The hardware and home-improvement offerings for fast-growing
Gilroy just got bigger
– at least for now.
GILROY – The hardware and home-improvement offerings for fast-growing Gilroy just got bigger – at least for now.
City and Chamber of Commerce officials gathered Wednesday night to celebrate the opening of a new Lowe’s Home Improvement Center, sawing through a ribbon-bedecked piece of lumber instead of cutting a ribbon to commemorate the event.
“We want to be the best corporate citizen in this town,” Don Raynor, Lowe’s district manager for the Bay Area, told the dignitaries outside the massive store at 7151 Camino Arroyo. “We want to be part of your community.”
The store is adjacent to the new Costco and is part of the Newman Development Group’s Pacheco Pass regional shopping center at U.S. 101 and Highway 152.
The 157,000-square-foot store features a garden center, drive-up lumber yard and a wide selection of inventory that ranges from appliances to New Zealand flax plants.
With bright, wide aisles, Raynor and store manager Rick Watson said the company stresses a friendly shopping environment for residents and homeowners as well as those in the building trades.
“We concentrate very much on having a safe shopping atmosphere,” as well as customer service, Watson said. “A lot of our market research indicates when homeowners make purchases, it’s a combination (decision) between husband and wife or couples – so you have to appeal to all sides of the home improvement business.”
The new store will employ more than 140 people, officials said. Employees hail from a radius that includes San Jose, Salinas, Los Banos and Hollister.
“The majority of the people were hired locally, and we’re very proud of that,” Raynor said. “We went through hundreds of applications to select the (workers) we have here.”
Lowe’s is eventually expected to generate roughly $350,000 a year in sales-tax revenues for the city, which generally uses the unrestricted discretionary money to pay for police, firefighters and other salaries. City officials approved a $920,000 economic incentive package to help lure the business to town.
Under the incentive program, certain retailers and industries can receive credits for the development impact fees the city usually charges for infrastructure such as road improvements. Instead, the fees are repaid through sales taxes generated from the new development. Lowe’s has guaranteed its taxes will cover the credits within three years, officials said.
The store is part of a major West Coast expansion push by the North Carolina-based company. The company’s closest store is currently in San Bruno, Raynor said, although more are expected in the Bay Area in coming years.
Wednesday’s Lowe’s event was an “employee night” barbecue event meant to allow employees – who did the majority of the work to set up and stock the store’s towering racks – to show off the store to their families and friends. The store opened to the public Thursday.
A more formal grand opening event featuring an advertising blitz and activities like visits from a stock car and a chainsaw wood sculptor are planned for next Wednesday.
