Home Depot Wants to Relocate Store

In a move that city officials hail as a way to redevelop blighted properties, Home Depot U.S.A. is proposing to relocate its Lincoln Avenue store to a larger site on Brookhurst Street.

The Planning Commission on Monday will consider the proposal for the northeast corner of Brookhurst Sreet and Gramercy Avenue, near the Santa Ana Freeway.

The 9 1/2-acre site is within the Brookhurst redevelopment project area and includes two parcels, one a vacant industrial building and the other an auto storage yard and auto-repair business. Home Depot is buying the properties, city officials said.

Home Depot is proposing a 105,000-square-foot home-improvement retail sales building and a nearly 25,000-square-foot garden center to replace the smaller store on Lincoln.

“We think it’s a key project in the upgrading of the corridor,” said Robert Zur Schmiede, redevelopment manager. “It anchors the north end of the project area.”

Zur Schmiede said a new Home Depot would “definitely cure blighting conditions” and would be the first project to implement the city’s landscaping plan for the Brookhurst corridor.

An expanded Home Depot is expected to generate $350,000 to $400,000 in sales taxes for the city annually, he said.

The Redevelopment Agency has assisted Home Depot in assembling the two parcels and obtaining city entitlements for the new location.

The commission will also consider continuing a hearing on a proposed 362,174-square-foot entertainment complex on South Douglass Road next to the Pond. City planning officials said the developer of the French Quarter-themed project has requested a continuance to May 28.

A proposal for the 25-acre site includes up to 10 restaurants, 12 nightclubs, retail stores, an exhibition hall and a seven-story, 300-room hotel.

The meeting begins at 1:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd.