Another big box coming to Springfield.

Byline: Jack Moran The Register-Guard

SPRINGFIELD - Home Depot wants to build a new home improvement center in mid-Springfield next year, according to plans filed last week with city officials.

The proposal calls for construction of a 130,000-square-foot Home Depot store near the corner of Centennial and Mohawk boulevards, on the site of the former Mohawk Shopping Center.

Neighboring property owners are being notified of the proposed redevelopment project. City officials hope to rule on the plan this fall.

"We'd like to get a decision out in 60 to 75 days," Springfield city planner Andy Limbard said. No public hearings on the project are required, he said.

The 11-acre property is owned by McKay Investment Co. of Eugene. McKay representatives, on behalf of Home Depot, filed a detailed project proposal after gaining City Council approval of a Measure 37 claim that allows the plan to proceed.

In 2005, the city redesignated the area that includes the McKay property from major retail center to mixed-use commercial. The mixed-use designation bars any store larger than 70,000 square feet.

Rather than provide McKay with monetary compensation for devaluing the property by changing the property's zoning designation, the City Council agreed to allow the zoning to revert to major retail, as long as city and Home Depot officials can agree on a design that ensures that a new home improvement warehouse would fit in with the surrounding neighborhood. Attorneys for both sides are now reviewing a draft agreement, city planning supervisor Mark Metzger said.

"We will get an attractive big box (store) there," Metzger said. "It's not what we expected to have there, but I think it will be an improvement over what's there now."

Steven Korth, McKay's real estate and development director, did not return a telephone message left Tuesday at his office.

According to the McKay proposal, the Home Depot project would require the demolition of five buildings on the property. They include spaces now occupied by an Abby's Legendary Pizza parlor and a state DMV office. Two mixed-use retail buildings with a variety of tenants also would be razed, along with the vacant building that used to house a WinCo grocery store.

Construction of the new Home Depot could occur around the same time that a proposed Lowe's home improvement center is built near Marcola Road and 28th Street, just a few blocks northeast of the McKay site.

The City Council in 2001 rejected Home Depot's request to build a new store on the property where the Lowe's project is now planned. The major difference is that, while the 2001 Home Depot proposal called for developing just a small portion of a vacant 100-acre property along Marcola Road, the 170,000-square-foot Lowe's store would be just one component of a mixed-use neighborhood - called the Villages at Marcola Meadows - planned for the entire parcel.

City councilors already have approved zoning changes that would allow the Marcola Meadows project to be built. City planner Gary Karp said he will meet next week with project officials, who are expected to then file a master plan that will require approval by the Springfield Planning Commission.

As of now, locally owned Jerry's Home Improvement Center at 2525 Olympic St. is Springfield's only large-format home improvement warehouse.

Jerry's operates another store in Eugene, where Home Depot has two outlets. Lowe's is interested in building a new store at the northeast corner of Bailey Hill Road and West 11th Avenue, Eugene city officials have said.

Atlanta-based Home Depot is the world's largest home improvement retailer, with more than 2,000 stores. Lowe's, based in North Carolina, has more than 1,400 stores in 49 states.