Journal Correspondent
The large home improvement retailer, Lowe's Home Improvement, is planning to open a store in Arlington Hts.
The company's newest Northwest suburban area store will be located at the northwest corner of Algonquin and Golf roads in the Surrey Ridge shopping center. The vacated K-mart store and five other buildings housing smaller retailers in the shopping center will be demolished in order to make way for the 28,000 sq. ft. home improvement warehouse and garden center.
Lowe's representative Evan Vlaeminick said that the "concept will be similar to the one that's located in St. Charles." He also said that site plans are being revised to appease village concerns, and that he is still in discussion with Arlington Hts., Rolling Meadows, and Illinois Dept. of Transportation (IDOT) officials regarding traffic signals.
"There is a court order that prohibits a signal and full access at the Algonquin Rd. and Kennicott Ave. intersection. In addition IDOT has certain space standards between traffic signals. The proposed location for the traffic signals would be at the furthest point from the Algonquin and Golf Road intersection," said Vlaeminick.
The Lowe's store will be the first of its kind and a welcome addition to Arlington Hts., according to the village's Plan Commission who concurs that Lowe's would be "an ideal use for this location." Planning Commissioner Marty Cawley encouraged the Lowe's representatives to meet with residents in the surrounding neighborhood in order to make sure that their needs are addressed. Cawley said that many of his neighbors have already sent letters to Lowe's Corporate Headquarters to encourage their development of the former K-mart site.
Currently the village does not have a warehouse home improvement store like Lowe's or Home Depot. When asked by Planning Commissioner Jack Groner how Lowe's differed from Home Depot, Vlaeminick claimed that "Lowe's is cleaner and better organized that Home Depot." He added, Home Depot is geared more toward the contractor, while Lowe's is geared more toward the homeowner.