CLEVELAND -- Cleveland City council members claim they were all for having Wal-Mart as an anchor store in a $90 million shopping center complex on the west side of the ISG Steel Plant, NewsChannel5 reported.

Monday night, Wal-Mart ended the deal.

Wal-Mart said the council's legislation restricting its expansion into a multi-store supercenter did not have anything to do with its decision to pull out of the agreement. The legislation would have prohibited the store from carrying groceries.

Mitchell Schneider, the developer, believes the measure is exactly why Wal-Mart pulled out.

"It doesn't take much to read between the lines and determine that Wal-Mart believes the welcome mate was pulled from them here in the city of cleveland," he said. "The message was clear."

Councilman Joe Cimperman doesn't think council's legislation affected Wal-mart's decision.

"I read the letter from Wal-Mart," he said. "They basically said that it had nothing to do with it and so it's my understanding they were making decisions that were internal to their own business model." The plan for the Steelyard Commons shopping center promises 1 million square feet of shopping space, including four big-box stores, a supermarket and several retailers and restaurants.

The $90 million project will be built on more than 120 acres south of downtown Cleveland near Interstates 71 and 90 and the Jennings Freeway.