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CHASE SQUIRESOpening next year, the 102,000-square-foot Home Depot will include a large garden center. It will compete with Scotty's and a new Lowe's as well.
ZEPHYRHILLS - Although a dispute over the size of its sign might still linger, a Home Depot spokesman said this week the company's new Zephyrhills store will provide jobs for up to 150 workers when it opens next year.
With the opening will come an oversized gardening center, company spokesman John Simley said.
Home Depot on Monday paid Tennessee-based Horne Properties $1.4-million for the 13-acre site on the northwest corner of the State Road 54 and Eiland Boulevard intersection, county records show.
Horne bought the parcel that includes the Home Depot site in 2000 for $1.99-million, then sold the corner lot to ExxonMobil for $750,000. Horne still retains 18 acres at the site and plans to add a shopping center next year, anchored by a fashion store and a grocery store, a company spokesman said.
Simley said the 102,000-square-foot Home Depot will be what the chain considers a medium size outlet, but the garden center, with about 34,600 square feet, will reflect the demands of Southern gardeners and will be larger than most gardening centers in other regions.
The store will begin an internal search immediately for a management team and then will start asking this fall if employees in other stores are interested in moving to the Zephyrhills location. A mobile home for interviews will be moved on site about 12 weeks before the store opens, but Simley said anyone interested in working at the store can fill out an application any time at any Home Depot location.
"If you lived in Bangor (Maine) or Anchorage (Alaska) you could apply to work in the Zephyrhills store," Simley said. "We have stores in both cities."
Simley said Home Depot looks not only for clerical help but also for employees with experience in the trades. Generally, he said, a plumber is on hand in any given store's plumbing aisles. An electrician is at work in the electrical department.
Simley said Zephyrhills became a target location for a new store when company officials noticed a large amount of business in the two nearest stores - in Lakeland and Tampa - came from Zephyrhills.
He said there is room for both the Home Depot and rival Lowe's in Zephyrhills. Lowe's is planning a store on U.S. 301. But, Simley said, whenever one store opens, it has an effect on other businesses, such as what hours they operate, their prices or their services.
Despite being hit last week with an eviction lawsuit in a dispute over tax payments, Scotty's has no plans to close its hardware store in Zephyrhills, company vice president Laura Kellogg said this week. Both the Dade City and Zephyrhills Scotty's stores are doing well, she said.
Pasco County this week denied a Home Depot request for a variance to install a sign larger than county rules allow. Simley said the time it takes to get the final permits will determine when construction can begin. Once work starts, it usually takes eight to 11 months to open, he said. The new Zephyrhills store could be ready as early as spring but more likely in early summer, he said.