It’s here. Wal-Mart will hold its grand opening and ribbon cutting on Aug. 19 at 7:30 a.m. Employees have been training for the past few weeks to ensure things are running smoothly when the doors glide open to the public for the first time.

The day has been over a year in the making. Construction on the 250,000 square foot development began on May 1, 2008. Paramount Development Corporation, based in South Carolina, headed up construction at the site along Highway 42.

The East Park Plaza shopping center isn’t the only site getting a facelift. Highway 42, which provides access to the center, has seen its own share of construction over the past year. According to Paramount Development Corp. vice-president David Harner, Highway 42 has been widened and multiple turning lanes have been added.

“The main entrance was signalized all as directed by the NCDOT to accommodate the traffic flow into and out of the project,” said Harner.

“While the project will have access to three traffic signals onto Highway 42, two of those access points were existing so only one net new access onto Highway 42 has been added.”

Along with Wal-Mart, several other big name stores will be bringing their services to the shopping center, including Rue 21, Shoe Show, Dollar Tree, Game Stop and Fantastic Sam’s. These stores should all be opening on Aug. 19 as well. There will also be a Sprint, H & R Block, Marvelous Nails, America’s Mattress, Marco’s Pizza and Fiesta Mexicana. The restaurants may delay their opening dates until later in the year.

“The project has run very smoothly thanks to the Johnston County Planning Department, Public Utilities, and to our very talented site and building contractors (Clary Hood and Gillam & Associates),” said Harner. “We look forward to what we hope will be very successful business ventures from all our tenants to date.”