news story / By Daniel Mintz

This Time For Sure

The potential domination of a home improvement big box will be weighed against the free market cornerstones of competition and customer demand. The exact effects are being argued about, but the arrival of a Home Depot will change the entire county’s hardware and home improvement retail economy.

“The consumer benefits in any case,” said Home Depot Real Estate Manager Brian Cannard when asked about it. “If the customer chooses to shop at one of Home Depot’s competitors, they will find that the products there are priced lower than before.”

Cannard dismissed the belief that Home Depot will displace smaller-volume stores. “My sense is, they sharpen their pencils and figure out how to survive,” he said.

There’s also some speculation about trends that could affect the project’s viability. Home Depot has reported lowered profits for the second quarter of this year and has closed a few stores and held off on opening new ones in some places. Is it still committed to opening in Marina Center?

Cannard said it definitely is. Calling the county and Eureka “a pretty isolated market,” he said the location is attractive because his company can open here without competing against one of its own stores.

Fortuna is also pursuing shopping center development that includes a big box, and Lowe’s, Home Depot’s chain store rival, is said to be interested in opening there. Cannard said his company’s marketing studies show that Eureka “makes more sense than Fortuna” for retail development but he’s expecting to compete against Lowe’s.

“I assume that at some point, Lowe’s will come to this market,” he said. “It’s not a question of, ‘If Lowe’s comes, we won’t.’ We think the market is strong enough for both of us.”

Marina Center includes a total of 285,500 square feet of retail space, including a second large-scale store of 36,000 square feet. It also includes office development, 40 to 50 upper-story residential units and industrial areas. It compensates for the degraded wetlands it’s taking out by restoring an 11.89-acre area surrounding the Clark Slough. Perhaps the project would be a slam-dunk if not for its big box anchor, but Brian Morrissey and Randy Gans, Security National’s Marina Center representatives, said Home Depot actually contributes to its popularity.

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