Lowe’s first to locate in Spirit River Crossings

New retail area will add shopping opportunities for region

This fall, the well-known store with a blue roof will open in Cambridge.

Site work on the new Lowe’s started last fall just west of the Isanti County Fairgrounds. The store will sit on property that was formerly the Cambridge athletic complex. Next year, a Kohl’s will be added alongside Lowe’s.

“The new stores will offer more shopping opportunities and create a market for attracting more residents to the county,” said Cambridge Development Director Dave Carlberg.

He believes that the expansion of the Cambridge retail community benefits the region as a whole. “It’s going to bring more people in the area, not just to shop at these stores, but at existing stores, as well,” Carlberg said.

Once both Kohl’s and Lowe’s have opened, Carlberg expects the developers of Spirit River Crossings, Opus Northwest, to announce additional smaller stores and restaurants. Opening on the south side of Highway 95 this year will be Sonic Restaurant. The company has already submitted building plans and paid for a permit. The new restaurant will be located at the corner of Opportunity Boulevard and Second Avenue behind where Eastgate Mall used to be.

“I think 2009 might be a little quieter as far as smaller retailers developing in that area,” noted Carlberg. But he predicts that 2010 will be a big year for the city.

ABOUT THE CAMBRIDGE LOWE’S

The Cambridge Lowe’s store will be the 13th in the state. Other locations include: Hibbing, Mankato, Rochester, Blaine, Coon Rapids, Maple Grove, Oak Park Heights, Rogers, Plymouth, Owatonna, Shakopee, and West St. Paul. Each week, about 14 million shoppers walk through the doors of 1,650 stores in the United States and Canada. This year, Lowe’s will expand to Mexico while adding 60 to 75 stores.

Lowe’s began small. It started in North Carolina when H. Carl Buchan, part owner of the North Wilkesboro Hardware Company, envisioned creating a chain of hardware stores. At the time, Lowe’s was a typical, small town hardware store selling everything from overalls and snuff to wash tubs, work boots and even horse collars. Buchan began concentrating on hardware, appliances and hard-to-find building materials in the post-World War II building boom. Sales grew as Lowe’s established a reputation for low prices. Stores were added in neighboring towns throughout western North Carolina.

The company went public in 1961. In 1982, Lowe’s had its first billion-dollar sales year, earning a record profit of $25 million. Its customer base began changing from professional builders to do-it-yourself homeowners. By 1994, the modern Lowe’s was established and the only stores being built were large. In metro markets, Lowe’s builds stores that are 117,000 square feet. The Cambridge store will be the same size as those built in small to mid-sized markets at 94,000 square feet.

The Cambridge store will employ about ?? people. Approximately ?? percent of the jobs will be full-time.

Lowe’s stores stock 40,000 products and have hundreds of thousands more available by special order. On the shelves find Kichler lighting, Hitachi tools, John Deere lawn tractors, Samsung and Whirlpool appliances and Valspar paint. The Cambridge store will feature an adjacent garden center. A store of this size represents an average investment in the community of approximately $12 million.