Montana NE. Sounds like a reasonable alternative for a space that, until mid-May, developer Jim Abdo had envisioned as the mixed-use Arbor Place project. Except for one thing: Costco has already signed a letter of intent for the Shops at Dakota Crossing, which is about two minutes away by car. I’m not convinced that two gigantic big-box stores couldn’t do well in that area, but I can think of at least one place in another underserved part of the city—CityInterests’ new shopping center on South Capitol St.—that would love to take one of them.

UPDATE, Tuesday evening: Missed this bit of backstory—Wal-Mart has been quite a tease with the District in the past. Probably not smart to set too much store by rumblings about their imminent arrival.