Home Depot picks west Eugene.

Byline: Joe Harwood The Register-Guard

A new Home Depot Inc. outlet may be open in west Eugene in time for Christmas - Christmas 2005.

The world's largest home improvement chain on Tuesday completed the purchase of an 11.5-acre parcel at Seneca Road and West Seventh Ave. Home Depot paid just over $4 million for the land, according to a deed on file with Lane County.

The purchase suggests Home Depot is finally in a position to move ahead with building a west Eugene store.

The Atlanta-based hardware chain first announced its intention to build a 102,000-square-foot store with a 27,400-square-foot garden center late last December. That initiative marked Home Depot's third attempt to build another store in the Eugene-Spring- field area to complement its 100,000-square-foot Green Acres Road-Delta Highway outlet.

In 2000, Home Depot tried to buy 17 acres at West 11th Avenue and Belt Line Road, but the the landowner instead sold the property to Target Corp., which built a store there.

Then in 2001, Springfield officials rebuffed a Home Depot attempt to build a store on industrial land near 28th Street and Marcola Road. Also in 2001, Home Depot expressed an interest in the Seneca Road property, but never moved forward, said Springfield businessman Richard Boyles, who heads up McKenzie Bend LLC, the Boyles family company that owned the west Eugene parcel.

"They walked away then returned," Boyles said Wednesday.

The west Eugene site is zoned for commercial uses, and Home Depot and the city have spent about 10 months hashing out setback requirements, building entrance standards and the processes required to develop a small retail pad along Seneca Road.

The city granted site review approval in October, but Home Depot has yet to submit building permit plans. But with the closing of the land deal, which was contingent on city approval of the project, it appears Home Depot's long-sought second Eugene outlet is on the way.

Home Depot officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.

The addition of another Home Depot will greatly intensify the competition with Eugene-based Jerry's Home Improvement Center, the local market leader. Jerry's has one store about four miles north of the Seneca property on Highway 99 North, and a second store in Springfield.

Alan Evans, the broker with Eugene-based real estate brokerage Pritchard Evans & Elder who marketed the property, said growth in Lane County should be able to sustain another home improvement outlet. "There's a lot of new housing starts, and all those housing starts mean there are more dollars that are going to be spent on home improvement," Evans said.