Lowe’s opens first store in Central Coast at Regency Centers’ Golden Hills Plaza in Paso Robles

Oct. 22, 2009 - PRLog -- Regency Centers (regencycenters.com), a national owner, operator and developer of grocery-anchored and community shopping centers, has announced the grand opening of Lowe’s at Golden Hills Plaza along with the formal opening of the shopping center at Hwy. 46 and Golden Hills Road in Paso Robles. Regency Centers closed on the land cquisition for the shopping center in 2007 and construction on the project began in September 2008.

According to Paul Loubet, Regency Centers vice president of investments, Lowe’s will open its doors to the public at 6 am on Friday, October 23.  The home improvement store will kick-off the milestone with a traditional Lowe’s Board Cutting ceremony on Thursday, October 29.  The store will also feature its Gift Card Match Day where customers can purchase a gift card and Lowe’s will match the amount up to $5,000 to help build a home for a local family through San Luis Obispo County Habitat for Humanity. Additionally, a week-long schedule of store tours, activities and promotions will continue at Lowe’s.

The home improvement store has 169,112 square feet of retail space in Paso Robles, including a garden center and approximately 40,000 different items to help customers build and improve their homes.

Regency Centers and Lowe’s worked together to create a unique architectural façade to the store’s exterior and streetscape along with period lighting to resemble the Spanish influence of the El Camino Real design era in California’s central coast. This architectural style is carried throughout the entire shopping.  In keeping with Regency’s sustainability program greengenuity™, the project will use low VOC paints, energy-efficient air conditioning units and a drainage system to capture on-site storm water.  Plus, Regency has donated funds for a clean-powered bus for the Paso Robles Transit Services in order to help improve regional air quality.

“A Lowe’s store of this size represents an average investment in the community of approximately $18.5 million and creates up to 175 new jobs,” said Loubet. “With the area’s first Lowe’s and Bed, Bath & Beyond as our prestigious anchor tenants, we are poised to serve the neighborhood as an exclusive national home improvement retailer-anchored center and active member of the business community,” he said.

Golden Hills Plaza includes 223,104 square feet of Paso Robles space for restaurant, office and retail and is the only major shopping center along Hwy. 46 in Paso Robles. Additional merchants at the center include The UPS Store, Subway, Sky Nails and Spa, Me & Ed’s Pizza and El Pollo Loco on an outparcel. The shopping center is within close proximity to San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay and the high retail traffic corridor at US Hwy. 101.  For leasing information, contact Omar Hussein at 858.847.4622.

Regency is the leading national owner, operator, and developer of grocery-anchored and community shopping centers. At June 30, 2009, the Company owned 409 retail properties, including those held in co-investment partnerships. Including tenant-owned square footage, the portfolio encompassed 54.7 million square feet located in top markets throughout the United States. Since 2000 Regency has developed 194 shopping centers, including those currently in-process, representing an investment at completion of $3.0 billion. Operating as a fully integrated real estate company, Regency is a qualified real estate investment trust that is self-administered and self-managed.

About Lowe’s: With fiscal year 2008 sales of $48.2 billion, Lowe’s Companies, Inc. is a FORTUNE® 500 company that serves approximately 14 million customers a week at more than 1,675 home improvement stores in the United States and Canada. Founded in 1946 and based in Mooresville, N.C., Lowe’s is the second-largest home improvement retailer in the world. For more information, visit Lowes.com.

http://www.regencycenters.com/retail-space/CA/Paso-Robles