Study says Lowe’s center will bring jobs

<p>The second Petaluma retail project to be the subject of a fiscal impact study will create jobs and tax revenue, the report says.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>The Deer Creek Village shopping project, at North McDowell Boulevard and Rainier Avenue, would create 510 permanent positions and 300 construction jobs, according to a fiscal and economic impact assessment required by the city and released last week.</p><p>The report says a long-rumored Lowe’s home improvement center is expected as the anchor tenant in the project, which would include a fitness center, pharmacy, small grocery store and three additional major retailers.</p><p>Smaller shops and restaurants would be built along the project’s North McDowell frontage. Medical office buildings would be located across from Petaluma Valley Hospital, developer Merlone Geier Partners said.</p><p>The developer wants to open the 315,000-square-foot project in 2011.</p><p>The report says Deer Creek Village’s $83 million in yearly sales would generate $681,000 in sales tax and $311,000 in property tax for the city.</p><p>The study by consultant Bay Area Economics “confirmed to us the need for the type of uses we’re proposing here in Petaluma,” said Greg Geertsen, Merlone Geier’s development manager.</p><p>About $35 million in sales would come from Lowe’s, a North Carolina-based hardware and lumber retailer that also has a store in Cotati and another proposed for Santa Rosa.</p><p>Lowe’s has not signed on as an official tenant, but is working with the developer on the project in anticipation of opening a store there, Geertsen said.</p><p>The Lowe’s is not expected to negatively impact existing hardware stores in Petaluma, the report says.</p><p>Although there would be a drop in sales at other businesses of about $2.7 million, no existing stores should go out of business if the shopping center opens, consultants said.</p><p>The project could result in the loss of 48 existing Petaluma jobs when it opens, but overall retail employment at current stores would bounce back within five years, the report projected.</p><p>Of the 510 jobs available at Deer Creek, “slightly more than two-thirds” would be full-time jobs, the report said. Lowe’s could employ 175 full-time workers, the study found.</p><p>The Deer Creek FEIA is the second report prepared for a large retail proposal in town. Last month, the same consultant completed a study on Regency Centers’ East Washington Place project and found that the proposal for the former Kenilworth Junior High School site would create 720 jobs and generate $1.5 million in tax revenue.</p><p>The FEIA requirement was adopted by the City Council last fall for large projects hoping to open in Petaluma. As part of the requirement, the council will hold a public hearing on each report’s findings.</p><p>The hearing for the East Washington Place report is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday at City Hall, while the Deer Creek Village report will be discussed May 4.</p><p>Both documents are available on the city’s Web site at www.cityofpetaluma.net/cdd.</p><p>(Contact Corey Young at corey.young@arguscourier.com)</p>