FARMINGTON – Lowe’s, the second largest hardware chain store in the U.S., wants to open a store here.
Lowe’s Home Centers, Inc. has submitted plans for a 138,893 square foot store, surrounded with 400 parking spaces on a 17-acre parcel at the corner of Wilton Road or Routes 2&4 and Whittier Road. The parcel, now a cow pasture and owned by Edith McCleery, is across the Wilton Road from the Hannaford’s shopping center.
Gorrill-Palmer Consulting Engineers, Inc. of Gray, will present the preliminary plans for a Lowe’s retail home improvement and appliance store on Monday, Dec. 8 to the planning board.
The site plan includes more than 70,000 square feet of indoor retail space, 27,720 square feet of an attached fenced-in garden center area, an additional 40,237 square feet for an indoor lumber yard, retail management offices, interior receiving and storage areas, outdoor staging and loading areas, said Al Palmer, senior vice president of Gorrill-Palmer.
“It will be a slightly smaller store than the stores in Auburn, Augusta and Biddeford,” he said. All are Lowe’s projects his firm has worked on in Maine. A manager at the Lowe’s in Augusta said in the off-season, the store employs on average 115 to 120 full- and part-time people.
According to the plans, the store would be accessed by a driveway on the Whittier Road. A traffic light would be installed at the intersection at Wilton Road and Whittier Road that would be in sync with the traffic light at the entrance to the Hannaford’s shopping center a few hundred feet to the west on Wilton Road. The Whittier Road also accesses the 900-plus-student Mt. Blue High School, which is a busy intersection at Wilton Road and Whittier Road during the peak hours before and after school.
Based in N. Wilkesboro, N.C., Lowe’s was founded in 1946 and has grown to more than 1,500 stores in North America, according to its web site: www.lowes.com It’s the second largest hardware chain behind The Home Depot.
Besides needing approval by the usual permitting authorities, namely the town’s planning board and the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, which include site, soil and drainage review, the project may be the first in the state to undergo the Informed Growth Act, which is triggered for building retail plans over 70,000 square feet. The company will need to hire, at the town’s choosing, a consultant to study the economic impact of a Lowe’s store coming to town.
Such things as the tax base benefit and jobs offered will be studied along with possible impacts on established, related businesses, such as Hammond Lumber Co., Dexter Building Supplies and Wal-Mart.
A possible timeline for the project, once the preliminary plans are introduced in December, are that the building application may arrive in February, with possible town and DEP approval by the middle of next year for a late 2009 construction start possible.
I think it is what the area needs. This will bring much needed jobs and boost the economy for the area. Hopefully more will follow to this area.
Mixed emotions here.
It is such a shame to see farmland lost to big box stores. As well, the impact on local merchants will certainly be felt. That said, I do find myself in Augusta or Waterville at Lowes or Home Depot wishing there was something closer. The other problem with the big box stores is that they can close as quickly as they open, leaving locals with a big empty box. Hopefully the net effect regarding jobs and economic boost is a positive one!
It certainly is a shame to see this land lost to big box stores. Having moved to the area to escape a big box community, I am saddened to see this happen in Franklin County. Wal-Mart is bad as it is, but another big box store? What about the friendly service at Aubuchon, Dexter, Northland Flooring, Going’s Electric and other personable business in our great community? You could walk for hours in a big box store warehouse like Lowe’s before anyone knows you’re there or need help. No customer service to speak of. Nothing unique – it’s all the same stuff make in China at lower prices to put small business under. Lowe’s won’t be getting any business here. Hopefully they’ll run into problems like Home Depot did and back out. It’s not that I don’t want the community to prosper and thrive, but we can do it with our small businesses in place. Think about it.
It is a shame to see box stores replace farmland. . . but the quasi-Auburn strip mall has been encroaching the town for some time now. The Diner is gone– and a huge drugstore with a drive-thru is now in its place. . . Lowe’s will ,no question, bring people and more importantly, [their] money to Farmington to spend in locations other than Lowe’s. It will be, nonetheless, interesting to see how the Informed Growth Act takes shape. . . and then, perhaps, one can have an informed opinion before making a decision.
I’m a student at UMF, and I’ve lived in Franklin County for the better part of my life. It’s not the Wal-Mart’s and Rite-Aids that will keep me here after I graduate, It’s the hometown community and the small ‘personable businesses” that are rooted here. If We wanted to move to Waterville or Auburn we could, I could. Lets not forget what make’s Farmington unique. If we think Lowes will boost our economy and therefore our well-being we need to ask ourselves why people come to Farmington in the first place, and who made this town what it is. If I’m going to stay in Farmington it will be for the love of a small community with plenty of local business to supply my wants and needs, I will stay because I can get to know my hardware guy, and pharmacist, not because I can get 500 plastic cups for a buck, or brackets nails half price on weekends. If we continue to welcome in these box-stores, what do we have that Anywhere, USA doesn’t? If we build on our character and support our locally owned, family run stores, we will continue to be a haven for strong families wanting to raise good children, and we’ll save our identity.
Amen, Jack.
Yeah we do not need this Lowes store. We donot need their huge tax revenue or jobs. We prefer to be a broke and jobless community that leaches of the state for public assistance. Close down our mills in the area while you’re at it. Don’t those stinky towns annoy you? Oh and the retirees! What kind of community would this be without them driving around causing accidents? No ins. claims, or work for the local bodyshop and wrecker services… oh please tell me what we would do if we lost our retirement community to progress?
WAKE UP PEOPLE!