The Kmart building has been bought by Kroger Co. amid speculation the grocer will move across Pemberton Square Boulevard for more floor space and add discounted gas pumps.

&#8220I’ve heard they’re going to move over there and they are going to have a gas station,” said Pam Beard of BrokerSouth GMAC Real Estate, who had been the Realtor involved with early attempts at a sale, but not involved with this transfer.

Vicksburg Mayor Laurence Leyens said he had heard through the city’s Inspection Department that Kroger officials had inquired about the process they would have to go through to tear the present Kmart building down.

&#8220I understand they want to build a new one identical in size but with a different inside layout maybe,” he said.

Leyens said he also heard Kroger may be contemplating a gourmet-type store for the location.

Whitney Atkins, a Kroger spokesman in the company’s Memphis office, confirmed the sale had taken place but said she was unable to say what the company plans are or when any action might take place.

John Coomes, manager of the local Kroger store, referred all questions to the Memphis office.

The 87,000-square-foot building, between Pemberton Square Boulevard and Interstate 20 near U.S. 61 South, opened as a Kmart store in July 1991 and was converted into a Big Kmart with the addition of a supermarket section in 1999.

The operation closed in 2002 after the parent corporation filed for federal bankruptcy protection. The local store was one of 284 stores closed at the same time. It has been vacant and for sale since.

If Kroger constructs something of a similar size as the Kmart building, it would nearly double the size of its existing store, located just across Pemberton Boulevard, which has about 48,000 square feet.

It would be the fourth location for Kroger in Vicksburg, which started in Battlefield Village mall, now Blackburn Auto Mall, in the 1960s, moved to what is now Post Plaza and then to Pemberton in 1985.

District 4 Supervisor Carl Flanders, president of the Warren County Board of Supervisors, said he had not heard of the sale to Kroger but welcomed it.

&#8220A vacant building is not good,” he said.

North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield also greeted the news gladly.

&#8220I’m still reeling from Kmart,” he said. &#8220I would like to see a business go in there.”

Speaking for the business community, Christi Kilroy, executive director of the Vicksburg Warren County Chamber of Commerce, said the news about Kroger and the old Kmart building were positive for the community.

&#8220When a business that’s already in Vicksburg re-invests, it is a very positive sign for our economy overall,” she said. &#8220When they are in the community, they can see the potential, and it’s a good indicator we are moving in the right direction.”

When the Kmart building was built, the City of Vicksburg issued $275,000 in tax increment financing bonds to help pay for infrastructure needed. When TIF bonds are issued, the issuing government is repaid from the between the original assessment on the raw land and the assessment after construction is complete.

The 7.5-acre tract was transferred in the past week from the Jerome H. Pearlman and Faith Pearlman Trust No. 2 to the Kroger Limited Partnership I, a wholly owed subsidiary of The Kroger Co., based in Cincinnati.

The TIF financing is an issue likely to present challenges for Kroger as the purchase is completed.

Outstanding principal and accrued interest on the city’s bond payments relating to the Kmart store on Pemberton Square Boulevard total $119,000, Vicksburg Strategic Planner Paul Rogers said Friday.

The bond payments began in 1991 and were to go through 2011, Rogers said.

Though Warren County did not participate in the Kmart financing arrangement, County Administrator John Smith said TIFs have an inherent negative effect on a tax base, echoing sentiments of a majority of the Board of Supervisors who have been reluctant to involve the county in similar financing arrangements on commercial developments.

The negative effect, Smith said, is because the potential of closures such as Kmart’s that cause amounts of unpaid bonds to &#8220get bigger and bigger.” Before his appointment as money manager for Warren County almost two years ago, Smith was an auditor for Vicksburg for 18 years, including the period when Kmart operated its Pemberton Square Boulevard store.

Warren County has TIFs with River Region Medical Center and has entered jointly with the City of Vicksburg on TIFs for Vicksburg Factory Outlets and a pledge to participate with the city on the Cypress Centre Marketplace development on South Frontage Road, now under construction.

Kroger’s purchase of the property across the street from its current location heightens the chance of an additional, larger source for grocery shopping in the city.

Along with Kroger, the main supermarkets in Vicksburg have been Wal-Mart, County Market, Corner Market (formerly IGA) and Piggly Wiggly since the bankruptcy of Winn-Dixie resulted in the August 2005 closing of Sack & Save on South Frontage Road.

Sack & Save’s closure affected more than just grocery options, as it was a source for less-expensive gasoline generally and especially if discounts added through grocery purchases were considered.

Vicksburg residents who use Kroger’s incentive program here already earn credits toward discounted Kroger gasoline, but the nearest pumps are in Clinton, 30 miles east.

If Kroger adds a gas station, the credits could be redeemed here.

Regular unleaded at most Vicksburg gas stations stood at $2.31 Friday, higher than the statewide average, which the American Automobile Association recorded at $2.22 Friday.