Lowe’s has been circling the old Goodman Lumber Bayshore Boulevard site ever since Home Depot scuttled their plans to build a year ago last week. And now Lowe’s has signed a tentative lease:
The Mooresville, N.C., retailer has signed a lease that is subject to a nearly six-month due diligence period, during which it retains the right to back out, Maxwell said. To ease the transaction, the company has provisionally agreed to abide by Home Depot’s existing entitlements, building within the specifications of the plans and making good on the same community promises.
Those include a 107,000-square-foot store, a $750,000 contribution to workforce training for neighborhood residents and a $100,000 contribution to the San Francisco’s day labor program, said Michael Cohen, director of the mayor’s office of economic development.
Construction could begin as early as October with a store open by August 2010. No word on any opposition plans from the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center or its Executive Director Mr. Smooke.
∙ Home Depot “You Can Do It We Can Help” Irony: Lowe’s Now In Line [SocketSite]
∙ Coming Soon! Bayshore Boulevard Home Depot Development Is Dead [SocketSite]
∙ Lowe’s plans to come to Bayshore Boulevard [SocketSite]
It’s too bad Lowes has to grease palms with that 750k and 100k and whatever other “donations” and “contributions” they’re required to make, that eventually come out of the innocent customers’ pocket in the form of higher prices.
Thank you for coming to Lowe’s Sit back and relax and ENJOY THE SHOW!
So, current requirements include a $750,000 contribution to workforce training for neighborhood residents and a $100,000 contribution to the San Francisco’s day labor program. With requirements that outrageous, it would not surprise me if, before this building ever gets approved, there suddently also is implemented a requirement that Lowes has to make a “voluntary” contribution to future campaigns of every current Supervisor and to the Mayor’s gubenatorial campaign.
Hooray! As noted, it will be interesting to see if the BH “no” crowd rises up once again, but I hope this comes to fruition. My only question is why Lowe’s doesn’t think this won’t cannibalize a good portion of the sales of the recently open south city store.
UiL, Lowe’s is a national chain. $850k in one of many locations is an immaterial cost that shouldn’t affect pricing at all (unless it’s really a franchise operation, but I doubt it is).
Only in SF would a company be required to pay off illegal immigrants before it could open a store. I live in BH and hope this deal goes through, since this stretch of road is currently a wasteland.
I regularly patronize Cole Hardware, but its opposition to Lowe’s/HD makes me rethink shopping there. I resent the fact that Cole’s is using political clout over a land use decision to throttle potential competition. CH should be able to stand on its own two feet.
Agree completely with zzzzzzz. Cole Hardware is a chain trying to defend a local monopoly, but obviously they don’t carry half the building materials of Lowe’s. They are getting a lot of bad press for themselves by opposing this project.
One word for this one: Hurray!
And I completely agree about Cole Hardware. Plus, I think they are whining about nothing, people will still shop in their neighborhoods for everyday hardware purchases. But a Lowes on Bayshore will be a lot closer and more convenient than a drive to Colma for major purchases and things the neighborhood hardware stores don’t carry.
Plus, it keeps the sales tax revenue in SF!
I get annoyed at this reverence to Cole Hardware over HD or Loews or whatever. Cole is supplied by Ace Hardware poeple. The same 18 wheel semi-trucks deliver the same Chinese made stuff to Cole as they do to HD or Loews. They’re just different suppliers (though I bet a lot of the items are made by the same factories in China).
I like Cole for the service it provides and that fact that I can walk to it, but I’ve also received good service at HD in Colma and frankly we drive there more than we walk to the Cole Hardware a block away.
Nice. Hopefully that does something clean up that shithole of a neighborhood.
SFer, Bayshore is a bustling industrial neighborhood that serves an important purpose in a city which has lost other formerly industrial areas. However, I’m glad the at Lowe’s will be coming in to replace the gap in services left by the closure of Goodman’s.
The Bayshore Lowe’s will be the same size as the old Goodman’s, so Smooke and the BHNC have nothing to complain about. But they’ll probably complain anyway, since they want the city to buy any available land for BHNC to build affordable housing.
BHNC should rename themselves NJFBP “No Jobs For Black People”
So does this deal include just building at the site of the old Goodmans building or does it include development of the old Whole Earth Access building as well for a smaller commercial center. With all the fast food restaurants in that area it wouldnt surprise me to see a starbucks/peetes, subway etc show up in that area. Also i should hope that they make a point to green that section of Bayshore given its utter lack of greenery along sidewalks and median.
Great news! The City finally does something intelligent!
ITS ABOUT FRICKING TIME.. MAYBE NOW I CAN GET A JOB THERE TOO…(G)OOD (S)HOW
Like we really need another Lowes…. There is one just up the freeway in South City.
How about this instead:
MUNI is in dire need of trained mechanics to work on the SF Light Rail System. Bayview and Bernal have tons of kids that need jobs. This would have been a great location to set up as a technical training school for young MUNI light rail mechanics. MUNI has to hire people away from systems in other parts of the country for these well paying jobs with a future while Bernal and Bayview kids have this “great opportunity” to work at Lowes? What a sad joke.
This Lowes project is just a total waste of resources, time & energy. What a complete absence of vision for the City. Way to lock up another prime piece of San Francisco and send the profits to North Carolina while locals scramble for the crumbs and absorb all the negative impacts – Sophie Maxwell has no vision.
Chris Weeks…why am I even responding, but: this is a perfect site for a building supplies business (evidenced by former Goodman Lumber) on a busy corridor with good freeway connections. By getting Lowes we’re getting BACK some of the sales tax that is now leaking to South City and Colma (Lowes and Home Depot). Finally, it’s PRIVATE property, and the city never had the option of locating a muni training facility there. If the City does have the need and desire to do so, they have many perfectly good locations to do so; there is no lack of publicly owned property in this city.
What about an aquatic park? Or a prison?
Chris Weeks .. That is a laughable vision – training site for Muni bus repair? That is really a globally significant and high-demand skillset.
A hardware store that sells building supplies building their own store is something that I usually don’t contemplate; when I walk into hardware stores, I’m thinking about what I want to build or repair. Those giant racks loaded with lumber have an appeal all there own; every beam and board going to be used on some new home or remodeling project somewhere. Saturdays are probably the busiest day for such stores; weekend do-it-yourself warriors see these places as a starting place.