By By SPIROS GALLOS / Niles Daily Star
NILES - There may be cars in the parking lot, but the Lowe's Home Improvement center on South 11th Street isn't open for business just yet.
About 70 to 80 newly-hired associates are busy inside the store, setting up steel for the racking and setting up racks for merchandise, which will be ordered within the month.
The store was turned over to Lowe's management by Skanska USA Building, Inc., the firm in charge of construction Oct. 6 when construction was completed.
The new 116,000 sq. ft. store is now scheduled to open in mid-November, earlier estimates by Lowe's management had the store scheduled to open in the first week of December.
Although most of the employees for the new store have been hired and are working inside the new store to prepare it for the grand opening, management is still busy looking at applications for new employees.
Down the road, in the hiring office located at 1958 S. Eleventh St., interviews are still taking place as the management looks to hire an additional 40 to 50 more employees to staff the store.
In addition to offering a selection of over 40,000 products in the store, customers will be able to special order over 400,000 products from the store.
Services Lowe's will offer include home installation, delivery, and how-to clinics, every Saturday, throughout the day.
Lowe's will also bring its contributions to a number of charities to the Niles store when it opens in December.
Lowe's Home Improvement currently supports the American Red Cross, the Boys' and Girls' Scouts of America, and Habitat for Humanity.
The store will also hold special community events like kid's clinics one Saturday every month, where children can come and learn how to build various items, such as bird houses or video game stools.
Lowe's also has a community support program called the Lowe's Heroes program.
Every Lowe's store gets funds from the corporate office to put towards bettering their local community.
The addition of Lowe's brings a Fortune 50 company to the area, which has the potential to attract more businesses to Niles.
Lowe's was founded in 1921 in North Wilkesboro, N.C., where the corporate home office is now located. The company recently opened its 1,000th store July 30th, in Marion, N.C.