Lowe's project offers Lowell a double benefit

A prominent developer's proposal to bring the first big home improvement retailer to Lowell provided city officials with a rare opportunity to use their leverage to score an economic victory: saving manufacturing jobs.

As a condition of letting Newton-based National Development build a Lowe's in a business park near the Lowell Connector, city officials required the developer to find a new home for an electronics manufacturing company now on the site. "One of the conditions of the Lowe's project is that the developer would do everything in their capacity to find a replacement site and help relocate the existing company," said Adam Baacke, Lowell's deputy director for economic and community development.

Now, Lowell will soon have a Lowe's, and the manufacturer, GES U.S. Inc., will have a new home on Hale Street, a few blocks away from the current site at 790 Chelmsford St.

Bryan Clancy , a vice president at National Development, said the project will provide a double benefit for Lowell. "It's not a Lowe's in place of skilled manufacturing jobs," Clancy said. "It's the skilled manufacturing jobs, plus the Lowe's jobs, plus the outgrowth of all the goods and services that Lowe's sells that have to be installed by local contractors."

GES, formerly known as Eltech Electronics, is an electronics manufacturer that provides the kind of skilled manufacturing jobs that have become increasingly rare in Massachusetts, jobs that have relocated overseas, to the South, and even next door to New Hampshire. GES officials did not return requests for comment.

"There's always a fear and it's always disappointing when any jobs leave the city or the state," Baacke said. "We certainly would have been disappointed if they had." The Lowe's store expects to generate between 130 to 150 full-time jobs, and another 50 part-time jobs. GES employs about the same number of full-time workers.

National Development already owned the Chelmsford Street property, which was only half occupied with just GES, Clancy said, and had few prospects of attracting other tenants.

"We had sought to ask, 'how can we make this site more productive than it is today?," ' Clancy said. "Given the zoning, we chose to go with the Lowe's project." The property's zoning allows a wide range of shops, offices, and factories to operate on the site. The mostly vacant Hale Street property is known as the Merrimack Magnetics building.

National Development has a deal to buy the property and is evaluating what renovation work is necessary before GES moves in. A 5,000-square-foot addition will be required, along with some exterior improvements and the creation of office space, Clancy said. However, the building's owner, Albert S. Mariano Jr., said he has spent more than $1 million to improve the building. "The building is really tight and upgraded for today's business," he said, with new insulation, electrical systems, and communication lines.

Clancy said his firm hopes to have the new site available to GES by the end of the summer. Demolition of the existing building on Chelmsford Street will then begin, followed by the construction of Lowe's, which is expected to open later in 2008.

The project received its last approvals from the city earlier this month and is now being reviewed by state agencies. However, it remains controversial in Lowell, where the business park sits near a residential neighborhood.

Neighbors are concerned about traffic, noise, and bright lights at night. Lowell's Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals subjected the Lowe's project to 40 conditions when they granted approvals. The 153,000-square-foot Lowe's will be smaller than the existing 175,000-square-foot building it will replace, though traffic to the site is expected to double.

The conditions include restrictions on truck delivery times, improvements at three intersections, and requirements for landscaping to provide a buffer between the store and residences. The developers will also lay pipes that will help the city separate its stormwater drainage system from its sewers to prevent raw sewage from spilling into the Merrimack and Ipswich rivers during heavy rains. That alone will save the city $1.5 million, said Thomas Linnehan, planning board chairman.

"There are a lot of benefits to the project," Baacke said. "Certainly the city appreciates a retailer of the size and quality of a company like Lowe's coming."