CARLSBAD -- Wal-Mart has purchased a 17-acre site at College Boulevard and El Camino Real in Carlsbad and hopes to build its most upscale store in the nation there, according to a company spokesman.

"It will be an absolute paradigm shift," said Wal-Mart spokesman Aaron Rios in an interview Thursday evening.

Wal-Mart, which has long sought entry into Carlsbad, recognizes that if it succeeds in building a store in the affluent, carefully planned community, it could not be a typical "big box" store, Rios said.

"We believe the community of Carlsbad would say, 'That's not for us,' " he said.

Indeed, under Carlsbad's zoning regulations, Wal-Mart can't build one of its typical free-standing stores, city Planning Director Don Neu said Thursday.

The city has had its strict shopping-center zoning requirements in place since the early 1990s, when Price Club was opening its huge warehouse-style structure on Palomar Airport Road, he said. The construction of the store, which eventually became a Costco, divided the community.

The latest big-box center to enter the local market, Wal-Mart, purchased its Sunny Creek area site on May 8, according to tax paperwork filed with the city of Carlsbad.

Rios described the company's plans as preliminary and would not say how large the store might be. The typical Wal-Mart is 121,000 square feet, and a Wal-Mart Supercenter is 185,000 square feet. There are no Supercenters in San Diego County, Rios said.

Keeping in mind Carlsbad's community culture, Wal-Mart is seeking to have the architecture and design resemble other major commercial projects there, Rios said. He pointed to the high-end shopping center, The Forum, at the city's south end as an example.

He said the proposed store would also carry more expensive and more stylish products than the typical Wal-Mart, some of which have been introduced at selected sites.

Most stores, for instance, sell wine costing between $7 and $25, while the proposed store would have bottles selling for as much as $100, he said. It would also offer a pricier line of clothing, such as the newly introduced George ME by designer Mark Eisner.

The company plans to work closely with city officials and residents, Rios said. "It's about being right for the community," he said.

However, city officials said they haven't heard from Wal-Mart yet.

"So far, we've had no contact from anybody representing Wal-Mart or Wal-Mart itself," Neu said. "It's pretty unusual."

Normally, developers come into the city in advance of a purchase, checking on development restrictions, he said.

As a result of the Costco controversy, city zoning emphasizes that a shopping center complex must serve the local community and must contain at least three retail establishments on the lot, Neu said.

That strict standard has kept many of the larger retailers out of Carlsbad because they would need a very big lot to build their large stores, plus two others. And such lots are in limited supply in the city.

Carlsbad doesn't have a Lowe's, a Home Depot or a Target store. That's been a source of pride for some residents, but city leaders have said it comes at a cost.

The Oceanside Wal-Mart store just west of College Boulevard and the Encinitas Home Depot on El Camino Real both attract Carlsbad shoppers, but the city doesn't capture the sales tax revenue from them, officials say.

The Wal-Mart property's previous owners -- Foursquare Properties Inc. of Carlsbad -- filed plans years ago to build a 174,000-square-foot commercial center with a grocery store and a drug store, Neu said.

The zoning would probably allow for a small Wal-Mart store, but not one of the company's large Supercenters, he said.

Wal-Mart will need to file its new plans with the city, and the review process will likely take a year or more, he said. Even though the property won't require a zoning change, the project will need City Council approval to proceed, he added.

The company has long been interested in land in Carlsbad. It was one of several companies interested in the former Robinsons-May site at the Westfield Shopping Plaza mall. Ultimately, the Westfield Corp. bought that store site last year.

Contact staff writer Barbara Henry at (760) 901-4072 or bhenry@nctimes.com.