Dec. 6--Rochester's first Lowe's home-supply store and second Super Target are taking shape.
Building permits for both stores, which will be in the under-construction Shoppes on Maine development at U.S. 63 South and 48th Street, were issued by Rochester's building safety department last month.
Workers will break ground today on the Target store, with the end of construction expected in October, according to Dan Baker, senior project manager for Thor Construction, the project's Twin Cities-based contractor.
Neither a Lowe's spokeswoman nor a project manager for contractor Weis Builders returned calls seeking information about the North Carolina-based home improvement store's arrival in Rochester.
Target and Lowe's will join a movie theater, the Wehrenberg Galaxy 14, scheduled to open next fall, as primary tenants at Shoppes on Maine.
The retail development also is expected to have a 50,000 square-foot sporting goods retailer, restaurants, "national and regional junior anchors" with floor plans ranging from 15,000 to 50,000 square feet, and smaller boutique shops, according to developer Opus Northwest.
Opus expects an October completion date for Shoppes on Maine, for which ponds, waterfalls and landscaped seating areas and walkways also are planned.
While Baker said the Target store will cover about 174,000 square feet, the Lowe's store will cover about 138,000 square feet, according to the city of Rochester's building safety department.
To put those sizes in perspective, The Home Depot in Rochester is about 132,000 square feet, including its garden center. The new Super Target should be about the same size as the north Rochester Super Target.
The Lowe's permit, which covers the project as a whole, calls for $7.2 million in construction. The Super Target permit, which is for just the building shell, covers about $3 million in construction.
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