The US Airways operations center moving into Moon is not the only recent land development in the airport area, though rumor and speculation sometimes get ahead of the truth when it comes to what's coming.

Wal-Mart has bought the West Hills Shopping Center in Moon, a 21-acre site at University Boulevard and Brodhead Road.

But a published report about Bayer Corp.'s selling 25 acres of its Robinson campus was "very premature," according to the purported buyer, and a published list of possible businesses at the coming Settler's Ridge lifestyle center included a number who are no longer interested, according to the developer of that project.

Wal-Mart has yet to determine what it would like to build in Moon, according to James Davis, senior manager of public affairs in Pennsylvania for the Arkansas-based retail giant.

Mr. Davis said Wal-Mart representatives would meet soon with Moon officials to see what neighbors would like on the site.

"Sometimes, there's a lot of insight those local officials can give you in terms of what's going on in a neighborhood and what particular problems a site may have," he said.

Mr. Davis agreed that Wal-Mart's concern about neighborliness has been heightened by the site development troubles in Kilbuck, where grading for a Wal-Mart caused a landslide in September that buried Route 65. That project is on hold while engineers try to determine whether the ground is stable and lawyers try to determine who should bear what portion of the responsibility for the problems.

"Considering the circumstances right now in southwestern Pennsylvania and the fact that we're putting a very large store in a community, we want to be considered a cooperative partner," he said.

The Wal-Mart store, whatever it eventually is, will be across Brodhead from a Walgreens drugstore proposed to the township last month . And University Boulevard is generally well-developed, fed by the surrounding office parks, the airport and Robert Morris University.

"Obviously, it's kind of exploding," Mr. Davis said. "We think it's just a great retail opportunity."

A Wal-Mart there would be an easy drive for Sewickley-area shoppers, who would also be within the Kilbuck Wal-Mart target area, but Mr. Davis said there was no basis for the speculation that the Moon store would replace the Kilbuck store in the company's plans.

"The two are not related at all," he said.

Mr. Davis said there was no conflict between the coming Moon store and the one in The Pointe at North Fayette.

"Pittsburgh is a different kind of dynamic," he said. "Thanks to geography, you can be two miles from a Wal-Mart and it's more convenient to go to another one four miles away."

A retail or office development on the Bayer campus in Robinson is less certain. Gregg Schwotzer, president of the Peters-based development firm Crossgates Inc., said his company was "in the process of negotiating a possible deal with Bayer," but that reports on the sake had overstated the case.

Mr. Schwotzer said the property is in a prime location, near the Ridge Road exit from the Parkway West and clearly visible from the highway. He said office or retail development would be obvious candidates, but that market studies would be done if and when a deal is finalized.

Bayer spokesman Bill Allen said the German pharmaceutical giant, which has its U.S. headquarters in Robinson, would have no comment.

Speculation also has run a bit ahead of reality across the parkway, where Settler's Ridge is to be built, according to Howard Biel, of Faison Enterprises Inc., the Charlotte, N.C., firm developing the site.

Mr. Biel said a local business publication had used the names of possible tenants listed on a site plan, but that the site plan was out of date and some of the names were wrong. At this point, Cinemark has been identified as the theater operator, and P.F. Chang's Chinese Bistro is a confirmed tenant. Maggiano's Little Italy has not made an announcement, but is seeking a liquor license for the site.

"Our policy is to let tenants make announcement when they are ready," Mr. Biel said.

First Published: March 8, 2007, 5:00 a.m.