Two years and seven lawsuits after its first attempt, Wal-Mart was given permission Tuesday to expand its Lawrence operations to include grocery sales — albeit in a different location than originally planned.

The Lawrence City Commission on Tuesday approved rezonings and plans for Wal-Mart to expand its South Iowa Street store in a move that will also send nearby Crown Automotive into a neighboring building formerly occupied by Payless Cashways.

“We’re real happy with the decision tonight,” said Matt Sitton, a real estate manager for Wal-Mart. “We’re excited.”

But he acknowledged that Wal-Mart officials approached the project cautiously after city officials rejected proposals to build a Supercenter store at Sixth Street and Wakarusa Drive. That dispute led to the filing of seven separate lawsuits against the city, which are ongoing.

Sitton said Tuesday, though, that he thought city officials had acted professionally during the most recent process.

“We felt very comfortable with the development, after a point,” Sitton said.

And commissioners never mentioned the Sixth and Wakarusa situation during their deliberations Tuesday.

“I think that use is consistent with the existing development there,” Commissioner Boog Highberger said after the meeting.

The plans approved Tuesday would allow Wal-Mart to expand its store at 3300 Iowa St. from 121,000 square feet to roughly 228,000 square feet, new space that would be used for grocery sales.

The expansion is part of a larger proposed project that would include Crown Automotive moving its dealerships into the vacant Payless Cashways building, which is directly south of the current dealership.

Wal-Mart, in turn, would purchase the property where the dealerships are currently located to give the retailer the necessary room to expand.

“We think it’s very important we’re able to reuse an existing building, instead of razing a building,” said John Hampton, an attorney for Crown.

“From day one, this has been a package deal,” said Todd Thompson, Wal-Mart’s Lawrence attorney. “These two projects are joined at the hip.”

After the approval, Sitton said Wal-Mart still wanted to build at Sixth and Wakarusa.

Tuesday’s approval of the South Iowa expansion, he said, hadn’t changed those plans.

“They’re completely different actions,” Sitton said, “independent of each other.”

Officials said Wal-Mart construction could begin by the end of the year.