The Home Depot parking lot is mostly empty now, but inside store employees are stocking shelves and getting ready for Thursday’s grand opening.

Saturday, February 16, 2002

The Home Depot parking lot is mostly empty now, but inside store employees are stocking shelves and getting ready for Thursday’s grand opening.

The new Albert Lea location for the home-improvement giant will open for business following a Wednesday evening preview for local contractors and other businesses.

Andy Barrick, manager of the Albert Lea store, said he is glad to finally open up for business, and is looking forward to serving this area of the state.

&uot;This community so far has received us very well. We’re glad to be here,&uot; said Barrick.

With this location, Home Depot is coming into a brand new market, and a lot of people in the area haven’t ever been into a store quite like it, he said. But he thinks this will be a good move for the company.

&uot;It’s about time that we started coming into smaller communities like Albert Lea,&uot; Barrick said.

Home Depot’s store in Albert Lea includes 116,000 square feet of retail space and employs more than 100 people – the number of employees will fluctuate depending on the season – at an average wage of about $10 per hour.

The planning and construction of the store took a couple of years, and is the result of incentives provided by the city of Albert Lea, including the construction of two access roads and the extension of utilities to the site. Home Depot is reimbursing the city for just less than half of the cost of those improvements.

The infrastructure improvements and the new store may spur additional development in that area, or at least that is the hope of city officials and others who helped bring Home Depot to Albert Lea. As part of continued improvements to that area of town, the city is also constructing a new water tower near the Home Depot site.

The grand opening festivities start on Wednesday evening, when area contractors and representatives of other businesses have been invited to tour the store and meet the staff. On Thursday morning, the store will open up for customers at 7 a.m., with the Albert Lea High School Marching Tigers on hand to play for those who show up. The grand opening activities will continue through Sunday.