St. Augustine’s busiest corridor is about to get an even bigger boost thanks to home improvement giant Lowe’s.
“I think it's wonderful it's about time they came to St. Augustine,” said Michelle Miller.
The store is located on U.S. 1 near SR 312.
Crews are working on the final touches before its grand opening on Aug. 18 but getting to this point wasn’t easy.
The new Lowe’s site used to be the site of the VA’s Community Based Outpatient Clinic and St. Johns County’s health department.
Action News Jax showed you how the VA dragged its feet in moving from the location to its temporary location now on Old Moultrie Road, forcing Lowe’s to delay construction for almost a year.
Now that construction is almost completed, the brand new building is bringing new life to the busy commercial area.
St. Johns County Communications Manager Michael Ryan said the project was five to six years in the making.
“It is a product of a public private partnership between us, Lowe's and the VA. It was kind of a win win for everybody. It's going to bring jobs, sales tax revenue,” said Ryan.
The store will bring in an estimated 125 jobs most of which are full time. According to Ryan, the county will collect about $140,000 a year in property taxes and an estimated $60,000 in sales taxes.
“Larger retail developments tend to bring new smaller ones that follow along with them so we do anticipate seeing new businesses come pretty soon that will be of that quality,” said Ryan.
People who frequent the area like Katy Crichlow said it’s also a win for them.
“It's good to have options,” said Crichlow.
Ryan said the traffic in the area is continuously being evaluated. Right now the county doesn’t plan on updating any of the traffic patterns.
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