By Sammy Williams for AZBEX
Developer Diversified Realty Services, Inc. of Scottsdale is hoping the remodeling craze in Central Phoenix isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Late last month, they submitted a PUD statement to the City of Phoenix in hopes of building a Home Depot on an 8.72 net acre site on the SWC of Indian School Road and 22nd Street.
The nation’s largest home improvement retailer, Home Depot, “has improved and refined its business operation and store layouts, building their stores and garden centers from the ground to implement their evolving vision of what a Home Depot should be, especially in urban areas,” the developer said in the application.
To serve the proposed urban area, Home Depot is planning Arizona’s smallest store, at 124KSF with a garden center roughly half the size of standard stores. Shoppers will have access to Home Depot’s full line of merchandise and the look and feel of a traditional store experience will be preserved to provide consistency for customers.
“In Phoenix, the original plan was to establish a store that could serve an 8-mile radius,” the developer stated. “Once the initial coverage of the Valley was established, it became apparent that Home Depot should build more stores to serve a smaller radius based on population density, demographics and homeowner needs.”
The developer’s rationale goes on to say, “while a store is located at 36th St. and Thomas, once vacant infill parcels in the central city area have recently been developed or redeveloped as the central city has begun to flourish so this area of Phoenix is now underserved. This new store is intended to primarily serve areas north, east and west of the proposed store in the central part of Phoenix.”
With the proposed site backing to a street, Home Depot is internalizing a number of activities that otherwise would occur outside or behind the store. Keeping these back of the house operations inside, using extensive perimeter landscaping and utilizing full four-sided architecture add to Home Depot’s unique design approach.