Home Depot Plans Major Expansion In Puget Sound Area

The Home Depot, one of the country's largest home-center chains, said today it plans to open 10 to 12 stores in the Puget Sound area by 1995.

The company, which has grown from eight stores to 165 in the past decade, said it will build a Tacoma store, to be opened late next year, and the previously announced store south of the Kingdome would open in early 1993. Each store is expected to employ between 135 and 200 full-time workers.

"This is the beginning of our scheduled expansion into Washington," said Bill Harris, senior vice president, corporate development.

As previously reported, The Seattle store will be located at the SODO Center, at First Street South and Lander. It will include 100,000 square feet of interior retail space and a 20,000-square-foot exterior garden center.

Home Depot said the store will primarily serve Beacon Hill, Capitol Hill, Mercer Island, Magnolia, West Seattle, White Center, Queen Anne Hill, downtown and Eastlake.

The Tacoma store, which will be the same size as the Seattle store, will be located at the northwest corner of I-5 on 74th Street.

Today's announcement sets up a major competitive fight between Home Depot and another warehouse-type home improvement retailer, Eagle Hardware & Garden, which is also expanding aggressively in the region.

In September, Eagle said it would renovate the massive building at the former Sicks' Stadium site and put a store there. Eagle has large stores in Spokane and Tukwila and plans to open new stores in Bellevue, Bremerton and Yakima in the next year.

A third major competitor, Home Club, has also said it plans to expand in the region.

The Home Depot at the SODO Center is being built by Nitze-Stagen & Co., which is redeveloping a portion of the old Sears store into retail and warehouse space.

Sears still has a retail store at the site but sold the building after moving its Seattle distribution center to Los Angeles in 1987.

The Atlanta-based Home Depot chain plans to add 40 stores nationwide next year.