Walmart unveils plans for fitness and child care centers at new HQ

Walmart's new Apple-like HQ will include an expansive fitness center and onsite child care for employees' children.

Why it matters: These are major amenities for the more than 14,000 people who will work at the company's new Bentonville headquarters.

The fitness center: The Walton Family Whole Health & Fitness will be 360,000 square feet at the corner of Fifth and Southeast P Streets.

• The center will include an open space with a café, a youth activity center, indoor and outdoor tennis courts, multipurpose courts, fitness studios, three pools and a meditation garden.

What they're saying: "What we want to do is give our associates all the tools for wellbeing, and that includes mental, emotional, spiritual and physical. This building encompasses all of that," Alice Walton said Wednesday during an event at the existing home office.

The child care center: The center will have space for up to 500 children in the 73,000-square-feet facility on Fifth Street across from the fitness center.

• Cindi Marsiglio, senior vice president of corporate real estate, told Axios that the center will start with children ranging from six weeks old through pre-K before looking into allowing school-age children after school and during the summer.
• The facility will include classrooms and an outdoor parent plaza where holiday events can take place.
• Walmart did not announce a cost for parents.

Flashback: Walmart announced its plans to build a new headquarters in 2017.

• Site work has started on the new campus on about 350 acres on J Street in Bentonville. Walmart has operated out of its existing office on Southwest Eighth Street since 1971.

What's next: Walmart expects the fitness center to be complete in the fall of 2023 and the child care center soon after, Marsiglio said.

• The new home office will open in phases and is expected to be fully open in 2025.

What to watch: Tom and Steuart Walton announced during Wednesday's event that Blue Crane, which is the real estate arm of their holding company Runway Group, will purchase the existing home office building but did not say what will happen with the property.