Lowe’s sets sight on site Home Depot abandoned
By: John Upton
Examiner Staff Writer
April 3, 2009
Opponents of big-box stores who celebrated one year ago when Home Depot axed plans to open a large hardware store on Bayshore Boulevard are bristling again at plans by Lowe’s to build a similar project at the same site.
Following protracted negotiations and battles with local residents, small-business owners and lawmakers, Home Depot’s plan was narrowly approved by the Board of Supervisors in 2005, four years after it was proposed.
In March 2007, however, Home Depot announced it was abandoning its plan to build the 107,000-square-foot store at Bayshore Boulevard and Cortland Avenue, near the border of Bayview and Bernal Heights. The site is in a corridor filled with hardware, lumber, gardening and plumbing stores, among others.
Joseph Smooke, executive director of the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center, which is among those that opposed the Home Depot project, said the Lowe’s news came from city officials in fall.
“Lowe’s looks a whole lot like Home Depot — it’s just blue instead of orange,” he said.
Lowe’s is now in advanced negotiations with the owners of 491 Bayshore Blvd., city officials confirmed. Home Depot’s 2005 approval to open a store could be used by Lowe’s to build an identical store at the site, according to Mike Cohen, director of The City’s Economic and Workforce Development Office.
“[Lowe’s officials] have got to the point where their headquarters has said, ‘Yeah, we’ll do this,’” he said.
Construction could begin in October, according to Cohen.
Under the 2005 approval, half the jobs at the store would be provided to city residents and Lowe’s would invest $850,000 in work-force programs, he said.
Land-use attorney Sue Hestor, who fought the Home Depot proposal, said that, under conditions of the 2005 approval, Lowe’s must secure approval from the surrounding community for a local jobs program.
“If they think they can just walk in without working with the community, then I think that they will find that they are delusional,”
Hestor said.
