SALEM — Work on the new Lowe's at Stateline Plaza is scheduled to begin next month and once the store opens, it is expected to provide more than 100 new jobs.
Gerard Littlejohn, a Lowe's spokesman, said the store would have 102,000 square feet of regular retail space and a 28,700-square-foot garden center. A store of that size typically represents an investment of $12 million in a community and brings up to 120 jobs, Littlejohn said.
Lowe's expects to break ground in mid- to late April. The store should open late this year, Littlejohn said.
Lowe's will not be the only store in the Route 28 plaza. Namco, a pool and patio company, and Sovereign Bank also will be in the plaza. David Fleming of W/S Development said the bank would move into temporary quarters during construction.
"We are moving them into a temporary office in May, which will be on site," Fleming said. "We will begin demolition of the existing Sovereign Bank in June."
Construction of the new building would start in July, with the goal of opening the new bank in December, he said.
Namco will remain open during renovations, Fleming said.
The project also includes road improvements, Town Planner Ross Moldoff said. Developers will move the traffic light in front of the plaza south and better coordinate the signals. The road also has been widened, with an additional northbound lane and right-turn lane onto Hampshire Street. The cost of those improvements, to the developer, is about $2 million.
Moldoff said the Planning Board spent a lot of time and effort on the proposal and finding solutions to traffic concerns.
"Lowe's came up with a plan to mitigate the traffic impact, and I think we're all very happy to have the project going forward and to be getting the road improvements that were proposed by Lowe's," he said.
Moldoff said there are more retail projects happening in Salem now than in a typical year, despite the weak economy. Sports Authority and Ultimate Electronics are moving to town, and DeMoulas will be replaced by a larger Market Basket. A CVS/pharmacy also is coming to southern Salem, and vacant stores in the Furniture World plaza are filling up, he said.
"That's a lot of construction projects in a year, in a good year," Moldoff said.
He said he wasn't sure if it was an anomaly or a sign of things to come, but said it is a good sign for the town.
"People are obviously being employed, tax revenue is going to be generated when the businesses open, and those are good things for Salem," he said. "New products and services are being offered to the community."
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