Urban Lowe's

Lowe's Cos. Inc. (Wilkesboro, N.C.) has announced plans to build more than 60 stores in the New York metropolitan area and northern New Jersey over the next five years.

The nation's second-largest home-improvement chain currently has 15 stores in New York State and nine in New Jersey. Only a few of those stores, however, are in the metropolitan area. The company will open stores this week on Long Island in suburban New York and in Holmdel, N.J. It is also starting construction on Staten Island, its first store within the city of New York.

Its main rival, The Home Depot (Atlanta), already has 75 stores in the New York metro market, including 11 within the city limits of New York, and will be adding three more urban stores over the next few weeks.

“Our New York City metro area expansion is based on the success of Lowe's in other metro markets across the country,” said chairman and ceo Robert Tillman, “and our initial success in the New York-New Jersey region. Currently, the company's highest volume stores are in metropolitan markets.”

For years, Lowe's model had been to build hardware-store units with lumber yards in Southeastern towns. It wasn't until the early 1990s that the retailer began its transformation into a big-box retailer. When, later in the decade, it began opening stores in metro markets, it already trailed Home Depot in those markets.

“Lowe's has discovered what we've known for a long time,” said Home Depot spokesman John Simley, “that New York is an enormous market and it's growing and it's a great place to do business.” Home Depot has had stores in the New York metro market for about 13 years, Simley said. Over the next five years, it plans to bring its store count in the New York metro area to 115, he said.