BONITA SPRINGS —
Lowe’s no longer has plans to open a store in Bonita Springs.
The North Carolina-based Lowe’s listed its property, at the northeast corner of Bonita Beach Road and Old 41 Road, for sale.
“We do not currently have a store planned for this area, thus the reason this piece of property is now for sale,” Stacey Lentz, a Lowe’s spokeswoman, said in an email.
The site at 10550 Bonita Beach Road is listed for sale on the Lowe’s real estate excess property listing site. The Bonita Springs site is one of 16 properties listed for sale in Florida, according to the Lowe’s excess property site.
“Lowe’s is always evaluating potential sites to best serve our customers,” Lentz said in an email. “The real estate process can be lengthy and sometimes complicated. Because of this, it is our policy not to discuss the details of our planning process.”
The cost of the property and other details weren’t released.
The once-planned 147,000-square-foot retail and garden center was expected to generate more than 100 jobs and about $2.8 million in one-time revenue for Bonita Springs.
City officials said they didn’t know when Lowe’s decided to pull out of the plans to open in Bonita Springs and to, instead, sell the property.
Mayor Ben Nelson said Lowe’s has stopped building new stores nationwide and didn’t know whether it was going to affect the one in Bonita Springs until he saw a for-sale sign posted recently on the property.
“I think it’s just a business decision that a lot of people are going through,” Nelson said.
Nelson is hopeful that another commercial development may want to open and be successful at that location. The property is in a commercial corridor, near the Naples-Fort Myers Greyhound Track at Bonita Beach and Old 41 roads.
“The fact that a Lowe’s isn’t going to be there isn’t the end of the world,” Nelson said. “It actually opens up a really good, positive possibility.”
In 2009, the Bonita Springs City Council agreed to redesignate 22.5 acres on Bonita Beach Road across from the dog track as commercial planned development. It had been designated for construction of both residential and commercial buildings.
Lowe’s first requested the zoning change in 2005, but it was rejected then.
Since then, Lowe’s made changes to its original proposal, including downsizing the project by 10 percent — making it Florida’s smallest Lowe’s and offering more green space than what is required.
In the past, Mike Reynolds, Lowe’s site development director, said the company would begin acquiring permits and intended to break ground in late 2011.
Now, “there is potential for something new to come there,” Nelson said.