Home improvement giant Lowe?s chooses Cheyenne

Wyoming Business Report

CHEYENNE – Wyoming is the big-time winner in the competition among Rocky Mountain states for a $60 million regional distribution center the size of 20 football fields.

Lowe’s Cos. Inc., the nation’s second-largest home-improvement retail chain, has picked Cheyenne as the site for its new 900,000-square-foot regional distribution center, which will serve more than 70 Lowe’s stores in the West and Midwest.

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The North Carolina-based company’s distribution center will create more than 425 new primary jobs in Cheyenne as well as opportunities for spin-off business, according to local and state economic-development officials.

“This puts Wyoming on the map, giving us national credibility from a well-known company,´ said Jack Crews, president of LEADS, the Cheyenne-Laramie County economic-development agency. “Lowe’s has an outstanding reputation, and the jobs it brings will benefit the entire region.”

LEADS worked in partnership with the local business community, city of Cheyenne, Laramie County and the state to bring the center to Cheyenne, Crews said, predicting that the Lowe’s decision will help entice other national firms to Wyoming.

Lowe’s also is looking for land for a retail store in Cheyenne.

Lowe’s had looked at more than 50 potential sites in the West during the past year and reportedly picked Cheyenne from a list of finalists that included Pueblo and Salt Lake City. Fort Collins, Broomfield, Greeley and Denver also were considered.

In the end, Lowe’s opted for a 160-acre site in the LEADS-owned Cheyenne Business Parkway, just off Interstate 80 at the Campstool Road interchange on the city’s east side. The site is about seven miles from the junction of I-25 and I-80, putting Lowe’s at the crossroad of two of the West’s major north-south and east-west routes.

“Cheyenne is a perfect location for our eighth strategically located distribution center,´ said Tom Whiddon, executive vice president, logistics and technology, citing work ethic, strong community support and excellent highway access as reasons for its choice.

In 1998, Lowe’s announced plans for a major westward expansion from its base in the East, South and Midwest into the West. The Wilkesboro, N.C., firm gained an instant foothold in the West the following year, when it acquired Eagle Hardware & Garden Inc.’s 32 stores in nine Western states.

Lowe’s currently is in its most aggressive expansion yet. The publicly traded company (NYSE: LOW) operates more than 640 stores in 40 states and has plans to open an additional 115 to 125 stores in 2001. Most of the company’s stores encompass 80,000 square-feet or more.

A Fortune 200 company, Lowe’s had 1999 sales of $15.9 billion. It has 100,000 employees and counts nearly 5 million retail and business customers each week.

Lowe’s bills itself as the nation’s second-largest home improvement center (behind Home Depot, which is opening stores in Cheyenne and Casper) and is the 15th-largest retailer in the United States and 34th-largest retailer in the world.

Its distribution center will be Wyoming’s largest building, with the equivalent of 20 football fields under one roof. It will be fully automated, with more than five miles of conveyors to transport more than 25,000 products through the facility. Construction is scheduled to start this spring and take two years, Lowe’s said.

Concerns about whether Cheyenne’s work force could sustain such a large facility were allayed after a work-force audit commissioned by Lowe’s and performed by New Jersey consultant Wadley-Donovan Group, Crews said.

Lowe’s announcement should demonstrate to other communities in the state the importance of developing infrastructure such as the Cheyenne Business Parkway, said Business Council CEO Tucker Fagan.

“If Cheyenne didn’t have the 130 acres with water and sewer ready to go, this announcement would more than likely have been made in another state,” he said. “Another example is Sento opening a call-center in Green River. Again, if Green River didn’t have the needed infrastructure, that announcement would not have been made in Wyoming.”