Lowe's won't be building in Huntington Station after all, the company confirmed on Tuesday.
"We are no longer pursuing building a store on the site," company spokeswoman Stacey Lentz said Tuesday evening. "As you know, we announced a few weeks ago that we are going to open fewer stores. We’ve completed some environmental cleanup, some retaining walls, etc."
Lentz, who said the Town of Huntington had been notified, said the property would go up for sale.
Lowe's had announced Oct. 17 that it would close 20 underperforming stores, including one in upstate Batavia, and that it has discontinued a number of planned new store projects. Instead of the projected 30 stores a year, Lowe said it expected to open 10 to 15 per year.
The company had planned a 103,000-square-foot home-improvement store and a 26,500-square foot garden center for the vast site formerly occupied by the iconic , which closed in 2007.
Lowe’s and Racanelli Construction Co., the general contractor, conducted a groundbreaking ceremony for the project in July at the Jericho Turnpike site. Representatives from Lowe’s, Town of Huntington officials and Racanelli participated in the event.
The Huntington Station store would have been Lowe's 66th in the state. The company had said it expected to create about 125 jobs with the new site.
last November for signage, parking and other requested changes. Throughout the spring and summer, the site was busy as men and machines tore down the eyesore that the townhouse had become as it sat vacant for four years.
