Home Depot to Open its First Manhattan Store in 2004

[normaldude]

Home Depot to Open its First Manhattan Store in 2004
Thursday September 4, 8:11 am ET
New York Area Store Count Stands at 75, Quadruple Its Nearest Competitor

# NEW YORK, Sept. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer, announced today that it will open its first store in Manhattan next summer. Located in the Flatiron District, the new store will give Home Depot a presence in all five of New York City's boroughs. The company currently has 75 stores in the greater New York market, more than four times as many stores as its nearest competitor.

"New York City is a retailer's ideal market," said Bob Nardelli, chairman, president and CEO of Home Depot. "The population density, scale of demand, sophistication of tastes and the strength of the economy are only a few of the ingredients that make Manhattan an extremely attractive market for The Home Depot. By continuing to expand our presence in urban markets such as New York and Chicago, we are providing more convenience for our professional and do-it- yourself customers."

The new multi-level store is the latest iteration of the company's successful urban neighborhood format. Home Depot opened its first urban format store in Mill Basin, Brooklyn, in April 2002. Subsequent designs on Staten Island and in Chicago's Lincoln Park helped the company gain experience in designing stores that are convenient to customers and attuned to the neighborhood. The new store will feature products and services geared specifically to those residential and professional customers living in the community, as well as those customers who commute and may wish to take advantage of the special delivery services.

"I am delighted to welcome Home Depot to Manhattan and applaud the company's commitment to creating new jobs in New York City," said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. "Home Depot will bring even more dimension to Manhattan's diverse retail sector and will be a wonderful resource to the community. I commend the company for its confidence in the strength of our market and am certain the new store will prosper."

Home Depot's Flatiron store will be located on the south side of 23rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, with a second entrance on 22nd Street. The store will cover slightly more than 108,000 square feet with a street-level showroom and a lower-level retail floor. The space also will feature a mezzanine.

"Our Manhattan store will offer customers the ability to purchase and leave with products, make arrangements for delivery or place special orders for any item sold by The Home Depot," said Tom Taylor, president of Home Depot's Eastern Division. One of the other unique features of the store will be the amount of space dedicated to showrooms for kitchen and bath vignettes. "Several thousand square feet will be used to showcase complete projects," Taylor said. "We sell tools, hardware and appliances, but we also sell complete rooms with the installation."

The Home Depot opened its first New York City store in Ozone Park, Queens in 1994. Since that time, the retailer has opened five additional stores in Queens, four in Brooklyn, and two each in The Bronx and Staten Island, in addition to an Expo Design Center in Jackson Heights, Queens. Home Depot employs more than 18,000 people in the New York area.

Founded in 1978, The Home Depot® is the world's largest home improvement specialty retailer and the second largest retailer in the United States, with fiscal 2002 sales of $58.2 billion. The company employs approximately 315,000 associates and has 1,616 stores in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, eight Canadian provinces, and Mexico. Its stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HD - News) and is included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard & Poor's 500 Index.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030904/clth021_1.html

[Gulcrapek]

I've never seen the urban versions. It sounds good, I wish other big box companies would think about the same thing instead of repeating the same design everywhere with no regard for its surroundings or settings.

[billyblancoNYC]

I still wish the chains would stay in the 'burbs. You can't stop "progress" I guess.

[YesIsaidYesIwillYes]

Amen to that Billy.

[NYatKNIGHT]

At least it's here, in a neighborhood of decent home improvement stores, and not on Pier 40.

[billyblancoNYC]

Well, that battle's not over yet, either.

Depots for everyone!

[professionalx]

Home Depot is moving into what used to be the "Toy Fair" showroom for Hasbro. Hasbro really only used it for about three weeks a year for a private trade show (disclaimer: I worked for one of Hasbro's subs), so Home Depot may be a better use for the place. I hope that they don't totally trash the place - there is still a lot of cast iron detail on the facade, as well as on the interior columns surrounding the central atrium.

[krulltime]

Is it true that they are about to open a second location on 3rd Avenue in the upper east side in the 50's? A friend of mine said he read it in the New York Times.

[billyblancoNYC]

Yes, in the Bloomie building.

[Kris]

April 15, 2004

Manhattanites Will Soon Find Depots Close to Home

By MARIANNE ROHRLICH

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/04/15/garden/15depot.184.jpg
CURB SERVICE A 19th-century cast-iron building on West 23rd Street will soon house a Home Depot aimed at apartment dwellers.

