Here is an older SP news story which in my mind clearly points towards the Blairmore location.
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Lowe's looks to expand west
Cassandra Kyle, The StarPhoenix
Published: Tuesday, December 08, 2009
If Alan Huggins had his way, Saskatchewan's first Lowe's home improvement store would open tomorrow.
Unfortunately, commercial real estate deals don't happen overnight, so in lieu of a physical building, the world's second-largest home improvement retailer announced Monday plans for expansion into Western Canada.
The company has been eyeing Saskatchewan for some time, said Huggins, president of the company's Canadian division.
"When we entered the (Canadian) market five years ago we sort of had a battle plan for the whole country," he said. "It's just a matter of how quickly we can get those sites ready . . . so yes, we've been working on it for a while."
Speaking from Calgary, Huggins was unable to reveal too many details about the North Carolina-based company's plans for Saskatchewan, but said Lowe's is looking at the province's two largest cities as potential sites for expansion.
"I can tell you we're looking at Regina right now, we haven't closed on anything, and we have looked in Saskatoon as well, but there's nothing to report -- specifically because we haven't closed on the site so it would be premature, but certainly we would go where the population mass is that would support us," he said.
Rumours of the home improvement store's pending presence in Saskatchewan have been making the rounds in both the province's largest city and the provincial capital for some time. In Saskatoon, some say Lowe's is looking to find a home in the city's newest big-box shopping development in the Blairmore community.
Huggins said nothing has been nailed down in either city.
"I'll tell you this, wherever customers would shop is where we would be looking," he said when asked about the Blairmore option.
The retailer is building 130,000-square-foot stores with 25,000- to 30,000-square-foot garden centres adjacent to the main storefront in Canada and the United States. Once construction starts, the stores can open within a one-year timeframe and employ at least 100 people.
The largest store moving into the Blairmore shopping development is a 185,000-square-foot Walmart Supercentre. Plans show the second anchor store at the site has a 152,000-square-foot footprint, but has yet to be named.
"Again, it would be premature to say anything because it could affect the deal, but we can't just go plop in the middle of a neighbourhood, you've got to have the right zoning, so I'm sure you can kind of figure where we would probably end up," he said.
As the company moves ahead with its long-term goal of opening 100 stores in Canada -- it will operate 16 as of next week -- Huggins said looking west makes nothing but sense for Lowe's.
"Obviously, it's time to start looking in other provinces, so Western Canada is the next logical choice," he said.
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© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2009
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