Lowe’s coming to IL soon

INDIAN LAND – Lancaster County residents will soon have a new place to buy hardware and supplies for their construction, home-improvement and gardening needs.

Aaron Morrison/staff photographer

morrison/staff photographer; photo below courtesy of Donna McClennenConstruction continues at the new Lowe’s home improvement store on S.C. 160 near U.S. 521.

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Construction of a Lowe’s home-improvement store, near the intersection of U.S. 521 and S.C. 160, is progressing on schedule.

The 103,000-square-foot store will have a 31,000-square-foot garden center, said company spokeswoman Karen Cobb. The $12 million investment will create 120 new jobs, the majority of which will be full-time.

Company officials expect the store to open during the second quarter of the year.

“We’re on target for that,” Cobb said.

Lowe’s opened 120 new stores in 2008, and plans to open 75 to 85 stores in 2009, Cobb said.

Founded in 1946, Lowe’s has grown from a small hardware store in North Carolina to the second-largest home improvement retailer worldwide and the ninth-largest retailer in the United States.

The company went public in 1961, and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 1979.

The modern Lowe’s began in 1994 when new store expansion consisted of only large stores, which Lowe’s defines as stores with greater than 85,000 square feet of selling space.

Lowe’s operates more than 1,650 stores in the United States and Canada.

For more about Lowe’s, visit Lowes.com.

Edgewater Terrace           still on hold

Plans for a nearby retail space in Indian Land, though, are still on hold.

Edgewater Terrace, a separate retail property being developed off of U.S. 521 in Indian Land, has stalled while it searches for its first tenant.

Houston Roberts, vice president of development for Charlotte-based construction firm Lauth, said there are no immediate plans to develop the site.

“We don’t have anything at this point,” he said. “It’s just a land site and nothing has been built yet.”

Roberts said the project will begin once they locate an anchor tenant to get the project moving. When a tenant does join the development, Roberts hopes it will attract other businesses to the location.

“We’ve talked to a couple of different groups,” Roberts said. “We haven’t signed anyone, but the interest in the property has been OK.”

Once construction begins, Roberts said he expects the project to take about seven months to complete.

The firm would also need two months after its completion to obtain the necessary permits for the space.

The planned development will include more than 20,000 square feet of mixed-use retail space.

Roberts said the space could be used for anything from retail stores to health-care offices or even a restaurant.

Nearby Edgewater Corporate Center now houses URS  Nuclear Center and Titanium Holdings Inc.’s headquarters, as well as the outpatient Edgewater Surgical Center.

Contact reporter Chris Sardelli  at csardelli@thelancasternews.com or at (803) 416-8416