THE Home Depot is moving into Manhattan, with plans to open at two locations before the end of the year. "We feel the time is right," said John Costello, the executive vice president for merchandising and marketing at the Home Depot, citing the number of Manhattan residents and contractors who now travel to the other boroughs and beyond for renovation supplies.

One of the stores will be in a new tower going up on Third Avenue at 59th Street, near Bloomingdale's. A second will occupy three lower floors of two late-19th-century cast-iron buildings on 23rd Street between Fifth Avenue and the Avenue of the Americas, in the Ladies' Mile Historic District.

Though neither will be large enough for a lumberyard, customers will be able to order lumber for delivery in Manhattan. Forget parking: "Our stores will definitely be pedestrian-oriented," Mr. Costello said, adding that they will deliver even small items, a Manhattan requisite.

Mr. Costello said it was too early to give specifics on square footage and other details, including the extent of design services like those offered at Home Depot Expo Design Centers. But he did say that the stores will offer how-to clinics tailored for apartment dwellers more oriented around decorating than, say, replacing gutters and hot water tanks. "We'll still teach basic tool skills as well as faux painting," he said.

Exercising his new New York vocabulary, Mr. Costello, who is based in Atlanta, said the new stores will stock cabinets and appliances geared from the "compact for the first condo to extra large for the prewar co-op."

Although the Home Depot has had stores in Queens, Brooklyn and northern New Jersey for about five years, it was slow to consider opening in Manhattan.

Real estate in Manhattan is expensive and warehouse-size space hard to find. New Yorkers are slow to change their shopping habits, generally favoring mom and pop businesses not far from where they live. But just as family-owned stores like Gracious Home and Simon's Hardware & Bath have expanded inventory and services in recent years — Gracious Home now has two locations and to-the-trade prices for contractors — big-box stores are beginning to adapt to urban locations, using their large inventories as a draw.

With the arrival of Bed Bath & Beyond, which is about to open its third Manhattan store, and the Container Store, warehouse shopping came to town. Room and Board, a furniture chain based in Minneapolis, plans to open in SoHo at the end of the year, with almost 40,000 square feet devoted to midpriced "updated traditional" home goods, said John Gabbert, the founder.

The new Home Depots will not only offer competitive prices but also allow contractors to order supplies in Midtown and have them delivered to job sites. Stores like Gracious Home say they will compete by providing personalized services, tracking down special products not available in big-box stores and helping shoppers solve problems.

Nancy and Natan Wekselbaum, who opened their first Gracious Home housewares and hardware store on the Upper East Side 40 years ago, say they have adapted to suit the times while keeping an emphasis on personal service. "We're not scared, we're concerned," Mrs. Wekselbaum said about the arrival of the Home Depot. There are advantages at small stores like hers, she said. "If a customer has a problem, they can always speak to the owner. We know our customers and we know our merchandise."

Lewis Dolan, a manufacturer of several lines of decorative hardware sold at Home Depot Expo Design Centers, Gracious Home and Simon's Hardware, said, "In the current Home Depots my products do cost less than at Gracious Home. But let me put it this way: Gracious Home and Simon's offer wonderful service. You go there for service and knowledge. The salespeople know more at the small stores."

As Mr. Costello sees it, the special needs of New Yorkers include not just delivery but sophisticated merchandise and dependable installation. He did not say if his stores will also offer two things seen at Bed Bath & Beyond: same-day delivery and uniformed doormen to hail cabs for shopping-bag-laden customers.

The Home Depot's only other downtown location opened a year ago in Chicago. It has been well received, Mr. Costello said, although he declined to provide figures on sales and revenue.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[Pottebaum]

At least it's here, in a neighborhood of decent home improvement stores, and not on Pier 40.

With the home depot there now, I wonder how long those home improvement stores willl last.

[asg]

Does anyone know more about this development?

Published 05/02/2005 in Crain's New York Business
Home Depot wants another piece of the Big Apple. The home improvement retailer opened its first two Manhattan stores last year, and is now looking for a third in the borough.Industry insiders say the company wants to build a store either on the Upper West Side or downtown. Below Chambers Street,...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v651/asg9000/26Bway_small.jpg

26 Broadway adjacent to Bowling Green Park:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v651/asg9000/IMG_93781.jpg

The article refers to the planned National Sports Museum across the street. Is this at 25 Bway, the former Post Office location?

[NY_Yankees_1979]

That would the only way you could put such a store in Manhattan. At least they didn't demolish any buildings to build they're own type of store that is found in suburbs.