The Home Depot to open in Grand Forks?
Rumour has it that The Home Depot is looking at two sites in south Grand Forks for a new store. The home improvement giant currently is not in the Grand Forks market. As of now, Home Depot has only one store in the Red River Valley, in Fargo, but plans have recently been revealed for a new store in Moorhead, Minnesota. Grand Forks already has a mammoth Menards store and a new Lowes store...it was only a matter of time before the Home Depot, the country's second largest and the world's third largest retailer, set up shop in Grand Forks.
The two locations that The Home Depot is currently looking at are both on 32nd Avenue South and include one site between Sam's Club and Hansen Ford and another site directly west of the new Tractor Supply Company store which sits west of I-29 near the Big Sioux truck stop. In my opinion, both locations would be pretty good for such a store. The Sam's Club/Hansen Ford location offers a site located right in the center of the city's main retail heart and the Tractor Supply location offers room for expansion...plus, a large new store there could become the catalyst for more retail growth in that area.
I would imagine that we can expect some news on the possible new store over the next few months. It will be pretty interesting to have Mendards, Lowes, the local Lumber Mart store, and The Home Depot all within the same stretch of 32nd Avenue South.
Digg 
del.icio.us 
Posts
6 comments:
Thanks for all of the comments, jgs! It's nice to see people reading (maybe even enjoying?) this blog. I think it is so cool to be able to put this kind of thing out there.
As far as Home Depot...
I too would imagine that the company might lean towards the western location. The Sam's location would be close to two very busy stores: Wal-Mart and Sam's. However, I drove by the area the other day and the site is not all that big and it really is kind of covered up by the other smaller buildings closer to 32nd Avenue. I would think the developer might want a more visible area with room to build additional stores/restaurants in the general vicinity. Developments like these usually are usually not just one big store, but maybe also a couple of restaurants and a strip mall. There wouldn't be much room in the Sam's location for additional development, but the western location would have plenty of room for growth. The only problem I see with the western location is the fact that it isn't an area of town where people are used to going to. I think there are plenty of people in town that don't even know that a Tractor Supply Company recently opened out there. However, I guess it would be hard to miss a huge Home Depot store and would actually result in people getting used to that area.
>>Haha, to be honest, I didn't know about the tractor place either.<<
Thanks for proving my point!
However, I big Home Depot store would be hard to not know about and would probably bring people to that area and lead to more development. In a sense, a Home Depot at that location would likely "open up" that area of 32nd Avenue for commercial development.
From what I know, the location they are looking at is directly west of Tractor Supply (which, by the way, is directly west of the animal hospital). This property was brought into the city limits last year at the same time the adjoining Tractor Supply land was annexed.
Like you said, the south side of this stretch of 32nd is pretty much spoken for with the Big Sioux Travel Plaza, Grand Forks Grocery, and the pending UND Reasearch and Commercialization park. I don't see much commercial development taking place very much farther west of this area because of the growing industrial presence (Longview Fiber, etc). After this stretch of 32nd Avenue and also 42nd Street by the Alerus are both developed for commercial purposes, we will probably see more commercial development on extreme South Washington (near All Season's Garden Center).
As far as a date for groundbreaking, I haven't the slightest idea. We might hear something next week or next year. All that I know is that the company is looking at these two locations for a possible new store. Guess we have to keep our fingers crossed. It's great to see new developments taking place all over town!
Actually, it seems to me like Menards has very good business...probably better than Lowes.
I love that perpetual "new building" smell too.
Even though it keeps expanding nationwide, Menards is still seen as the "local" store. I don't see it closing anytime soon.
I agree - it seems as thought Menards is always busier than Lowes, despite their less than stellar service. I personally would like to see Home Depot open up in the large open spot near Slumberland. There seems to be a big hole there that could benefit from such a large commercial development. Many people already are used to that area, unlike the site west of the Interstate. Just some thoughts...
The Slumberland area would be another good site for a Home Depot. That whole area is so empty, except for the Rex's store. That is the one really big empty area left on 32nd Avenue. The other empty areas in the area have room for one or two buildings, but the Slumberland area is quite huge...there would be room for a very substantial development there.
One a side note...I've always been a bit surprised to see Rex's hold on for so long. Anytime I ever go by it I only see one or two cars parked out there and those have to be the employees.
Post a Comment